Patishapta (Crepes Stuffed with Kheer)

India is such a land of festivals. The year has just begun and here we are welcoming festivals like Pongal, Makar Sakranti, and Bihu. I am loving the wonderful season and was getting so many lovely recipe ideas but finally decided to share this Patishapta recipe with you guys. I have been introduced to this recipe in recent years by my Bengali friends and have come to love it so much.

Patishapta is a Bengali delicacy made in the winter months especially around Makar Sakranti because it is traditionally made with date palm jaggery (Nolen Gur) which is available during winters. It is available in both liquid and solid form and I love buying a lot of it during winters and storing it in the freezer; this lasts for me until the next winters.

DIFFERENT PARTS/COMPONENTS:

Patishapta is usually made up of 3 things:

1. Crepes or Pitha- made of all-purpose flour(apf), rice flour, and semolina. You can replace the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour – those crepes turn out slightly denser and heavier than the ones made with apf/maida but are definitely healthier.
2. Condensed Kheer – The crepes are stuffed with a dry kheer. Basically, the milk is condensed and cooked on low heat to the point that it becomes solid, gets light brown in color, and tastes a lot of milk cake. I have used Date Palm Jaggery and a little Milkmaid to sweeten it but you can use white sugar, brown sugar, Date Palm Jaggery, or Milkmaid (or a combination of any of these).
3. Kheer – Though this is optional, I would not recommend missing out on this. Traditionally a bit of Gur syrup or a little bit of runny kheer is used (you can use the leftover condensed kheer and add a little milk to it to form a liquid kheer again). But I love the addition of coconut to this recipe and have made this using coconut milk and a little Gur. And trust me, it makes a lot of difference to this recipe.

PREP AHEAD:

This recipe takes a bit of time for preparing condensed kheer stuffing. Even the crepe batter needs to be mixed and kept ahead of time. This is what I have done to save muself some time – you might laugh about it, but trust me it’s so difficult to manage this on an otherwise busy workday.

Condensed Milk Kheer – I kept the milk to boil and then simmer on low heat. It took me about 80-90 minutes to reach the consistency I wanted. Hence, I started about 30-40 minutes before my breakfast preparations (while I doing Yoga in the morning) and finished making it while preparing breakfast. Since the last bit when the kheer thickens needs a bit more attention (it might burn if not mixed frequently) than earlier when the milk is white and runny. This needs to coool down completely before you can stuff it in your crepes.

Crepe Mix – You can mix all the ingredients for the crepe and prepare the batter beforehand. That ensures really tasty and soft crepes. I mixed the batter and kept it for about 2 hours or so. I would recommend keeping it for atleast 30 minutes.

This recipe is laborious and long but the result makes up for itself. Don’t trust me, try it yourself!

PREPARATION TIME: 10 minutes
COOKING TIME: About 2 hours
SERVINGS: 12-15
DIFFICULTY SCALE: High

INGREDIENTS: 

For the Pitha/Crepes –

1. Maida/All-purpose Flour – ¾ cup
2. Rice Flour – ½ cup
3. Sooji/Semolina – ¼ cup
4. Date Palm Jaggery Syrup – ½ cup (or Sugar – ¼ cup)
5. Coconut Milk / Milk – ½ cup
6. Water – as needed
7. Ghee – ¼ teaspoon
8. Salt – a pinch

For the Condensed Milk Kheer –

1. Full Cream Milk – 1 Litre
2. Condensed Milk – 2 tablespoons
3. Date Palm Jaggery – ¼ cup
4. Grated Coconut – ¼ cup (you could use dessicated dry coconut instead)

For the Kheer –

1. Coconut Milk / Regular Milk – ½ cup
2. Date Palm – 1 small piece

UTENSILS/EQUIPMENT:

1. Pan
2. Non –  stick Kadhai
3. Grater
4. Non-stick Tawa

RECIPE:

For the Pitha/Crepes –

1. Take a mixing bowl and add maida, rice flour, and sooji to it along with some salt.
2. Heat about ½ cup water in a pan. Add ¼ cup Date Palm Jaggery to it and make a nice thick syrup.
3. Add this syrup to the flour mix along with coconut milk or regular milk.
4. Mix everything well so that there are no lumps. The consistency should be like a crepe batter,  neither too thick nor too runny.
5. Let this batter rest for about 2 hours (or at least 30 minutes).

For the Condensed Milk Kheer –

1. Add a liter of full cream milk into a non-stick Kadhai and let it come to a boil on high heat.
2. Lower the heat after that and let it simmer for about 70-80 minutes. Keep stirring every 5-7 minutes so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom or brown unevenly.
3. It will start changing color after about an hour and turn from white to cream to light brown.
4. Add a little Milkmaid to sweeten and thicken it. Additionally, add a little Date Palm to give a lovely flavor to it.
5. Mix about ¼ cup of grated fresh coconut or desiccated dry coconut to it.

6. Cook until it starts leaving the sides of the Kadhai and becomes a solid mass and comes together. Take it off the heat and allow it to cool completely before using it as a stuffing.

For the Kheer –

1. Heat some coconut milk on low flame and add a little palm gur to it. (You could also make this using regular milk).
2. Cook it for about 10-12 minutes until it thickens up slightly.
3. Alternatively, you can use some of the condensed kheer from the about steps and add a little milk to make a thick kheer syrup.

Final Cooking and assembly –

1. Once you are ready, heat a non-stick/cast iron Tawa and grease it lightly with a little Ghee.
2. Spread a ladle of the batter and let it cook on a medium flame for a minute.

3. Once it cooks, add 1 teaspoon of the condensed milk kheer on it and roll them like a crepe.
4. Add some grated coconut on top along with some kheer syrup and serve the Patishapta warm!

Wishing you all a wonderful Makar Sakranti, Pongal, Bihu, or Uttarayan. Enjoy this Patishapta recipe.