Wheat flour savoury buns with caramelized onion and carom seeds

Wheat flour savoury buns are welcome any time in my house! I can have them with breakfast, with evening tea or any time of the day and you can pack them in your kid’s lunch box. If you are having  friends get together, serving them fresh baked savoury buns will get you lots of applauds. These were such an instant hit in my house that I couldn’t take a decent picture, so I baked again the very next day!

With wheat flour I have added milk powder here to keep the buns soft, but if you don’t have milk powder, add all purpose flour or semolina in the same quantity as milk powder.

Ingredients :

Wheat flour        2+1/4 cups
Milk powder       1 +1/2 tbsp
Salt                       1+1/2 tsp
Sugar                   2 tsp
Instant active yeast 1 tsp
Oil                          2 tbsp
Water (slightly more than lukewarm) 1 cup +1 tbsp (if required, reduce or increase as per the absorbing quality of your flour)
Carom seeds        1 tsp
One medium onion (chopped)
One chopped green chilli

Tips:

All ingredients except water should be at room temperature.

Instead of water, milk can be used for kneading the dough or a mix of half milk and half water.

During the baking period when buns are becoming brown, you can give a quick second coat of milk wash and continue baking till they are done. This second coat of milk wash will give beautiful brown colour and buns will remain soft.

These buns can be done with all purpose flour also. All ingredients will remain same except water quantity would be less.

I have used instant active yeast, but if you are using dry active yeast increase the quantity from 1 tsp to 1/2 tsp more.

During second proofing, don’t let the buns get overproofed, otherwise instead of rising in the oven, buns will sink.

for more tips on bread/ buns baking you can check the following link Wheat flour buns with pizza spices (2) (basic tips to follow if following a bread /buns recipe)

Process :

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and add carom seeds to crackle. Add chopped onion and green chilli and saute them until onions get beautiful caramelized brown colour. Keep it separated to cool down.

Collect all dry ingredients in a big vessel and add ready caramelized onion.

Start adding water little by little and collect all ingredients in the shape of the dough. Now add one tbsp water at a time and start kneading the dough. Dough would be wet but manageable. Keep adding oil in between 15-20 minutes of kneading and prepare soft dough.

Keep the dough in a big oil greased bowl, brush up the top of the dough too with oil to avoid it drying. Cover the bowl with a wet towel or cling wrap it and keep it at a warm place for first proofing (i.e., doubling the size of the dough). First proofing gets over within one hour to 90 minutes depending on the temperature of your kitchen (cold temperature will result in proofing taking longer).

After first proofing is over, take out the dough and punch it gently on your neat oil greased kitchen counter.

Collect the dough together and divide it equally for same size buns.

Roll the buns smooth by greasing your palms with oil in between and place them in an oil greased baking pan/plate. Brush up buns with oil, cover them and keep them for second proofing. Second proofing gets over in 20 minutes to 30 minutes.

Start preheating your oven at 190 degrees just 10 minutes before proofing time is getting over. Brush up buns with milk and bake them at 185 degrees for 20-30 minutes or till they are nicely brown.

When these buns were getting brown colour, I gave them a quick second coat of milk wash and continued baking till they were completely baked. Buns came out with beautiful brown colour and were very soft.

Apply butter on hot buns and serve with tea/coffee, sauce or enjoy them just like that !!