Stuffed Pav Bhaji Rolls-Indianized Hokkaido bread

People who love to eat, are always the best people!! Julia Child

Coming from a Sikh family, cooking and eating has been an integral part way of our lives. At breakfast, we discuss lunch and at lunch we settle on our dinner menu, everyday! Growing up in a foodie family and then getting married to an equally food loving family has made a non cook/baker like me to experiment and enjoy food. In fact, that is precisely the reason me and Vishal started this blog, because of our love to experiment, invent and share food. We have just completed one beautiful year of blogging and look forward to further grow our passion of learning and sharing food through this amazing medium.

Through blogging we got the opportunity to virtually meet and learn from some wonderful fellow passionate foodies. One such group of amazing bakers are the 'We Knead to Bake' and I am so glad to be part of this extremely talented group. The bread bake for this month is Hokkaido Milk bread with Tangzhong.

This technique of bread baking uses an ingredient called Tangzhong which is made by cooking flour with 5 times water at 65 degrees Celsius to form a roux. It is said that at 65 degrees, the gluten in the flour mixture will absorb the moisture creating a leavening action. This Tangzhong when added with other ingredients of bread produces extremely soft, tender and fluffy bread.  

This is a very versatile recipe and can be easily adapted to make/shape any sort of bread with amazingly soft results.

Pavs-9 regular sized 

Ingredients: I halved the original recipe adapted from Kirbie's Cravings, original recipe from 65 Degrees Tangzhong “65C Bread Doctor” by Yvonne Chen

Tangzhong - Flour water Roux

• 5 tbsp All purpose flour
• 4 tbsp water
• 4 tbsp milk

Bread dough 

• 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tbsp sugar, powdered
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp powdered milk
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tbsp cream
• 1 tsp Instant yeast 
• 5 tbsp Tangzhong 
• 1 tbsp butter, softened

Procedure:

Tangzhong
Whisk together flour, water and milk in a saucepan. Place on a stove over medium heat and let it cook till it starts thickening while stirring continuously. Cook till it reaches 65 degrees Celsius or else till you see lines forming in this mixture (roux). Remove from heat and let it cool completely for 2-3 hours.

Bread dough 
Mix flour, salt, sugar, powdered milk and instant yeast in a bowl and mix well. 
Mix milk, cream and Tangzhong in another bowl, till smooth.
Add the milk Tangzhong mixture to the flour mixture and process on low speed using a  food processor/hand mixer with dough hooks till the dough comes together or else knead with hands for 10 mins.
Add butter and process till the dough is smooth and elastic. 
The dough can be sticky to begin with but will become smooth if you keep kneading (Tons of patience required to not add any more flour)
Form the dough in a ball and keep in a well oiled bowl, coating all sides. 
Cover with a damp muslin cloth and let it rise in a warm place  for an hour or till it gets double in size.
Pinch 9 equal sized balls from the dough. 
Roll each about the size of your palm and spread some garlic chutney and some Bhaji as filling. Seal the edges and give a round shape to the stuffed dough.

Place the dough balls in a well oiled square tin.

 
(You may skip the stuffing step if you want to make just the Pav buns.)
Cover with a damp muslin cloth and let it rise for another hour.
Preheat oven to 170 degree Celsius.
Brush the tops of the bread with milk cream mixture or just milk.

Bake for 20-25 mins or till the tops are browned well. 

Bhaji

Ingredients:

• 2 medium sized Potatoes, boiled and mashed
• 1/2 medium sized Green capsicum, chopped
• 1/2 cup green peas, boiled
• 1/4 cup little florets of Cauliflower
• 1 small carrot, chopped
• 2 medium sized Tomatoes, blanched in hot water, skin removed and pureed
• 2 spring onions, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• salt to taste
• 1 tsp cumin seeds/jeera
• 1 tbsp Pav Bhaji masala
• 1 tsp red chilli powder 
• Juice of a lemon  
• few drops of orange red food colouring

Procedure :

Take 2-3 tbsp oil in a deep pan/kadhai , add 1 tsp of cumin seeds and as it browns add onions. 

Add ginger garlic paste. Let it cook for a while. 

Add chopped cauliflower, carrot and capsicum. Let it cook for 4-5 mins. 

Add peas and tomato puree. 

Mix well and add mashed potatoes. 

Add salt, red chilli powder and Pav bhaji masala.

Mix lemon juice.

Using a masher, mash all the veggies well.

Let it cook till all the veggies are mashed and the bhaji has thickened. 

Add food colour to your liking or avoid this step.

Check the seasoning and adjust to your liking.

Garnish with spring onions.

Garlic Chutney

Ingredients:

• 3-4 dried red chillies, deseeded
• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• 10-12 garlic pods
• salt to taste

Procedure:

Soak dried red chillies in white vinegar for 1 hour. 

Remove and grind with garlic and salt to a fine paste. 

Add some water to give chutney consistency. 

 

This method of bread making is surely a keeper with  the bread being remarkably soft. The bread is as soft as my Cheesy chicken stuffed braided bread which uses the scalded flour method. Personally I liked both the methods as they have yielded super soft bread.

The choice to shape this bread dough in endless and it can be easily used to try your hands on any bread bake.

 

This recipe is getting Yeastspotted and is being sent to Bake fest#17 brainchild of Vardhini, What's with my cuppa brainchild of Nupur,
Kid’s Delight Event brainchild of Srivalli , Foodabulous Fest Event organised by Simply TADKA,

Happy Modern Pav Bhaji Experience
Amrita