Buns Archives - Dees Platter

Garlic knots

Garlic knots are best during the chilled winter season with your morning or evening tea, and are not something very complicated to bake. Garlic knots is just a fancy name for garlic rolls as instead of giving the dough shape of normal buns, we turn them into the shape of knots. They make for attractive snacks when guests come visiting!

You must be wondering that during this Deepawali festive atmosphere why I am posting garlic knots recipe instead of some traditional sweets?

The reason is that finally after one and a half months my OTG got repaired and I was very eager to bake. First I baked White Sandwich Bread(3) to test the oven and then I decided to bake garlic knots as slowly winter is creeping in. To flavor these buns you can buy garlic butter, but it is very easy to prepare that at home also. Peel a few garlic pods, crush them and sauté with butter. Garlic butter is ready. If using unsalted butter, add salt, and to make it more flavored, add mixed pizza spices. If you are calorie conscious, instead of butter, sauté garlic in olive oil.

You can also check a few more posts on baked snacks in the blog…

Baked Snacks

You can check Basics of baking – bread/buns/rolls (Wheat flour buns with pizza spices-2) for a few tips on baking bread.

Ingredients:

White flour (maida) 1+ 3/4 cup
Milk powder 1/4 cup
Salt 1 tsp
Sugar 1 tbsp
Instant active yeast 3/4 tsp
Water 1/2 cup (can increase or reduce if required)
Butter/oil 2 tbsp
Pizza spices 1/2-1 tbsp (optional)
Garlic butter

Few more tips to follow:

All ingredients, other than water, should be at room temperature.
The temperature of the water should be slightly more than lukewarm but not hot.
Milk powder is added to keep the knots soft. If you are not interested in adding milk powder, omit it and add white flour in the same quantity as milk powder.
Instead of water, dough can be kneaded with milk too.
Instead of white flour, wheat flour can be used, but increase the quantity of water while kneading as wheat flour requires more moisture.
If using dry active yeast, increase the quantity to 1 tsp – and remember, dry active yeast has to be bloomed first before adding in the flour.

Process :

Collect all dry ingredients in a big broad vessel.

Start adding water and collect all ingredients in the shape of dough and knead it for 12-15 minutes. Initially, dough will be wet but kneading will make it smooth. Keep adding butter while kneading and mix it nicely into the dough.

Keep this dough in a big oil/butter greased bowl for first proofing. Brush up the top of the dough with melted butter. Cover the bowl with cling film or a wet clean kitchen towel and keep in a warm place so that the dough rises till it is double in the volume. This process might take 60 to 90 minutes, depending on how hot or cold the kitchen temperature is.

After first proofing, gently punch it to knock out the air.

Dust kitchen counter with some flour and knead the dough just to make it smooth. Roll the dough in the shape of a log and cut it for equal sized knots. You can use weighing scale to get exact measurement. Roll these rolls in same length and give them a knot shape. Remember, after tying the knot join both the open edges by pinching them tightly at the bottom. Keep them in an oil greased baking tray, leaving some distance between each because they are going to puff up nicely. Apply some melted butter on them to avoid drying, cover them, and keep them for second proofing.

The second proofing gets over in 20 to 30 minutes. Preheat oven at 180 degrees, ten minutes before second proofing ends.

Brush knots with garlic butter generously and bake them at 180-185 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or till they are nicely brown on the top and bounce back when pressed. After baking again brush them with garlic butter and relish with hot tea/coffee.

November 9, 2020October 30, 2021

Deeksha Pathak124 Comments

Bun Maska (Raisin Buns)

What is Bun Maska (Raisin Buns) ? Buns filled with raisins, slightly sweet in taste and served with white butter and whipped cream along with kadak chai ki pyali (a cup of strong tea) – what a combo!! I am sure Mumbaikars are very well aware of what I am talking about. These are Irani Cafe special Maska buns or Bun Maska (Raisin Buns) which are served with tea as a snack option and you are supposed to dip the bun in tea and enjoy them!

A few days back I was watching a movie ‘Maska’ on Netflix. It’s a decent one-time watch movie where mother is insisting her son to continue running their family’s traditional restaurant. I got inspired to bake these Bun Maska from this movie. You can try these buns by mixing wheat flour and white flour both or with wheat flour only. Generally kids are not fond of raisins, so they can be substituted with tutti – frutti.

I have a few other posts on buns in the blog, so if you are interested, can take a look at them also….

Wheat flour savoury buns with caramelized onion and carom seeds

Pull apart buns/Dinner bread rolls

Buns

Burger Buns

Sweet milk buns/brioche buns

Hot dog buns

For a few basic guidelines on baking buns and breads, you can check this link also…

Basics of baking – bread/buns/rolls (Wheat flour buns with pizza spices-2)

Ingredients :

Maida 2 +1/2 cups
Instant active yeast 1+1/4 tsp
Sugar 4 tbsp
Butter 4 tbsp
Raisins 1/4 cup
Water 1 cup minus 2 tbsp (reduce or increase 1-2 tbsp if required)
Milk powder 2 tbsp
Butter and whipped cream for filling

Points to remember :

Other than water all ingredients should be on room temperature. Water should be slightly warmer than lukewarm but not hot.

You can use dry active yeast also, but increase that to 1+1/2 tsp. Bloom dry active yeast first before adding in the flour.

Milk powder cannot be substituted with milk. So, if you don’t have milk powder, simply skip it and add equal amount of flour.

Process :

Combine all dry ingredients in a big vessel.

