Ladi Pav

Pav-Bhaji, Misal-Pav, Masala-Pav, Vada-Pav and the ever so humble Maska-Pav with chai are an all time favorite. a person who has grown up in Bombay (now Mumbai) will easily identify with all these yummy delicacies.

After moving to the US, I tried and made these things at home - but, never got the Pav taste ever. The burger buns never did justice to the dishes. The closest to our Mumbai Ladi-Pav were the potato rolls and then the kaiser rolls.

I started reading and then stumbled upon a recipe for ladi-pav on various blogs - many blogs had this same recipe. I do not remember which blog I had picked this recipe from (sorry) and hence cannot give direct credit to the person - but would like to reiterate - this is not my original recipe and it is something that I had noted down from the internet a couple of years ago.

Yup, a few years ago I used to write down recipes from blogs and have a book made of recipes from the internet/blogs - sadly, I never noted the source. But, now after I started a blog of my own..... I know the importance of noting the source and have been doing so whenever i bookmark a recipe.

Well, this recipe yielded the taste of home (Mumbai) ladi-pav and has been a favorite at home. Street food of Mumbai became famous again in our small home in the US :)

Ingredients

• 3 cups of All purpose flour / Bread flour
• more flour for dusting while kneading
• 2 & 1/4 tsp of dry active yeast (1 packet)
• 2 tsp of sugar
• 1/4 cup luke warm water
• 3 tbsp butter
• 1 & 1/4 cup milk
• Some more to glaze the pavs before baking
• 1/2 tsp of salt

Method

Add the sugar and yeast to luke warm water and stir well. Keep it aside in a warm place to get the yeast proofed (to froth) - this should take about 10 to 15 minutes. If the yeast does not froth, then discard this mixture and try again.

Melt the butter and add warm milk to it. Mix this well and let it come to room temperature. add this mixture along with salt to the fermented yeast mixture. Add the flour, 1 cup at a time to this mixture to form a sticky dough.

Dust a clean surface with some generous amount of flour and knead the dough for about 10 minutes till it becomes soft and smooth. Put this dough into a large bowl and cover with a plastic wrap and let it rise in warm and dry place for about an hour. Once the dough has doubled, punch it to remove all the extra air and knead it again very well. Divide the dough into 16 equal parts and roll each part into a smooth ball.

Grease a baking dish (I used a square cake dish) with oil and place these dough balls into the dish about 1/2 inch apart. Cover with a plastic wrap and let them stand for about 1 hour for a second raise. Once the dough rises, you will see that the dough balls have doubled in size and are sticking to each other. Glaze the tops of these pavs with some milk that is brushed gently - this is to give it a nice shine. You can do this glaze with eggs too.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and bake the pavs for about 25-30 minutes.

Once done, let it cook and then pull it apart to get individual pavs. Relish with bhaji, vada, maska or just dip it in tea and enjoy the yummy softness.