Maharashtrian Bhakarwadi Recipe | Baked & Fried Bakarwadi | Holi Recipes

After the Bengali Cuisine, we travel this month to Maharashtra for the Blog Hop!! Blog hop always makes me feel all worked up and proud at the same time…glad to be a part of it!! It’s almost like we literally travel to the state and enjoy the delicious treats out there. After some back and forth thinking, I decided to share two delicious snack recipes – Maharashtrian Bhakarwadi Recipe and Sabudana vada Recipe.

Food is an integral part of Maharashtra’s cultural heritage, and no visit to the state can be considered complete without sampling a variety of its specialties. Every meal takes you on a journey of exploration, and it is a feast to both your eyes and  taste buds with the traditional cuisine of Maharashtra!

What comes to your mind when you think of Maharashtrian cuisine? A burst of flavours!! A plate of steaming hot vada pav or pav bhaji!! From misal pav to aamti to bhelpuri, each one of them is a gem.!!

The flavours of Maharashtrian food are mostly dependent on the seasons – raw mango, kokum and coconut make their appearance in the heat of summer, deliciously crispy gram-flour batter coated, deep fried vegetables in the monsoon and rich sesame and jaggery based sweets in the winter. Fish curries and rice are staple foods in the coastal belt, while spicy mutton curries are a favourite in the east. The use of freshly ground masalas like malvani masala, goda masala and kala masala, is the highlight of Maharashtrian cuisine. Kokum is another ingredient that is typical to most of the Maharashtrian preparations – it is widely used in place of tamarind. Thanks to my Maharashtrian friends  for all the information.

Coming to today’s recipe, Maharashtrian Bhakarwadi Recipe, it is a deep-fried savoury snack that has a spicy stuffing rolled into a dough and sliced into small pieces that look like pinwheel cookies. Bhakarwadi has a good shelf life, can be stored at room temperatures for weeks, these savoury snacks are a good travel companion to munch on, and go well with Indian masala tea (chai).

Obviously anything spicy and fried always tastes good, am I right?  These things are addicting because of the sweet and tangy filling that’s inside the dough. Once you start munching on them it’s highly impossible to stop.

The only problem with the Maharashtrian Bhakarwadi Recipe is the frying part because the filling has the tendency to spill into the oil, which turns this whole project into a huge mess. So, I decided to also bake a batch in the oven to see how they turn out. This made the whole cooking process much simpler and it wasn’t so calorie induced with loads of oil. I did deep-fry a couple of them to show you the difference! I was surprised with the outcome of the baked version of Maharashtrian Bhakarwadi Recipe. What you end up with after it’s baked are crispy edges with a soft and chewy inside and loads and loads of flavour. The spicy, sweet and tangy filling imparts an explosion of flavours in your mouth.

The fillings for the Bhakarwadi can be customised to suit your taste. Generally it has sweet and sour taste and nice aroma of spices. The outer crust is made either from all purpose flour or a mixture of gram flour/besan and regular wheat flour. If you don’t like the baked one, you can just deep fry instead of baking. Bhakarwadi can be stored in an air-tight container for weeks and goes well with cup of tea.

Off to the Maharashtrian Bhakarwadi Recipe, a snack that can get us all addicted to it!!

Step-by-Step process for Maharashtrian Bhakarwadi Recipe:

The process for Maharashtrian Bhakarwadi Recipe involves following 5 easy steps:

1. Preparing the dough
2. Preparing the filling
3. Making Bhakarwadis
4. Baked version
5. Deep-fried Version

1.Preparing the dough:

• To start making Bhakarwadi, take a medium sized bowl and add all the ingredients listed under “For the Dough” and crumble all the ingredients well.

NOTE:

• Sieve the flours if required.

• Set aside 2 tablespoons of this crumbled gram flour/besan mixture to mix in the filling.
• To the rest, add water little by little and knead until you get a firm dough.
• Cover with a damp cloth and set aside for 10 minutes.

2. Preparing the filling:

• In the blender, add all the ingredients under “For the filling“ and pulse a couple of times to blend together to a coarse powder.
• Take this mixture into a bowl and the gram flour/besan crumble set aside in the above step. Mix well and set aside.

NOTE:

• The gram flour/besan crumble mixed in the filling helps as a binding agent to keep the filling intact (to some extent) without spilling into the oil while frying.

3. Making Bhakarwadis:

• Divide the dough into 2 or 3 equal sized balls.
• Roll each dough ball into a thin sheet with a rolling pin.
• Add some of the stuffing mixture onto rolled the dough.

• Spread the stuffing evenly but do not spread it all the way to the edge. Do not overstuff the dough.
• Press with your hand to keep the filling set in. Roll in from the corners and until the end.

• Roll tightly and seal the edges applying little water and rest it for about 3 to 4 minutes.
• Press well on the top. Use a knife and cut them in 1/4 inch sized pieces pinwheels. Spread them on a plate so that they to dry a bit.

4. Baked Bhakarwadi version:

• Preheat oven at 350 Farenheit.
• Arrange the filled Bhakarwadi on a baking tray lined with a butter paper.
• Bake Bhakarwadi at 350F for about 35 to 40 minutes flipping once halfway, or until they turn golden brown and crisp.

