KALKALS / KULKULS - KALKALS FOR CHRISTMAS

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.