These soft and fluffy homemade pav buns are eggless and easy to prepare with simple ingredients. Pav Puns are famous in Indian Bakeries and are also known as Indian Dinner Rolls. Pav buns are a perfect accompaniment for soup or bhaji. One of my favourite dinner options! Today, let’s see how to make these buns from scratch.
Homemade Pav Buns
Can anything beat the taste and aroma of fresh baked goods? These eggless homemade pav buns taste a lot better than the store-bought ones. Also, once baked, the beautiful aroma that goes around the kitchen is unbeatable. They look too beautiful as well. Just look at the nice golden crust. To those unaware, pav bhaji is a popular Indian dish. My love for this dish is never-ending. Every time I visit a chaat shop, this is the first one that I search for in the menu.
If you have had those dinner rolls from the stores outside India, they taste nothing close to our Indian bakery-style pav buns. To satisfy those chaat cravings, I was in search of a perfect pav recipe. Initially, I used to be super lazy to bake buns at home. With practice, this has become a breeze now. This is a simple recipe with not many complicated steps. Beginner-friendly with foolproof results every single time.
About Pav Bhaji
Pav bhaji is a popular Indian street food that consists of a spicy mix of mashed vegetables & soft buns. The commonly used vegetables in this recipe are potatoes, bell pepper, beans, peas, tomato, onion. Pav Bhaji is generally served with a generous amount of butter topped along with some freshly chopped onions & lemon juice. The toasted pav buns are served along with this delicious Bhaji. Tastes so good!
Though Pav Bhaji is very famous in Mumbai, you get various versions of it all over India.
Ingredients Used
Instructions to Prepare the Dough
Add flour, instant yeast, sugar, salt and melted butter to the bowl. You can either prepare the dough in your stand mixer or with your hands. Combine well.
Add warm milk little by little and knead the dough for 10 minutes using the dough hook attachment or knead for 15-20 minutes using your hands.
Your dough is done when it looks smooth and is non-sticky. If you touch the dough, there shouldn’t be too much residue sticking to your hand. If the dough is sticky even after kneading for 15 mins, add flour 1 tbsp at a time and combine it together. Transfer the dough to a greased bowl and also apply oil on top of the dough so that it doesn’t dry out.
How to Proof the dough in Instant Pot with Yogurt Button
Grease the Inner Pot of the Instant Pot with butter or oil.
Transfer the dough to the greased pot. Close the lid with and ensure the knob is in VENTING position.
Turn the Instant pot on by pressing the YOGURT button. Set the timer to 1 hour.
By the end of 1 hour, the dough will expand and double in size.
Take the dough from the inner pot and deflate the dough by punching it down.
How to Proof the dough without an Instant Pot
Grease a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl. Cover the bowl with cling film or a damp towel. Keep the dough in a warm place for 2 hours.
In 2 hours, the dough will double in size. Remove the cling film. Punch it down and deflate the dough.
Usually, I preheat an oven for 5 minutes. Once warm, I switch off the oven and place the bowl in the oven for 2 hours and wait for the dough to rise. If you live in a warm place, you can just place it in a warm place on the kitchen countertop.
Prepare for Second Rise
Divide the dough into equal parts. You can use a kitchen scale to measure them and make equal-sized balls. Make smooth balls and place them in a greased baking tray. Leave a little space between each dough ball as they will expand. Cover and keep the pan in a warm place for 30-40 minutes. Once done, brush the buns with milk.
Bake the Pav Buns
Bake at 400 F degrees for 15-18 minutes. Remove the buns from the oven immediately and brush the top with melted butter. Enjoy these delicious homemade pav buns / Indian dinner rolls with some bhaji!
Tips to get it right
Make sure you keep the dough covered at all times in order to prevent the dough from drying out.
I have used Instant Yeast in this recipe. So, I have directly added it while making the dough. You have to activate the yeast first if using active dry yeast. To activate the yeast, combine the yeast with lukewarm milk and sugar first. Stir it and let it sit for 10-15 mins till the mixture froths up. Add this mixture to the flour, salt and make the dough. If it doesn’t froth up, it means your yeast is dead. You have to discard that batch and start again.
Make sure the yeast is fresh. If not, the dough will not rise and buns will turn hard.
Knead the dough very well. If not, your buns will be hard.
Always keep an extra 1/2 cup of warm milk ready. I have used 1&1/4 cup milk. you may need more or less depending on your flour.
Do not add too much flour than needed. Bread will become hard.
Makes sure you give enough time for the dough to rise.
Finally, have patience. Baking involves a lot of science. If you don’t get it right the first time, it is ok. Keep trying. Understand your weather conditions, ingredients, baking temperature etc. Eventually, you will get it right.
Other Recipes to try
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Homemade Pav Buns | Indian Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
- 4 cups Flour
- 1 tbsp Sugar
- 1&1/2 tsp Salt
- 3 tsp Instant Yeast
- 1&1/4 cup Warm Milk You may need more or less depending on your flour
- 4+1 tbsp Unsalted Butter for the dough and for brushing on top
Instructions
Prepare the dough
- In a standing mixer bowl, take flour, salt, sugar, butter, instant yeast. Mix them well.
- Attach the dough hook. Add warm milk little by little to the bowl and prepare the dough.
- Let the stand mixer knead the dough for 10 minutes.
- Knead until a soft dough is formed. Don't worry if the dough is sticky initially. As you knead it, the dough will become soft and smooth.
- To knead with your hand, add all the ingredients to a bowl and knead until soft. This may take up to 20 minutes.
First Proofing
- To proof the dough in an Instant Pot, grease the inner pot of the Instant Pot with oil and transfer the dough to the inner pot. Apply oil on top of the dough. Transfer the dough to the inner pot. Close the lid and keep the Instant Pot on Yogurt mode and set the timer to 1 hour on normal.
- To proof the dough without an Instant Pot, grease a bowl with oil and place the dough in the bowl. Apply little oil on top of the dough. Cover it with a cling wrap or damp towel and allow it to proof for around 2 hours or until it gets double in size in a warm place.
Shape the dough
- Once the dough has doubled in size, take it out of the bowl. Give a gentle punch and deflate the dough. Slighlty knead the dough for a minute and divide it into equal parts.
- You can either measure the dough and divide it or just eyeball and divide it. I got around 16 buns. Grease a 9*13 baking pan and place the balls with little gap between them. This gives enough room for the buns to expand and rise.
- Cover the pan with a damp cloth or cling wrap and keep it aside in a warm place. I let it proof again for 30 to 40 mins in a warm oven. (preheated for 5 mins and switched off)
- After 30 mins, brush some milk on top of the buns. They are ready to be baked.
Bake the buns
- Preheat oven to 400F/200C. Bake the buns for 15-18 mins. Mine got done at 18 mins. Keep an eye after 15 minutes. Take them out and immediately brush the top part of the bun with some butter.
- Enjoy the buns with some yummy bhaji.
Great recipe. Can we use bread flour for the recipe.
Thank you. I have never used bread flour so I am not sure if we can replace the exact quantity. I Will try to make it sometime and update the post 🙂