West Bengal and Bangladesh offer a wide variety of pithes. Different types of pithe have some basic ingredients in common, but different recipes and cooking styles.

Every foodie’s heart belongs to Bengali cuisine. You’ll never forget the flavours and aroma of this rich, versatile dish. The food in Bengal changes with the seasons. Summer brings along soul-soothing aam tok and aam dal, while monsoon brings khichudi (khichdi) and bhaja. Likewise, the winter season brings on a craving for delicious pithe and payesh. What is pithe? The recipe consists of freshly prepared palm and date jaggery (nolen gur and khejur gur), scented rice flour, milk, and coconut in a palm-sized sweet treat. Today, pithe is available at numerous sweet shops, but it is generally prepared at home by a typical Bengali family. It is a tradition for every Bengali to prepare pithe during the winters. If you visit any house in Bengal (and Bangladesh) during this time of the year, you will be welcomed with hot and fresh pithe as well as gur-er payesh (gur ki kheer). Additionally to Bengal, pithe is also celebrated in Bihar, Assam, and Odisha in Eastern India.

You can find a variety of pithe throughout West Bengal and Bangladesh if you explore. Despite having some similar ingredients (such as rice flour and gur), the different types of pithe have different recipes and cooking styles. The steamed ones are bhapa pithe, while others are rosh bora and kheer (kheer puli). As well as deep-fried pithe, you can also find baked pithe (chitoi pithe) and deep-fried pithe (bhaja puli). Additionally, each pithe variety has its own name, shape, and size. There are so many varieties of pithe. Sounds interesting, doesn’t it?

You will fall in love with Bengali cuisine again when you try these popular pithe recipes. Check them out!

5 Delicious Pithe Recipes That You Must Give A Try:

• Patishapta – Patishapta is a popular pithe made of rice flour and sooji and stuffed with a delicious caramelized jaggery and coconut mixture. You can also substitute khoya and sugar for the jaggery and coconut if you cannot find them.

• Dudh Puli – Puli is a type of steamed sweet meat that’s coated with rice flour and filled with jaggery and coconut. Steamed puli can be eaten as it is or you can dip it in thickened sweet milk and eat it as dudh puli. It resembles modak or gujiya. The traditional dudh puli recipe includes fresh jaggery instead of sugar to sweeten the milk and the filling.

• Gokul Pithe – This pithe is fried and soaked in sugar syrup rather than steamed. In addition, a coconut and jaggery filling was included, and the texture was soft and melted in the mouth.

• Chakli Pithe – Do you like appam? Chakli pithe is what Bengalis call it. Once you bite into it, you won’t be able to stop. Served hot with jaggery syrup, it is a thin, super thin crepe. You can also get a thin and tiny variety called soru chakli of this pithe. Kheer is often served with soru chakli.

• Rosh Bora – Basically vada soaked in sugar syrup, rosh bora is one of the easiest pithe to prepare. You can enjoy it all year round, as this is one of such places. Urad dal is usually used to make vada, but sweet potato has also been used. Give these vadas a try this winter and get into the spirit of the season!