Carambolas: East Indian Starfruit Shaped Kulkuls

Carambolas are an East Indian dessert or ‘sweet’ as we call them that’s made around Christmas time. More commonly known as Kulkuls, this sugary frosted treat made by most East Indian Christian households are called carambolas when they’re star fruit-shaped.

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If you’ve read our post on how to make Kulkuls you’ll know that this sweet is normally shaped like shells or curls. But they were also shaped like Carambola fruits or Starfruits, as their name suggests.

Kul-Kuls, Carambolas, or Kormolas, is a play on the word Carambola in Portuguese, a Starfruit which is a tropical tree found mainly in Asia. The Portuguese most probably derived that word from the Marathi word karambala, karamala, or karamara back in the 16th century when they colonized Bombay (Mumbai), its surrounding areas, and also Goa.

There’s a Maharashtrian version called shakarpara that’s similar but made without eggs and colorless.

Anyways, we make carambolas around Christmas for dessert, or actually around any other time of the year when we need a frosty snack. Here’s how to make our kulkuls shaped like star fruit or East Indian Carambolas, if you want to be specific!

What Ingredients Do You Need To Make Carambolas?

To make carambolas, you need the same ingredients you use to make Kul-Kuls; so it’s really easy to make the two together. The ingredients are maida (flour), sojee or rava (semolina), egg, salt, ghee, powdered sugar, coconut milk, and food colours and ghee for frying.

Ghee might be available at your local Asian store, but if not you can use a good quality un-flavored oil.

How To Make Carambolas?

Step1 : Forming the Dough

Mix all the above ingredients in a thali and form into a dough. (Yep, thali is what we call a large flat stainless steel dish, but you can use any large glass, steel or ceramic dish for the mixing.)

Once the dough is formed, allow it to rest for 2-3 hours after covering it with a damp cloth.

Step 2: Make a Sugar Mel or Sugar Syrup for Frosting the Carambolas

In a deep pan or vessel, add the sugar and water and heat on a high flame to make a sugar mel (syrup). Keep this sugar syrup aside for the frosting.

Do this while the dough is resting because you want the sugar syrup to cool before adding the kormalas.

Step 3: Add color to the Kormola Dough

Once the dough has rested enough, divide it into smaller portions depending on how many colors you want. Add colour and knead each dough ball again until the color is mixed. You can make these carambolas colorless too, but don’t they look a lot more lively with color?

Step 4: Rolling Out the Dough Flat

Roll the dough into a fine layer a little at a time. Get to about 2to 3 mm thick. If you try to go finer, there won’t really be much there to eat, will there?

Also, remember to roll small lumps of dough as you are using them and then cut into small squares or even rectangles. You don’t want to roll all the dough out first or it will dry out.

Step 5: Shaping the Carambolas

Take one square or rectangle and fold it over crosswise. Holding the 2 edges pull it back towards you and while holding the other end and flatten both edges. And there you have the carambola shape.

Keep working all the other pieces of rolled-out dough in the same way till you have formed the rest of the carambolas.

Okies, some of the shapes in the pic above are of the upside-down waves sort of kulkuls. We were making those at the same time. 😉

Step 6: Fry the Carambolas or Kormolas and Frost Them

Once all your Carambola shapes are ready, heat the ghee in a kadai (deep dish pan or wok), and when the oil is hot start adding them in. You can test a few first to check if the ghee is hot enough. If yes, add in more carambolas and turn them over every 30 seconds to fry them. Once done, remove with a sieve and drop straight into the sugar mel.

Allow the kormolas or carambolas to soak in the sugar mel for a little while, then remove them and spread on a thali or other flat dish.

Stir every half an hour to ensure that they dry evenly and get a good coat of sugar frosting. You can always test a few to see how they’ve turned out, that’s my favorite part 🙂

Store the kormolas in boxes and serve for Christmas! You might have to add quite a few to the tray to send to cousins and relatives. It’s tradition, isn’t it? That’s why we always make a lot more East Indian sweets than we should. Wink wink!

Cooking Tips And Tricks

• We always add a little sugar into the dough, so it has a sweetness of its own. It’s not necessary, but we like it.
• Instead of the traditional brown color, we prefer to add some Christmassy green or pink color to it.
• The frosting needs time to cool, so prepare it either before you make the dough or while it’s resting.
• Use a flavorless oil, if you do not have ghee.
• If you want softer kul-kuls, soak them in the sugar syrup instead of just pouring it over them as tradition dictates.

Other Recipes You Might Like

• East Indian Bol De Coc | Coconut Cake
• Nutmeg Cake
• Muffins with corn flour and salami
• Custard Powder Cookies
• Warm East Indian Kimad Recipe