5. Deep-Fried Bhakarwadi Version:

• Heat oil in a deep pan over medium heat. Once oil is hot enough, deep fry the Bhakarwadis over low to medium heat until crisp and done.
• Remove and drain onto an absorbent tissue paper to soak up any extra oil.
• Cool them and store in an airtight container.
• Serve the Bhakarwadi as a tea time snack or make it for the festivals like Diwali and Holi.

Look at the difference between the baked and fried versions of Maharashtrian Bhakarwadi Recipe!!

Print Recipe

Maharashtrian Bhakarwadi Recipe | Baked & Fried Bakarwadi | Holi Recipes

Maharashtrian Bhakarwadi Recipe to prepare bakarwadi, a fried savoury snack with a spicy stuffing rolled into a dough & sliced into small pieces that look like pinwheel cookies.

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Cook Time45 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Course: Snacks / Appetizers

Cuisine: Indian (Maharashtrian)

Author: Padma

Ingredients

• FOR THE DOUGH:
• 2 Cups Gram flour Chickpea flour/Besan
• 1 Cup All purpose flour Maida
• 2 Tableaspoons Oil
• 1 Tablespoon Red chilli powder
• ½ teaspoon Turmeric
• ½ teaspoon Asafoetida Hing
• Salt to taste
• Enough water to knead the dough
• FOR THE FILLING:
• 1 Tablespoon Fennel Seeds
• 1 Tablespoon Cumin seeds
• ½ teaspoon Peppercorns
• 2 Tablespoons Sesame Seeds
• 1 Tablespoons Coriander Seeds
• 2 Tablespoons Poppy Seeds
• 3 Tablespoons Dry Coconut Powder
• 2 Tablespoons Amchur Powder Dry mango powder
• 1½ Red Chilli Powder
• 3 Tablespoons Sugar
• ½ teaspoon Asafoetida
• Salt to taste

Instructions

• Preparing the dough:
• To start making Bhakarwadi, take a medium sized bowl and add all the ingredients listed under "For the Dough" and crumble all the ingredients well. Sieve the flours if required.
• Set aside 2 tablespoons of this crumbled besan mixture to mix into the filling.
• To the rest, add water little by little and knead until you get a firm dough.
• Cover with a damp cloth and set aside for 10 minutes.
• Preparing the filling:
• In the blender, add all the ingredients under “For the Filling“ and pulse a couple of times to blend together to a coarse powder.
• Take this mixture into a bowl and the besan crumble set aside in the above step. Mix well and set aside.
• Making Bhakarwadis:
• Divide the dough into 2 or 3 equal sized balls.
• Roll each dough ball into a thin sheet with a rolling pin.
• Add some of the stuffing mixture onto rolled the dough.
• Spread the stuffing evenly but do not spread it all the way to the edge. Do not overstuff the dough.
• Press with your hand to keep the filling set in. Roll in from the corners and until the end.
• Roll tightly and seal the edges applying little water and rest it for about 3 to 4 minutes.
• Press well on the top. Use a knife and cut them in 1/4 inch sized pieces pinwheels. Spread them on a plate so that they to dry a bit.
• Baked Version:
• Preheat oven at 350F.
• Arrange the filled Bhakarwadi on a baking tray lined with a butter paper.
• Bake the Bhakarwadi at 350F for about 35 to 40 minutes flipping once halfway, or until they turn golden brown and crisp.
• Deep-fried version:
• Heat oil in a deep pan over medium heat. Once oil is hot enought,deep fry the Bhakarwadis over low to medium heat until crisp and done.
• Remove and drain on a paper towel to soak up any extra oil.
• Cool them and store in an airtight container.
• Serve Bhakarwadi as a tea time snack or make it for the festivals like diwali and holi.

Notes

1. You can customise and adjust spice levels in the filling to suit your taste.
2. Resting period of the dough after kneading is important.
3. After cutting to pinwheels, allow them to dry before frying. This is to remove any moisture in the dough.
4. Fry them on low flame so that it is completely cooked and stays crispy.
5. Traditionally the cylinder shaped dough rolls are arranged in a plate and steamed for 20 minutes. Once they cool down, cut into round discs and then deep-fry. But I have never tried this method.
6. You can also use tamarind paste or chutney instead of amchur powder.
7. Addition of coriander to the filling is also gives a good flavour and a green colour to it but I omitted to keep it traditional with the red/brown colour.

Try out other popular snack recipes from blog!!

Stay Tuned!!…..Many more to come!!

Happy Cooking 🙂

Cheers!!

Padma.

Check out other Maharashtrian delicacies from Culinary Hoppers:

• Shubha’s – thalipeth , Kulith pitheal ,piyush and metkut
• Piyali’s –Matki-chi-usal and Zunka bhakar
• Vani’s – Batata Vada
• Poornima’s –Barli vangi and Jowar ki roti
• Swati’s – Green peas curry and Tomato rice
• Anu’s – Shendanyachi amti and Varaicha bhat
• Parvathy’s – Sol kadhi
• Jaya’s – Kothimbir wadi and pav bhaji
• Shobana’s – Kolhapuri thecha