This is something I will call my comfort food, soft buttery kulcha with hot chole masala and sirke waale pyaaz. I know everyone who is reading this is drooling right now!
Kulcha is an Indian leavened flatbread, it is traditionally cooked in tandoor oven but even the electric oven ones are very famous nowadays. This bread is topped with green chillies, onions and black sesame seeds. Toppings are very distinctive region wise. This bread is very similar to focaccia bread.
Punjabi Cuisine is one of the most distinct and popular Indian cuisines and comes from the region of Punjab. It offers a vast variety of delectable and exotic vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes that are prepared with varied traditional culinary styles, particularly the tandoori style. The appetizing Amritsari Chole kulcha is an exotic mouth-watering and finger licking dish having rich, spicy and buttery flavour; a healthy meal option as it is savored with special Punjabi bread ‘baked kulcha’. As people of Punjab are known for liveliness and full of enthusiasm the vibrant combination of the spices n aroma elevates our mood and had not only made the gastronomists crave for more but has also garnered the cuisine much fame outside the Punjab region giving recognition it to every corner of the globe.
Some recipes use yeast and some don’t. I have used yeast because I like my kulchas to be fluffy so that they absorb more gravy while having a bite. Do give it a try to this simple and lip-smacking recipe.
Happy Baking!
Baked Amritsari Kulcha
Ingredients
- 500 gm Refined Flour
- 8 gm Salt
- 8 gm Active Dry Yeast
- 12 gm Sugar
- 30 gm Soft Butter
- 200 ml Water
- 4 Finely Chopped Green chillies
- 2 Sliced Onions
Instructions
- In a bowl mix all dry ingredients. Mix it using a spoon.
- Start adding water gradually while you knead it to form a dough.
- Once your dough is ready, keep it on a table top and knead it continuously for 10-15 minutes to generate gluten and make the dough soft.
- Add butter to the dough, at this stage your dough will be out of your control but be patient and keep kneading. In 5-10 minutes a soft dough will be ready.
- Cover the dough with damped muslin cloth and let it rest for 30 minutes. This is the first proofing of bread dough.
- In half an hour, the dough will be double it's size. Punch it and release all the air, quickly knead it and divide into 10 equal part.Meanwhile, preheat oven at 200 degrees for 15 minutes.
- Roll the dough into 6'' diameter circles, place it in baking trays and cover with damped muslin cloth. Let it rest for 30 more minutes. This stage is called as second proofing.
- After second proofing apply water on top of the kulchas , spread onion slices and green chillies. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 200 degrees or till they turn golden brown.
- Take it out of the oven, brush melted butter on top and serve hot.Amritsari Kulchas are ready!!