Palya bun

Happy New Year!! 

Presenting first ever post for this year - Bakery style palya bun. 

Baking is not that intimidating as it sounds/appears. Right ingredients, right measurements and an oven - you can pretty much get it right. These days I am seeing in cooking shows that a pressure cooker can also be used for baking. Add salt and the plate that comes with the cooker, then take out the gasket and cooker weight from the lid, close, pre heat and bake at high temperature. 

Last year, after my friend’s high recommendation, I added bread machine to my kitchen collection. Now I highly recommend it to others. All you need to do is add all the ingredients and turn on the machine. You’ll get a freshly baked loaf in a matter of hours. It tastes same as store bought ones, plus added advantage of no preservatives. Do consider :)

Moving on, for this recipe I made bread dough two ways. First one from scratch - kneading with hands. Second one from bread machine, using dough setting. Today I’ll give the procedure for making from scratch. Do try and enjoy! May your year be filled with good food! 

Ingredients

Palya

Potato - 3 

Mix veg - 1 cup - I used Costco organic bag 

Onion - 1 small 

Garam masala

Turmeric

Red chili powder

Salt

Peel and pressure cook whole potatoes for 1 whistle in enough water. After the pressure comes down, take out potatoes from water and let it cool a bit. Mash it with hands. 

In a pan, add oil, add mix veg and onion and fry till they are cooked. Add any masala you want, like ginger garlic paste, green chilies, any masala powder. Here I am keeping it simple, I added garam masala, some turmeric and red chili powder. Add boiled and mashed potato, some salt. Mix well. Let it cool. 

Bun (enough for 16 medium sized palya buns)

Butter - 1/4 cup 

Milk - 1 cup

Instant Yeast(Active dry yeast) - 2 and 1/4 tsp

Salt - 1 tsp

Sugar - 2 tbsp

Bread flour/or all purpose flour - 3 and 1/4 cups(*notes)

Measure 1 cup of warm milk, add melted butter(I added this later), add sugar, yeast and let it rest for 6-8 minutes. 

Before

The yeast should foam up. Very important. (My yeast was little old)

After

Add flour(1 cup at a time), salt, and mix with a spoon. After 3 cups if you find the dough to be still sticky, add 1/4 cup at a time. 

The dough should stop being sticky and come together as a ball. It shouldn’t be too dry either. Now knead it nicely for about 10 min. Smear oil in the same bowl. 

Keep the dough inside and let it rest for at least an hour, till the dough doubles up in volume. 

Now take it out on a flat surface. Punch it couple of times till the air is let out. Do a quick knead. Cut this into 16 equal pieces or 12 pieces if you want bigger size. 

Roll each piece with a rolling pin to a small disc. Fill it with potato filling. 

Close it like a paratha ball(or modak) and pinch the edges(using water if needed) to close the ball and tuck it in the bottom, and keep it on a greased tray.  

Let these rolls rest for another 30 minutes. 

They will rise again this time. 

Meanwhile preheat the oven @350 F. Bake the buns for about 20- 30 min. Top should be browned nicely. When you tap on them, you should feel a hard/hollow tap. After you take it out, smear with some butter. Let it cool a bit. Enjoy! 

Recipe Inspiration - “http://www.chefandherkitchen.com/2011/12/khara-buns-savory-bunsiyengar-bakery.html”

Notes - 

• Dough using Bread machine - Followed dough setting instructions and measurements from the manual - I didn’t add egg. The dough was very dry, so I added little water, kneaded it - it was still dry. Perhaps next time I will put 1 and 1/4 milk instead of 1 milk.
• You can either use bread flour or all purpose flour. I personally find bread flour to be denser than all purpose flour, hence I prefer bread flour. All purpose flour gives more airy texture. If you are using all purpose flour, use the same amount given above.  
• Most of the recipes online had water and oil instead of milk and butter. They add water, oil, sugar, salt and yeast. Since I used milk, I didn’t add salt while prepping yeast, not knowing how it’s going to react.  
• Instead of 1 cup milk, you can use 1 cup water and 1/4 cup milk powder. Prep yeast in water, sugar and salt, mix milk powder with flour.  
• If the yeast doesn’t foam up properly, then it is not active. The dough will not rise properly. Discard and redo. 
• My yeast was little old, my dough did not rise properly.