Indian Christmas sweets losing favour, say home chefs

In recent years, traditional Indian Christmas sweets have fallen out of popularity, feel home bakers and pastry chefs. They attribute it to the introduction of European treats like stollen, mince pies and panettone. 

“Earlier the whole family would gather to make kulkuls. We would sit through the night, make the dough, roll them into small balls, shape them with a fork and then fry them. Everyone would get involved,” says Amelia Patrick, a homebaker who started Alpha Foods two years ago. Kulkuls, a quintessential Christmas snack, are made with maida, semolina and coconut milk. Though its origins can be traced back to Portuguese cuisine, it has been a part of India’s Christmas tables since the 1500s, when Portugal invaded Goa. 

Ginger and grape wine were once made in most Anglo-Indian households. “For grape wine, we would buy new buckets to mash the grapes. We would mash them with our hands. It would be placed in jars with wheat and yeast to ferment. This was done a year in advance,” says Amelia. This practice is hard to come by these days, she shares. The younger generation is unaware of other sweets like guava cheese and coconut burfi because the tradition of making them at home has been forgotten, she adds. 

“Making kulkuls with the family during the Christmas season is a core Christmas memory for me,” says pastry chef Rajat Braganza, who runs Lamara, a patisserie. To honour this memory he has introduced gourmet kulkuls that come coated with chocolate, orange peel and cinnamon sugar. 

Jane Dsouza recently moved to Bengaluru from Mangaluru. In the coastal district, kuswar (a term used collectively for Christmas sweets and the tradition of exchanging sweets with friends and neighbours) continues to be popular, however they are purchased from bakeries or home chefs. In Bengaluru, she has not been able to find a home baker who makes good kuswar. “Apart from kulkuls, we would make thandlache laddoo (rice laddoos), rose cookies and nevrios (deep-fried puffs filled with coconut and jaggery). They would be stored in large aluminium containers and then distributed to friends and neighbours. I don’t see this happening anymore,” says Jane.  

Paul Raj has been making south Indian Christmas sweets for 25 years. In addition to rose cookies and kulkuls, his menu includes kajjaya (deep-fried jaggery snack), rice murukkus, kara boondi and laddoos. But orders have decreased over the years. “Earlier, at least 13 churches would order from me to distribute to their members. Now I get orders only from one church and some of our friends and acquaintances,” he shares. The family-run business that operates out of his home is labour-intensive and requires at least two to three people. “We all have day jobs. To come back and make these sweets is not easy. So we don’t take many orders either,” he says.  

Rajat is keen on preserving the rich Christmas traditions of India. “Even our Indian plum cakes are unique. You will not find that anywhere else in the world,” he says.

German stollen and Italian panettone are popular in their respective regions for a reason. They are made with the best ingredients that are easily available in those countries, shares Rajat. 

“Similarly, in India, we have easy access to wheat flour, coconut milk and semolina. So we should be making more kulkuls, rose cookies and Indian sweets,” he explains.