Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls/Indian Pav Buns

Pav Bhaji is a very famous Indian street food that is typically dinner rolls served with spicy curry and onions. Both me and my husband love street-food. Pav bhaji, pani puri, chat whatever it is, if it’s street-food, then we gotta eat it 🙂 These days due to my calorie count, we have ceased eating a lot of street-food and alternatively I am trying to replicate it at home, in my kitchen. I made these buns for dinner yesterday and we had them with bhaji on the side, so making it pav bhaji 🙂 It was yum. The buns were super soft, fluffy and sponge-like. I was thrilled with the outcome of this recipe and I never actually believed until now that whole wheat buns too can be made fluffy.

I used equal amounts of whole wheat and all-purpose flour just to make the entire process easier for me. The more we add the whole wheat flour, the more we have to knead it. For this simple reason, I added all-purpose flour, but you may use whole wheat instead. I really suggest you to try this recipe as I believe you will be surprised with the outcome as much as I did. Do try and let me know, would love to hear from you 🙂

Ingredients

Whole wheat flour – 1 cup

All-purpose flour/maida – 1 cup

Active dry yeast – 2 tsp

Milk – 1 cup

Butter – 2 tbsp, softened

Sugar – 1 tbsp

Salt – ½ tsp

For brushing

Milk – ¼ cup

Butter – 1 tsp, softened

Procedure:

1. Add sugar to the milk and heat it slightly till it is warm. It should not be hot, if you place your finger in it, you should be able to bear the heat.
2. Add the yeast, mix once and let it rest in a warm place, preferably in a closed oven till it foams up and becomes creamy. Then the yeast is activated and ready for use.
3. Take the wheat flour, all-purpose flour, salt and butter in a large mixing bowl.
4. Mix well till the butter is well incorporated and the flour becomes slightly crumbly.
5. Add the activated yeast and combine well. The dough will be very sticky and messy at this stage, but it is perfect for our rolls.
6. Flour your work surface and knead the dough for about 5-10 minutes till you get soft and smooth dough.
7. Place it in a greased bowl and cover with damp cloth or cling film (make sure it is air-tight) and let it rest to rise for about 1 hour.
8. After an hour, the dough would have doubled or tripled in volume. Transfer it to your work surface and cut it equally into 10-12 pieces.
9. Roll balls out of them and place them close to one another on a greased baking tray/plate. Cover with damp cloth and let it rest again for another 30 minutes.
10. For the brushing, warm the milk and butter together till the butter melts. Brush this over the risen balls and bake it in a pre-heated oven at 190°C/375°F till they turn golden brown.
11. Remove from oven and brush them again with the milk-butter mixture. Let them cool, this might take about 15 minutes.
12. Serve them for pav bhaji or for burgers. Soft and fluffy rolls will delight your loved ones!!

Note:

1. You may avoid using all-purpose flour and use a total of 2 cups whole wheat for a healthy option, but in this case, you might have to use about 1.5 cups milk and should knead the dough for a good 15 minutes or more to get soft rolls.
2. The yeast should rise perfectly to get fluffy rolls.
3. The dough should initially be very sticky and wet, only then you will get a good texture.
4. I brushed the milk-butter mixture over the buns for about 2-3 times while it was still baking.

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