Growing up in Mumbai, kulkuls were only made at Christmas. The house fills with the smell of nutmeg when these are frying. My mum made many kilos of kulkuls so we had some for evening tea, some to serve visitors at Christmas time and some to send to family and friends on Christmas day.

750 gms plain flour

300 gms sugar

125 gms ghee / butter

½ nutmeg

Grind the sugar and nutmeg to a fine powder.

Measure and sift the flour. Add the sugar and nutmeg powder.

Heat the ghee to ‘near smoking’ and pour carefully over the flour.

Mix carefully with a spatula. Adding a little water as needed.

Knead to a firm dough. Leave under clean kitchen cloth for 1-2 hours.

To form the kulkuls, take a small quantity of dough and form small marble size balls.

Roll each ball of dough on a fork or ribbed butter pats to form the kulkuls. Lay out on trays and leave overnight or for a few hours to dry slightly.

Heat oil in a deep pan. The oil should be hot enough to fry a cube of bread slowly.

Add a few kulkuls to the oil & fry on medium heat to allow the inside of the kulkuls to cook. On our induction top, I use 6.5 out of 9 (max heat)

Do not fry on HIGH! The kulkuls will be raw inside.

Once fried remove to a pan lined with kitchen paper to drain. Cool well and store in airtight tin.