Handesh or Teler Pitha

What is Handesh or Teler Pitha

This is a traditional sweet snack of Barak valley region and also of Assam. Pitha is a type of cake or bread from the eastern regions of the Indian subcontinent. During any festival, handesh/teler pitha/ghila pitha,which is made of few very simple ingredients,is a must prepared snack . Freshly grounded rice flour and jaggary are the main ingredients to make these classic pithas.

Traditionally this type of pitha is made of freshly gounded rice flour, but I use store bought rice flour and hence the recipe is little different from traditional one.

Recipe

Preparation time: 1 hour

Cooking time: 20 min

Difficulty level: Medium

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Rice flour
2 cup Maida or All purpose flour
1/4 cup Semolina
2 tablespoon Milk powder
1 cup Jaggery
1/4 tsp Sauf or Fennel powder
1 teaspoon Eno Fruit salt
1 pinch Salt
Cooking oil as required to deep fry

Steps

Take jaggery and 1/4th cup of water in a pan and heat until jaggery dissolves completely.Keep aside to cool.

Take rice flour, all purpose flour and semolina in big mixing bowl.

Add fennel (saunf)seed powder, with a fork mix well and add the cool jaggery syrup.

Stir well to make a thick lump free thick batter. Add water as needed.

Cover the batter and keep aside for atleast 1/2 an hour.

After 1/2 an hour stir the batter again, check the consistency(the batter should be thick like cake batter). Add Eno and mix well.

Take some batter in a cup so that you can easily pour batter in hot oil to make pitha.

Pour batter in hot oil to make medium sized handesh/ teler pitha/ghila pitha and fry them in low heat until golden brown. I fry them for 10-12 minutes.