Ladi Pav (Mumbai Pav)
Those who are familiar with Maharashtrian street food know that Pav is an irreplaceable part of the most lip-smacking dishes like Pav Bhaji, Vada Pav, Misal Pav, Dabeli, Bun maska and many more. However, it is also something we tend to take for granted. Most of the times we just focus on the taste of bhaji or vada or misal and just buy a pack of pav from the store to go with them and ignore the fact that the freshly baked pav can totally lift the dish to a whole new level.
Keeping that in mind, I recently made Misal with fresh Pavs from scratch for the first time and the Pavs were amazing!! Well, you don’t have to take my word for it. Do try this recipe yourself and let us know how they turn out!
Equipment
- Large bowl
- Baking pan
Ingredients
- 3 cups All-purpose flour Maida
- 2 tbsp Milk Warm (Not hot)
- 1 tbsp Sugar
- 1 tbsp Instant dry yeast
- 2 tbsp Oil
- 1/2 tbsp Butter
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 cup Water Warm (Not hot)
- 1.5 tsp Salt
- MIlk Brushing the tops before baking
Instructions
- In a large bowl, add warm milk, warm water and yeast and gently stir so that all the yeast is wet and somewhat mixed in the mixture. Cover and set aside.
- After about 10 minutes, the yeast should be foamy and risen to twice the size of original mixture.
- Mix oil and butter in a separate bowl and set aside to be used later.
- In the bowl with foaming yeast, add all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt and mix well.
- Knead for about 10 minutes. The dough will be sticky but keep at it as that is expected.
- Add the oil & butter mixture to the dough and knead more for another 10 minutes.
- Tuck the sides of the dough under to make the top smooth and tight as shown in the picture.
- Cover the bowl with moist cloth and let it rest for 1 hour in a clean warm place. I put it in the oven with light on and the door slightly open.
- After an hour, the dough should be double the original size. If it's not, cover and put in back for 15 more minutes.
- Take the dough out and punch it in the middle so it sinks a little without bouncing back. That's a good indication that the dough is ready to be shaped.
- On kitchen platform, sprinkle some flour lightly and transfer the dough on it.
- Knead lightly for 5-10 minutes. This will make dough easy to handle.
- Cut the dough in quarters. Split each quarter into 3 equal size balls.
- Brush a baking sheet with oil or butter.
- Shape the balls to form smooth tops and place on the sheet with some space between them.
- Cover the sheet with moist cloth for another 30-45 minutes. They should grow in size and ideally touch each other.
- Brush the tops of the buns with milk to give them nice brown color.
- Preheat the oven to 200Β°C (395Β°F).
- Place the baking sheet on the lower level because we want the heat from bottom so that the buns will rise nice and evenly.
- Bake for 30 min or until the top is brown.
- Take the buns out and appreciate them for a few seconds on how well they turned out! π
- Let the buns cool down and brush them with melted butter for shiny top before serving them.
Notes
- Use only warm water and milk for activating the yeast. If they are too hot, the yeast will die and won’t foam and rise. If that happens, throw out the mixture and start over as it is very important to activate the yeast for fluffy buns.
- If the dough is to sticky to handle at any point, just set it aside to rest for about 10 minutes and then start again. It will be much more manageable.
- I can’t overemphasize the importance of kneading at each stage. The more you knead, the softer and fluffier the buns will be. Also, it’s a good workout and you won’t feel guilty eating an extra Pav later π
- When shaping the buns, make sure the tops are smooth and tight otherwise they may crack at the top. If you look at my picture, I clearly didn’t spend much time shaping but it is super important for a better look. Doesn’t affect the taste one bit though. π
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