Kheer patisapta (Rice flour crepe with kheer stuffing)

Makar Sankranti  or  Pongal is one the harvest festivals in India. It is celebrated as Poush Parbon or Poush Sankranti  Bengal on the last day of the month of Poush. The freshly harvested paddy, date palm syrup and abundant coconuts are used to make traditional and delicate Bengali sweets, the different varieties of Pithe. I remember my grandma making all the delicious Puli pithe, patisapta, gokul pithe and so on. My parents talk about all the other tens of varieties of Pithe they had had when they were young. This time also my parents made puli pithe and patisapta at home. And I also got inspired to carry on the tradition. And maybe more than tradition, I guess I was just craving for all these sweet delicacies. Therefore, I decided to make Patisapta. It is rice flour crepe stuffed with coconut or kheer. I went with the kheer stuffing. In India, I would have used khoya to make the kheer. Here I substituted it with ricotta cheese and condensed milk powder. It was perfect and delicious. And here goes the recipe..

You can print the recipe for your kitchen here: PRINTABLE RECIPE

INGREDIENTS:
(Makes around 15)

For filling:

250g ricotta cheese

1cup condensed milk powder

500ml full cream milk

3tbsp light yogurt

For crepe:

1cup rice flour

1/2cup semolina flour

~350ml milk

2-3tbsp sugar (as per taste and sweetness of filling)

METHOD:

Mix all the ingredients for filling together.

Pour in a heavy bottomed pan and cook on low-medium heat with occasional stirring. Take care that it does not stick to the bottom.

Cook until the milk condenses and it forms an almost solid mass.

Let it cool and then separate into 15 portions.

Roll each portion into a cylinder.

Soak semolina flour for 30 minutes with minimum water. Mix it with rice flour.

Make a batter with around 300ml milk. Do not add all the milk at once. Add as required to get the right consistency. It should be quite a bit thinner than pancake batter.

Grease a griddle and lightly warm it.

Add a small ladle full of batter on it. Quickly spread it to make an even crepe. This has to be done quickly before the batter sets. The heat should be low-medium.

After the batter sets, flip over. Cook for a minute more but do not let it brown.

Add the filling in center and roll the crepe.

NOTE:

For this particular rice flour batter, the batter has to be very thin; otherwise, the crepes will be hard and unpalatable when cold.

When pouring the batter make sure that the griddle is not too hot, or the batter will start setting before it is spread. 

There is no need to grease the griddle before making every crepe.