Bibikhana Pitha or Bikrampurer Badshahi Pithe is a prestigious and unique Bengali dessert from Bikrampur, Dhaka, Bangladesh. This is also known as Pora Pithe in West Bengal or Poda Pitha in Bangladesh. It’s a different kind of pitha, which doesn’t any resemble any other pithe we enjoy on at Poush Parbon around the time of Makar Sankranti; it would be more appropriate to call বিবিখানা পিঠা a rice cake with earthen flavours of Bengal. This century old delicacy was probably created in a rustic kitchen of rural Bengal (pre-independence united Bangladesh and West Bengal). It is the tradition and uniqueness of bibikhana pitha which has kept it pristine till today.
Pitha (called in Bangladesh) or Pithe (known in West Bengal, India) is sweet or savory delicacy cooked with rice flour, milk, date palm jaggery or molasses and coconut as the base ingredients. There are numerous types of pitha is cooked and consumed in Bangladesh, eastern India including west Bengal, Assam, Odisha. Pithe can be made by following various cooking styles like steaming, frying, boiling, roasting on coals. And surprisingly pithe can be enjoyed in any form dumpling, pudding, cake, fritters, stuffed ones and many more. But the core ingredients rice flour and coconut remain constant in all of them.
Typically puli pitha are enjoyed at Poush Sankranti in the month of January after harvesting first rice crops. But there are few pitha which are actually cooked and enjoyed in other times of the year for separate occasion. Like Gokul Pithe is cooked on Gokulashtami or Krishna Janmashtami and Bibikhana Pitha is enjoyed right after a wedding. Traditionally this classic dessert is cooked by the bride. The newly wedded women begin their cooking journey at in-law’s home with this bibikhana ptha right after the wedding. It is said in old days it was a test of the cooking skill of bride; if she could cook it perfectly the responsibility of kitchen would be her onwards. Newly wedded or not this pitha is for all of you. And hope you all will love and adore this dessert as one of your own.
Bibikhana Pitha is a soft delicate cake with ‘melt in your mouth’ kind of texture. It’s a mildly sweet rice cake with earthy touch from rice flour, crunch from coconut, enriched with thickened milk, sweetened with date palm jaggery and molasses and flavoured with ghee (clarified butter) and freshly crushed cardamom. But the uniqueness of this pitha is the smoky flavour which comes from the kath koyla (burnt charcoal) on it this cake is cooked. This is why it is also called as pora pithe or Poda Pitha.
As it is cooked in charcoal it takes almost an hour to cook a small sized bibikhana pithe. So sometimes it is also cooked on steam or in absence of charcoal. As this recipe calls for quite a preparation from preparing flame to cooking, this pitha is cooked and enjoyed when some special guests arrive at home. And to make it special for guests pithe is cooked in milk with few drops of rose water. That is why Bibikhana Pitha is known as Badshahi Pithe.
SERVING & STORAGE:
Serve Bibikhana Pithe warm right after made. Don’t forget to drizzle some Nolen gur on top before serving.
- Rice flour: 1 cup
- All-purpose flour: 2 tbsp, optional
- Egg: 2
- Milk: 500, reduced to 250ml
- Jaggery: ½ cup
- Pinch of Salt
- Coconut: 1 cup, scrapped and shredded
- Ginger: ½ tsp, freshy grated
- Green Cardamom: ¼ tsp, freshly crushed
- Ghee: 4 tbsp + 1 tsp for greasing
- Sieve rice flour and all-purpose flour, salt and crushed cardamom together, twice if possible to remove lumps.
- Mix Ghee and jaggery in a bowl.
- Whisk egg one at a time in a separate bowl.
- Preheat the oven at 180C.
- Add milk in egg gradually and whisk slowly.
- Add jaggery and ghee mixture in egg-mixture and whisk carefully without splitting the egg. Also add ginger at this point.
- Finally add flour mixture in two steps and mix with a spatula until there's no visible trail of flour in the mixture.
- Brush a cake/mould with ghee and pour the batter in the pan. Tap the pan on kitchen counter couple of time to distribute the batter evenly. This step will ensure even rise of the pithe.
- Bake the pithe for 45-50 mins at 180C or unless skewer comes out clean if inserted in the middle.
Have you tried/cooked any of the recipes from my blog Scratching Canvas?
If yes I would love to know your feedback and opinion. Take a picture of your food and share on Instagram with the hashtag #scratchingcanvas. Or simply drop me a message @rimleed I will share your picture and opinion as well. See you there 🙂
EAT, LOVE & ENJOY! REPEAT!!!
Leave a Reply