Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Homemade Pav / Dinner Rolls

There are very few yeasty breads commonly baked in India. One such bread a legacy of the Portuguese is Pao or as over the years of colloquial usage has become converted to the marathi word Pav. The story also goes that the dough for these rolls was kneaded by feet instead of hands and hence the name Pav, but I am not so sure of this ... Pav is one popular accompaniment to the famous street food or should I say street foods of Bombay Vada Pav and Pav Bhaji. In Bombay where I am from, we used to have the Pav wala come every evening selling freshly baked laadi pav.  On days when we were having Pav Bhaji for dinner he would be told a day in advance to bring in X number of Pav for us. Fond memories !! I wanted to eat Pav Bhaji and decided to try my hand at baking Pav at home. I took the experiment one step further and made it using half wheat flour (chapati flour). They turned out super yummy.

Ingredients
1&1/2 Cup WholeWheat Flour
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 Tbsp Sugar
1 Pkt Fast Rise Yeast (Hannaford Brand)
1&1/2 tsp Salt
2-3 Tbsp Olive Oil
2-3 Tbsp Whole Wheat or A.p flour for kneading and shaping dough
250 ml Warm Water to knead the dough * More or less may be needed
Method
1. Proof yeast as per package directions and set aside. Approx 15 mins or till yeast froths up
2. In a mixing bowl, combine whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, salt and add 1 Tbsp Olive oil. Now add the frothy yeast mixture and start kneading the dough adding as much warm water as needed.
3. Now knead knead and knead for 15 mins. The dough should no longer stick to the surface in clumps.
4. Grease a mixing bowl with a tbsp of olive oil, shape the dough into a round ball put it into this bowl and cover the bowl with a plastic wrap.

5. The dough is ready for its first rise. Set it aside for 1 to 2 hours or till it doubles in volume.

6. Remove plastic wrap and punch down the dough. Form 15 -16 round balls and set them an inch apart on a greased baking pan.

7. Cover with plastic wrap and leave for second rise approx 1 hour or till the rolls double in volume.

8. Preheat oven to 390 F.
9. Brush the tops of the rolls with milk and slip the tray into the oven. Bake for 12-15 mins till golden brown in color.

9. Enjoy warm with butter or as we did with Pav -Bhaji.


3 comments:

  1. I love dinner rolls! I'm a sucker for them, and yours looks great! Thanks for sharing, I bookmarked the recipe to try out sometime. Have a good one =]

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for stopping by Free Spirit Eater. Do try them and lemme know how they turned out :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice, need to try em ....as soon as I get some baking capacity back in the kitchen

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