Making Kulcha at home had been on my to-do list for such a long time. Couple of years back, I experimented making Naan at home, I was not so convinced trying it again. Although it tasted better than the ones we order in restaurants, it was a tedious process and as such I don’t like Naan, so I gave it up. Kulcha on the other hand is something I like and compared to Naan, I feel that the taste is so much better too. Few days back, sister shared her picture of Stuffed Aloo Kulcha and it looked glorious. I was waiting for the weekend to try it out and with S not around, I took my sweet time preparing the dish, clicking pictures and so on. I can say that the Kulchas made at home were atleast a 100 times better than the ones we get at store. For the starters, we didn’t have to pull/have a tug of war to tear a piece of kulcha 😀 This recipe does not use yeast and instead uses baking powder and soda. The result is soft, spongy beautiful kulchas! Wait until tomorrow to find out what did I serve these Kulchas with!
To make Kulcha
What I used –
- Maida/All Purpose Flour, 1.5 cups
- Milk, ½ cup (or less)
- Curd/Thick Yogurt, 2 tbsp
- Cooking Soda, ¼th tsp
- Baking Powder, ½ tsp
- Sugar, 1 tsp
- Salt, as required
- Oil/Butter, as required
- Finely chopped Coriander Leaves, 1 tbsp
- Black sesame seeds/ Onion Seeds, 1 teaspoon (optional)
How I made –
1. In a mixing bowl, add flour along with salt, sugar, cooking soda and baking powder. Mix well. Make a well in the center and add the curd and milk. Mix well. The flour would be crumbly. Add few tablespoon of milk if required and knead it into a soft pliable dough. Add a teaspoon of oil on top and let it rest for atleast an hour.
2. Make 5 equal sized balls of the rested dough. Take a ball of dough and roll it into a thin circle. If the dough is sticky, apply some oil to make it easy to roll. The dough can contract after each roll – apply pressure to roll it as evenly as possible (shape doesn’t matter). Sprinkle some finely chopped coriander leaves on top and do the same with the black sesame/onion seeds (if adding) and slightly press them into the rolled kulcha. If needed, press the coriander by gently pressing with rolling pin again.
3. Meanwhile, heat a flat tawa on medium heat and put the kulcha on it (the plain side on the tawa). In few seconds, there would be bubbles coming up. Gently flip it to cook on the other side on medium flame. The partly cooked side can be applied with oil/butter. Flip again and apply oil/butter on the side containing coriander. As the kulcha gains a lot of golden brown spots, remove it onto a plate. Repeat the same with rest of the dough.
4. Serve hot with any North Indian Side Dishes like Shahi Paneer, Navrathan Kurma, Veg Jalfrezi or Aloo Methi Matar.
Note –
- I didn’t use any water and the milk quantity was just enough the flour quantity. Adjust as per preference.
- While rolling the Kulcha, make sure it’s as thin as possible as the dough quickly contracts and can become thick while cooking. Also, roll each kulcha only when ready to cook.
- I didn’t have black sesame seeds/onion seeds. There is no impact to taste.
- I used oil to cook the kulcha, applying butter enhances the taste.
- If required, Kulcha can be put on open flame for 5 secs on each side.
- It is better to serve Kulcha hot although it was not rubbery on cooling down.
Freda @ Aromatic essence
fabulous as always!!
CHCooks
Thanks much dear 🙂
gouthamiyuvarajan
lovely!!! it looks resto style!! Great post 🙂
CHCooks
Thanks a bunch Gouthami 🙂
MyCulinarySaga
🙂 looks so yummy!
CHCooks
Thank you so much dear 🙂
Chitra Jagadish
Soft and fluffy Kulchas .....looks perfect Ch.... 🙂 🙂
CHCooks
Thanks so much Chitra 🙂
Lina
Yummm
CHCooks
🙂 🙂 Thank you dear!
Lynz Real Cooking
Yumm this looks amazing!
CHCooks
Thank you so much Lynn! 🙂
Lynz Real Cooking
As always
CHCooks
🙂
Vajeea
they look soooo perfect! I could never find the confidence to try making a kulcha at home 🙂
CHCooks
I am sure that the method used here is different from that of the restaurants. will was more tastier 🙂 Even I dont have enough confidence to make Naan at home 🙂
srividhya
I love home made also. I used yeast is mine though. Looks soft n inviting.
CHCooks
Oh will check your recipe 🙂
Rose @ Nish Kitchen
Kulchas look so soft and perfect!
CHCooks
Thank you so much Rose 🙂
Traditionally Modern Food
Kulcha looks delicious with some gravy lecan finish in no time
CHCooks
Thank you Vidya! 🙂
skd
The kulcha looks amazing. It is on my to do list too.
CHCooks
Thank you so much skd 🙂
perspectivesandprejudices
Hey GB, quick question. I'm hoping to make this on Friday. I don't think I have baking powder at home. Have only baking soda. Can I substitute with something else?
CHCooks
Hey P.. I dont think there is any other substitute to baking powder. Baking Soda in this recipe aerates the dough while the baking powder helps the kulcha puff up. It can turn out a harder without either of these powders, P. If you have yeast, you can scrape both these powders and use it instead but the recipe is totally different. Personally, I prefer this to the yeasty one as I found it hard to work with, three years back. Havent given it a try since then.
perspectivesandprejudices
Hmm okay. Let me try to pick up some baking powder sometime today/tomorrow then.
I have one packet on yeast at home also. But this seems like a simpler recipe. Let me see. Thanks da 🙂
CHCooks
No prob at all 🙂 Happy to help! Let me know how Kulchas turned out 🙂
perspectivesandprejudices
Hey, thought I should tell you. I made kulchas and the panneer labdar dish from your blog on Saturday afternoon. Both turned out great! Only mistake I made was to forget to add salt to the kulcha dough while mixing! So I added it in the end just before rolling them out. And I also poured all of the milk into it and found it too sticky so I had to keep adding a little more flour to compensate. Once I did that, it came out really well. 🙂
I sprinkled kalonji seeds on top of the kulchas.. looked really pretty and kicked up the flavor 🙂 The panneer was brilliant! Extremely yummy! So thanks for both recipes 🙂 It was an easy meal!
CHCooks
Super! Thank you so much for letting me know 🙂 Yeah, kalonji or black sesame seeds would add to the beauty as well as taste!