Paneer Kulcha Amritsari

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Paneer Kulcha

As soon as Jenni announced the theme for this month’s Bread Baker’s I knew I wanted to make an Indian bread and that I wanted to make a Kulcha. The theme for this month is “Stuffed Bread”! Bread by itself is temptations galore, and stuffed bread is temptations with some golden butter on top. I make some kind of stuffed bread every once a while and most of the time it is the Aalu Paratha – Potato stuffed flatbread that is fried in ghee on a skillet. But this time I wanted to make a Kulcha and that too an Amritsari Paneer Kulcha.

Paneer Kulcha

The only problem was that though I knew what I wanted to make, I did not know how. A detailed search over the internet left me completely unsatisfied about the authenticity of the numerous Amritsari Kulcha’s splattered all over the web. My quest for an authentic recipe for Amritsari Kulcha led me straight to my friend Dr. Aman Kahlon who is the go to guy for all things Punjab and Amritsar related. A few minutes later, I walked away with a recipe, instructions and a lot of confidence. This is as authentic as it gets! I am so thrilled to be sharing this recipe because not only is it easy, it is absolutely delicious.

The Amrtisari kulcha is served with chole that are made sans ghee or oil and I made those to serve with the Paneer Kulcha.

Amritsari chole

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme.  Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send Stacy an email with your blog URL   to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com.

Thank you, Jenni for a wonderful theme this month. And now, here are the breads that we baked for May.

Sweet Breads
Savory Breads

Paneer Kulcha #BreadBakers

Ingredients

Dough

  • 2 C All purpose flour
  • 1/4 C + 2 Tbs water
  • 1/4 tsp salt

Filling

  • 1/2 C paneer
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 chilli powder
  • 1/2 tsp Mango powder
  • 1 green chilli chopped
  • 1 tsp chopped cilantro

Extras

  • Ghee for topping
  • Cilantro for topping
  • Butter/ghee for laminating

Instructions

Make the dough

  1. Mix the salt into the flour and then gradually add water and knead the dough. The final dough is soft but not wet. Once the dough comes together cover and let rest for about an hour.

Filling

  1. Mix all the ingredients of the filling and keep aside.

Laminate the dough

  1. Punch the entire dough on a "very" lightly floured surface and with your finger tips spread it as much as you can into a round.

  2. Apply ghee or softened butter on top of the now rolled out dough and then fold circle in half. Apply the butter/ghee again on the top of this semi circle and fold again. Repeat folding and applying ghee/butter until you can no longer fold the dough.

  3. Keep this laminated dough covered for 30 minutes.

  4. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 550*F with the baking stone in it . If you don't have a baking stone, a baking sheet or a cast iron griddle will also work.

  5. Once the dough has rested for 30 minutes, make equal size dough balls – about 6- 7 .

  6. Spread out each dough ball with your hand into a 2.5 in to 3 in diameter circle and then put some of the filling in the center. Make sure you don't overfill the dough.

  7. Close the ends of the circle together to encase the filling and then pat down to shape into a flat bread. You could alternately roll it out to shape it into a flatbread.

  8. Using a pastry brush, brush a little water on top and then pat on some cilantro. Just like you would do an egg wash. Not too wet. Put the bread onto the baking stone and cook until golden brown in color. The timing of bread cooking will vary as per your over and the actual heat .. Usually 4 – 5 minutes. Apply ghee as soon as the bread comes out of the oven.

    Serve Hot.

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