KALKALS or KULKULS are prepared all over India at Christmas time. A variant of ‘Filhoses Enroladas’ a Portuguese Christmas Sweet, Kalkals, (always referred to in the plural) are crunchy inch-long curled or shell shaped sweetened fried Dough Sweets. Sugar and flour are combined with eggs, milk and butter to a soft dough and then small marble sized balls of this dough are rolled on the tines of a fork or a comb to form a shell or a scroll, then deep fried in hot oil. The dough is sometimes rolled out and cut into different shapes such as hearts, spades, diamonds etc with cutters or a knife and then deep fried in hot oil. The Kalkals / Kulkuls are later frosted or coated in hot melted sugar syrup. Since the preparation of Kalkals is a time consuming process and requires many hands to help in its preparation, a separate day is designated as ‘Kalkal Day’ a few days before Christmas, when every member of the family spends a few hours rolling out his/her portion of the kalkal dough. While one doesn’t know how the name ‘Kalkals / Kulkuls’ got its nomenclature it is probably because of the “curls” of this particular Christmas Sweet.
RECIPE FOR KALKALS (Fried sweetened balls of dough)
Serves 6 Preparation time 1 hour
Ingredients
I kg refined flour
6 eggs beaten well
2 cups milk or thick coconut milk
1 teaspoon salt
300 grams sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
1 teaspoon baking powder
Oil for deep frying
Mix the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder together.
Add the coconut milk and eggs and knead to a soft dough.
Keep aside for an hour.
Form the kalkals by taking small lumps of the dough and roll on the back of a fork or a wooden kalkal mould, to form a scroll.
Alternately, roll out the dough and cut into fancy shapes with kalkal or cookie cutters. Heat oil in a deep pan and fry as many kalkals as possible at a time. Keep aside.
To frost the kalkals, melt 1 cup of sugar with ½ cup of water and when the sugar syrup crystallizes pour over the kalkals and mix well. Store in air-tight boxes when cold.
This post first appeared on ANGLO-INDIAN FOOD - By Bridget White-Kumar, please read the originial post: here