How to make soft and fluffy Bedmi puris?

I often make bedmi puris at home. I think you are rolling very thin puris, that's why they are turning hard. Bedmi should be kept a little thick because it has additional pulses.

Also, knead the dough 30 min before frying them. Keep the dough little soft as grains and pulses in the flour absorbs water and makes the dough hard. Very hard dough also makes hard puris.

Hope this helps.

I am not very good at cooking. But I have shown the question to my wife and discussed with her. She has made the following three suggestion. They may be useful.
1. The dough prepared for puri should be made with a little less water than what we use for making Rotis.
2. The thickness of raw puris is very important. They should not be as thins as we make for Chapathi. They should be a little thicker than that it is made for chapathis.
3. The oil should not get too hot and no fumes should be coming from the oil. We should adjust the temperature so that the oil will not get too much boiled.

Puri making requires some practice and there are some small things which can help in making soft and fluffy puries. Some of these are mentioned point wise as follows -

1. Preparing the dough for Puri requires kneading the bedmi flour to medium soft condition as too solid a dough will make them hard. As semolina is already there in the flour so crispness will come automatically by it without making the dough hard. After kneading, the dough should be kept aside for 15-20 minutes preferably covered with a slightly wet cloth.

2. The second step is of the rolling the dough. Puris should be rolled softly and evenly and care should be taken that they do not become thin in the centre. In fact if one can roll the puri in such a way the centre of the puri remains slightly thicker than sides then it is the perfect way of rolling Puri. Evenly rolled puris result in fluffy ones.

3. The oil should be sufficiently hot (piping hot) when Puri is dipped in it for frying. After this the heat can be reduced to medium till the Puri is completely fried. Before dipping the next Puri the heat is to be increased again to make the oil piping hot.

I make my bedmi poori mix and store. I have never used ready-made mix, so cannot advise on the techniques needed to get soft pooris. However, I follow the following procedure for making the pooris.

The first step is to mix 2-3 tbsps of ghee or oil in the flour. The quantity of the oil/ghee will depend on the amount of the flour.

The flour consists of sooji and urad dal, among other ingredients, so you need to knead it differently from the way you would for regular pooris. I have always used lukewarm water for kneading the dough. It takes a lot of water because the ingredients absorb the water. When you soak dal for cooking or sooji for making rawa idli, the two soak water, right? The same happens when you use these two ingredients in the dough. They absorb the water, which is why you will need to use more water.

You'd need less water if you are using soaked and freshly ground urad dal for the poori. Since the ingredients are dry, the quantity of water required is a little extra.

The dough should be made soft and not hard, as you would for normal pooris - though it should not be too hard. Firm yet soft is the best way I can describe how the dough should be. Once you have kneaded the dough, cover it and let it rest for 20-30 minutes. This step is key to getting soft pooris that puff up on frying. The ingredients (especially the suji and urad dal) absorb water and become soft. Less water will cause the pooris to turn out hard.

After you have rested the dough, rub a little oil on your palms and gently rub it in the dough. You don't need to knead it with your knuckles. Just use the ball of your palms to work and stretch the dough, a bit.

Shape the dough into balls and roll out the poori. Don't use flour for rolling them out, use oil instead. Roll them a little thick; thicker than normal pooris. And, don't press down hard while rolling them. You need to do it with a gentle hand, making sure that they are of equal thickness all around. The oil should be hot when you fry the pooris, but not smoking. To make them fluff out, use the slotted spoon to gently press the sides of the pooris as they are frying. Don't press them in the middle. Incidentally, I had bedmi pooris for breakfast this morning.