Pav Bread

Pav Bread

I have made this pav to have it with misal and it turned out AWESOME. So, thought of sharing the recipe with you all.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all puropse flour
• 2 ¼ tsp instant dry yeast
• 2 tbsp maple syrup(or you can use honey)
• 1 cup warm milk plus 2tbsp water
• 2 heaped tbsp Amul butter( you can use any salted butter)
• 2 tbsp butter to brush the Pav

Method:

• Mix maple syrup  and yeast in luke warm milk and let it sit for 5-7 minutes, until it begins to bubble.
• In another bowl, mix together the amul butter and all-purpose flour.
• Start kneading the dough with 1 cup of yeast-milk mixture until you get a smooth, elastic ball of dough. If it is too dry, add 1 tbsp. water at a time. If it is too wet, add 1 tbsp. flour at a time. I have added 2 tbsp of more water.
•  Coat a big bowl with the tablespoon of oil, drop in the dough, and coat with oil all over. Seal the bowl with plastic wrap, and let it rise in a warm place until doubled, about an hour.
• Punch air out of dough. Divide the dough into 8 equal sized round balls.
• Place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper, almost touching, about 1 inch apart.
• Cover with a kitchen towel, and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
• Heat oven to 375 degrees farheit.  When rolls have risen, brush them generously with butter.
• Bake rolls until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.
• Transfer to a cooling rack and cool to serve.

Note:

Instead of salted butter, you can add 2 tbsp of unsalted butter and 1 tbsp salt to the flour.

Pav Bread

Homemade Whole Wheat Pita bread

 I always use to buy these from grocery store, whenever I wanted to make some pita sandwich. Finally, on this weekend I decided to try my hand at making them at home and here’s the result.

They turn out exactly the way they’re supposed to. And they were puffed up like a balloon getting filled with air when baking them in oven. I was getting so excited to see them getting puff up that I made an video of the process.

This pita bread recipe makes soft and fluffy pitas and thousand times better than the store-bought ones. Yeah I know, little bit of work but it’s all worth, the moment you bite one of these. Only disadvantage is whenever I made something at home, I get so used to the fresh and homemade ones, I don’t even touch the ones we get at grocery stores.

You can stuff the pockets with a filling of your choice and your pita sandwich is ready. I have made my pita sandwich with masala chickpeas with some onion-cucumber salad  topped with yogurt sauce…Yum!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour ( I have used King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour)
• 1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour (I have used Indian Sujata Atta)
• 2¼ tsp instant yeast
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1¼ cups warm water
• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• Semolina or Cornmeal, for sprinkling

Method:

• In a small bowl, combine the yeast, honey and water and stir gently to dissolve. Let the mixture stand until the yeast comes alive and starts to foam, 5 to 10 minutes.
• Add the olive oil and salt to the yeast-honey-water mixture.
• Dump the flour in a large mixing bowl, slowly adding the yeast mixture , knead the dough until smooth and no longer sticky.
• Shape the dough into a large ball and coat lightly with Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Place in a bowl and cover with a clean kitchen towel. Set in a warm place to rise until doubled in size about 1 to 2 hour.
• After the dough has risen,  time to knead back the dough again ,knead it to push all the air out of it.
• Punch down the dough and divide into 8 equal parts. 
• Roll each portion into a smooth ball .
• On a lightly floured surface, roll each ball into a 6-inch circle and 1/4 inch thick discs. Transfer the discs to a baking sheet sprinkle with cornmeal. Repeat to complete the rest of the balls.
• Cover the uncooked pita bread with the damp kitchen towel loosely and let them rest at room temperature for 30 minutes or until slightly puffy.
• Meanwhile, heat oven to 500 degrees F and adjust oven rack to lowest position and place a baking sheet or cast iron skillet in oven.
• With a wet hand generously rub the surface of the disc before putting it in oven. This help them to puff up nicely.
• Transfer 1 pita bread on the skillet and bake until puffed and slightly golden in color(Mine took 3-4 minutes approx).Gently flip the pita using a spatula and bake the other side for 1 more minute or so. After couple of pitas on skillet, I used baking sheet to speed up the process and that worked well too.
• Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.  Repeat with the remaining pitas.
• Stuff with your favorite stuffing and enjoy.