Kulcha (chole wala) recipe | street food bakery kulcha recipe (2024)

04 May Kulcha (chole wala) recipe

Last Updated on July 25, 2021 by blessmyfoodbypayal

Kulcha (chole wala) recipe | pocket kulcha recipe | street food bakery kulcha recipe with step wise pictorial and video method.

WHY NAMED AS POCKET KULCHA?

These are soft, puffed & round (slightly flat) breads made at every bakery shops in Jammu. Street vendors/shopkeepers buy these kulche from bakery shops and then sell on streets/shops after stuffing with chole and/or kaladi.

To fill in stuffing, these kulche are to be cut from the top middle and create a pocket in the centre of it. That’s why it is named as pocket kulcha.

KULCHA & The confusions

Honestly speaking, it was indeed a difficult task to give suitable titled to this post. Yes, very difficult task.

Have you went back to title to read it again ?

Now it must be brewing in your mind that the title is very simple and basic so what was difficulty in creating it?

Actually the term kulcha is confusing in itself in many ways. India is a broader country with uncountable number of cuisines across all states & territories and at times, though rarely, one food item is different but it is named the same in different places.

As the post is related to Kulcha, so we will stick to it only. Being the native of Jammu (J&K), we can well explain that here we call it Kulcha what you see in this post and yes, this post is about jammu special kulche only. How they look like and served is already explained herein above under separate head.

If you move to punjab, potato stuffed flat breads made in tandoor are very common and world famous food item generally termed as Amritsari kulcha. The point is, this flat bread is also called kulcha in punjab which is made, looks, serves and tastes differently than jammu kulcha.

In many other parts of the northern India, kulcha is made but differently. You will find many recipes of kulcha which are flatbreads and look alike naan but they are named kulcha because their dough is prepared using curd, baking powder and baking soda.They are also made in the tandoor as well as on a tava or griddle. But all in all the point is that they too are named as Kulcha.

This is the reason it was difficult to give a title to the post. How to specify which kulcha is this. Though we could simply name it “Jammu wala kulcha” but this is not made and available in jammu only. Even it is very common in delhi too and a famous street food paired with chole and matar.

The kulcha presented in this post is the only kulcha which is served after making a pocket in it for filling stuffing, so that is why we added the word “pocket” before Kulcha to create a difference, though “pocket kulcha” is not it’s official name.

Also see..

• How to activate yeast
• Homemade yeast/khamir
• Vegetarian Hot Dog
• Whole wheat Bread
• Bread without yeast
• Bread with homemade yeast
• Click here for more recipes from J&K

Step wise pictorial recipe ofKulcha (chole wala) recipe

1. As it’s an active yeast, so it needs to be activated first. In a big sized bowl, add sugar, yeast and water. Mix and rest for 10 minutes.
2. After 10 minutes, you will see some froth and bubbles on the surface of mixture which means yeast is activated.
3. Add flour, curd, salt and butter to it. Skip salt if your butter is salted.
4. Mix everything without adding water.
5. Now start kneading the dough while adding little by little water.
6. Give a good knead to dough for about 10 minutes. Dough must be normal.
7. Put the dough in a greased bowl and after applying some oil on the dough too, cover the bowl with cling film or some kitchen towel or lid in case of non availability of cling film. Only condition is bowl should be covered properly.
8. Place the bowl in a warm place of the kitchen for 2 hours. After 2 hours, dough must have been raised to double.
9. Remove the cling film and take a big sized dough from the entire dough and roll it into a ball between your palms. For better distribution, diving the dough into 7 to 8 parts in equal proportion and them start rolling them round.
10. Dust some flour on a clean surface and place this dough ball there and also dust some flour on the ball too.
11. Flatten the ball into a thick disk from all sides using your fingers. You can use the rolling pin also but handle the dough gently. Don’t roll the ball too thin.
12. Place the disks on a baking tray lined with greased butter paper and give them a milk wash.
13. Bake in a pre-heated oven @180℃ for about 20-25 minutes in the middle rack with both the rods on and for 1 or 2 minutes on top rack on full temperature (our’s is 230℃). But during these 1 – 2 minutes, don’t keep your eyes off the oven. Immediately remove the tray when you feel the kulche are turning golden beyond required. This is done only to bring a nice golden colour on top and nothing else. If your kulche has already attained sufficient golden top, no need to bake on upper rack during last minutes.
14. Let them turn cool completely. Your kulche are ready. Enjoy.

HOW TO SERVE KULCHA ?

These kulchas are served after stuffed with..
Chole

Nutri

Kachalu&/or

Aloo Tikki.

Also served with Kaladi, popularly known as Kaladi Kulcha, famous cuisine of jammu.

If you have none of the above for stuffing, no issues. These kulche can be eaten with any vegetable or even as it is with a cup of tea after tossing with little butter. They are truly yum this way too.

Kulcha (chole wala) recipe – recipe card

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