Homemade Pav Buns ~ Tangzong Method

Published: Apr 12, 2015 · Modified: Oct 5, 2020 by Srivalli · 24 Comments

We are starting the third week of the Mega BM, themed on Baking. Focus for this week will be yeasted bakes. I have mostly tried plain buns with some finger foods that caught everybody's attention. While kids love cakes, I prefer savory bakes. Especially if it's spiced, salted breads.

One of the highlight of our BM#50 Anniversary Meet we had in Madras, was Homemade Pav, prepared by Gayathri. I was almost looking forward to see her bake it. While I did catch her in action most of the initial kneading process, I missed her baking it.

Then we had enjoyed these soft as a pillow pavs with Tonak. It was such a delicious combination. Infact the pavs were so good as such. While I couldn't wait to bake it myself, I had to longingly admire everybody trying their hands with this recipe.

I have a recipe for Pav, that works pretty good. However, the browning was always a problem with mine. This recipe got me such beautifully browned tops. I fell in love with how this looked and before I could even think much, the buns disappeared. So there was no question of making bhaji for this.

Homemade Pav Buns ~ Tangzong Method

Makes 15 Buns

Ingredients Needed:

For The Tangzhong:

All Purpose Flour - 1/6 cup (2 tbsp + 2 tsp)

Milk - 1/2 cup

For The Dough:

All Purpose Flour - 2 1/2 cups

Sugar - 3 1/2 tbsp

Salt -1 tsp

Curd / Yoghurt - 1/4 cup

Baking Soda - a pinch

Milk Powder - 1 & 1/2 tbsp

Instant Yeast - 2 tsp

Butter - 3 tbsp

How to make the Pav Buns

For the Tangzhong:

In a sauce pan, mix flour and milk. Whisk until you get a lump free mixture.

Keep it on stove and keep on stirring until the mixture turns into a clumpy dough.

Remove from flame, beat till you get a good smooth paste, then cover with a cling wrap. Ensure that the cling wrap touches the surface of the tangzhong.

Keep it aside.

To make the dough for the Pav:

Mix curd and a pinch of baking soda. Whisk and keep it aside. It would bubble up.

In a wide bowl add flour, salt, sugar and instant yeast. Add the prepared tangzhong and curd to the flour, add about 1/2 cup of water and make a soft sticky dough.

Add butter and knead until the butter gets incorporated well.

Transfer the dough to the counter and knead continuously for 10 minutes. The dough should pass the window pane test.

Take a small piece of dough and stretch into a thin square. If you are able to stretch without breaking, kneading is enough, else again continue kneading. The dough should be thin enough to pass light through it. This is mostly done by 10 -15 mins

Roll the dough into a ball. Grease a bowl with oil, place the dough into it and slightly rotate to coat the dough with oil. Cover with cling wrap and set it aside for 1 hour.

The dough should double in size. This can be checked by pressing with your index finger, if the impression bounces back, you need to proof it for some more time. Else if the dent stays, you can proceed to next step.

Punch down dough and roll it into a thin disc. Cut it into 4 equal parts. Slice each portion into 5 equal parts. Now roll each portion into a tight ball.

Place all the rolls in a 12″ * 9″ greased tray. Cover with cling wrap and allow them to double in size.

Meanwhile preheat oven to 175C. By now the dough would have risen well. Brush the top of bread with milk and bake it for 20-25 minutes.

Remove from oven and brush the buns with butter. When you can handle it with hand, remove it from the tin and place on a wire rack and allow it to cool completely.

Enjoy as such or serve it with Bhaji

An InLinkz Link-up

Recipe

Print Pin