Laadi Paav

Bombay is famous for its laadi paav and paav bhaji/bun maska. I remember when we got bread from Sardar bakery at Tardeo I would eat the paav by itself as it was fresh and hot and so yummy! Or when we would party all night we would land up at Churchgate to eat bun maska or brun maska... Ah! Those were the days.. I miss Bombay so much not only for the food but just the feel of the city!

Anyway we long to eat paav here and the closest to paav are the dinner rolls we get but they are not exactly the same. So I decided to take matters in my hand and give a try at making laadi paav.. ofcourse I wasn't gonna knead the dough with my feet as it's done traditionally.. hence the name "Paav" (That's what I have heard) ;)

Here goes the recipe:(This recipe makes around 12- 15 paavs)

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour and 1 cup as reserve if the dough gets too sticky ( I used 3 cups all purpose & 1 cup whole wheat flour)

1 1/2 tsp active dried yeast

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

1 1/2 cups milk and few tblspn milk for brushing on paav

2 tbsp butter, softened

2 tbsp melted butter for brushing on the pav


Method:
Mix together the flour, yeast, salt and sugar in a big bowl.
Now heat the milk and the butter in a pan mix well and heat till its lukewarm. If the milk is hot let it cool till its lukewarm.
Now add this lukewarm milk to the flour mixture and knead well till a soft and elastic dough forms. The dough should be soft but not sticky. You can add more flour if the flour is sticky but not too much as it will make the bread hard (yes, I speak from my past experience!)

Knead the dough for atleast 5-7 minutes. Now keep the dough in a greased bowl, (roll the dough in little oil) and cover with plastic wrap. Now allow it to double in volume it will take 1.5 hours.

After 1.5 hours knead the dough again almost punch it to remove the air bubbles in it and divide equally into about 12-15 pieces. Shape each piece into a ball little bigger than golf balls and place on a greased baking dish (grease with oil/melted butter and little flour). Place the balls in such a way that they touch each other around 3 balls in each row.

Cover this with plastic wrap and allow to rise for another 30 minutes. Pre-heat oven to 375F and brush the paav with milk before putting in the oven and bake the paav for 10 minutes till they have risen and the surface is started to brown. Now take them out and brush with some melted butter and bake them for another 10 minutes till the tops have browned well (keep an eye on the bread). You may need some more time to bake the paav depending on your oven. I guess I took a total of 22 mins. Switch off the oven and take the rolls out and let them cool on a cooling rack for 10 mins.
Serve with bhaji/dal/curries or for breakfast with butter and chai or egg omlette.

Note:
Kneading is the key - the more you knead the better texture of the paav
My friend said she added a boiled potato to the dough which makes the paav super soft but she also warned me that would make the dough sticky hence you have to be good at baking as it gets tricky to get the right consistency of the dough. I skipped this part and played it safe as I am not a skilled baker.