Start adding water and collect all ingredients in the shape of a dough and knead it for 12-15 minutes. It will be wet and sticky because of extra sugar, but will become smooth as you knead. Keep adding butter while kneading and mix it nicely into the dough.

Keep this dough in a big oil/butter greased bowl for first proofing. Brush up top of the dough with melted butter. Cover the bowl with cling film or wet clean kitchen towel. Keep it in a warm place so that the dough rises till it is double in volume. This process might take 60 to 90 minutes depending on how cold or warm your kitchen is.

After first proofing, take out the dough on clean oil greased or floured kitchen counter and gently punch it.

Spread the dough, add raisins, knead it again to make it smooth and cut equal sized buns from the dough.

Roll these buns smoothly like a ball and keep them in an oil greased baking tray, keeping some distance in between because they are going to puff up nicely. Apply some melted butter on them to avoid drying, cover them and keep them for second proofing.

Second proofing gets over in 20 to 30 minutes. Pre heat oven at 180 degrees ten minutes before second proofing ends.

Brush up buns with milk and bake them at 180-185 degree for 20-25 minutes till they are nicely brown on the top and bounce back when pressed.

Take out golden brown buns and brush them with butter when they are hot.

Bun Muska ( Raisins Bun) will be shiny with the touch of butter and will remain soft longer. Transfer the buns to a cooling rack. During the time buns cool down, whip up the cream and keep it ready.

Once buns cool down completely, slice them from the middle.

Don’t they look beautiful and irresistible with raisins!!

Now apply one layer of white butter followed by whipped cream and cover them.

Once again cut them in three or four slices and serve with tea…

Or without tea and enjoy just like that…..

May 5, 2020October 30, 2021

Deeksha Pathak57 Comments

Burger Buns

There are a few snacks which I can’t have in any restaurant. Burger is one such snack. I know, some of you there just can’t believe it! But it’s true… I can have pizza.. garlic bread is my favourite, potato wedges and I love chocolate shake at Domino’s. But a big no to burger. Actually my husband and daughter both are also not a big fan of burger. So, collectively as a family we three are united with at least one thing…. Lol

Over the years husband and wife start having mutual likes and dislikes of certain things, but if your teenage kid also joins you… maybe over just for a small reason, you feel so happy… or probably you are just lucky!!!

For us burger is that link!!

Still, baking burger buns was in my bucket list for a very long time, but most of the time I ended up baking bread or regular buns/rolls. Sometimes certain simple things take a lot of time to get implemented for no particular reason. We just keep on delaying, not because of being lazy.. but probably something more interesting comes up!

I am pretty sure that anyone who bakes wouldn’t be unaware of King Arthur Flour website. There I had seen burger buns recipe long ago and since then I was determined that one day I will surely try to bake these beautiful buns.

Well, here I didn’t exactly follow their recipe, because I didn’t want to have so many buns with white flour. And moreover I wanted to know how these buns will come up if we use only wheat flour. So I decided to bake with both the flours separately – with wheat flour and white flour, both with two cups of flour for each.

I kept the whole recipe same for both kind of buns except water content because wheat flour absorbs more water than all purpose flour.

What was the difference between wheat flour buns and white flour buns?

All purpose flour is very light and airy, so buns made with this flour got high rise. Whole wheat flour is heavy flour and during baking it didn’t rise as much as all purpose flour.

So to make wheat buns big, we can either add some more yeast, probably 1/8 tsp more or can add samolina/chiroti rava in wheat flour. Rava has a quality to puff up, so along with rava, wheat flour buns will also get high rise. You can also try by adding one egg in wheat flour dough.

Ingredients :

Flour 2 cups +2 tbsp
Milk powder 2 tbsp
Instant active yeast 1/2 tbsp +1/8 tsp
Salt 3/4 tsp
Sugar 1 +1/2 tbsp
Oil /butter 2 tbsp
Water /milk 1 cup +3 tbsp (for wheat flour)
Water/milk 1 cup minus 4 tbsp (for all purpose flour)

Water/milk should be slightly warmer than lukewarm but not hot.

Please go through all the tips before you start the preparation.

Tips:

1. Except water/milk, rest of the ingredients should be used at room temperature.

2. Instead of water, milk can be used to knead the dough. Or you can take both milk and water in 50:50 ratio.

3. Every oven is different – so baking time may vary.

4. Dough proofing time depends a lot on the temperature of your kitchen. In colder temperature first proofing can take 60 to 90 minutes. In warmer temperatures it might get over in 40 to 50 minutes. The same logic will be for second proofing time also.

5. Here we are using a lot more yeast than usual. So if your kitchen temperature is normal, you can keep the dough bowl at kitchen counter only covered with cling film.

6. If you are preparing buns at the same time with both wheat and white flour, then first knead wheat flour dough and after keeping the dough in the bowl, just leave the bowl uncovered on kitchen counter. This way the process of proofing will be slow.

Now after preparing white flour dough in the bowl, cover this bowl with cling wrap. Now you can cover the wheat flour dough bowl also.

This way now both dough will get proofed at the same time and you will be able to do rest of the steps together with both dough.

7. Absorbing liquid quality of flour varies. So don’t follow blindly the quantity of water/milk given in this recipe. If required, add or reduce 1 or 2 tbsp of water.

8. Don’t get discouraged if your first bake is not as good as you had expected. Try to find out the problem, sort it out and with the same excitement, give another trial – you will surely get it!!

Process:

Combine all dry ingredients in a big vessel.

Start adding water/milk and collect all ingredients in the shape of a dough (don’t use whole quantity of water).

Now keep adding little quantity of water and start kneading. Consistency of dough would be wet and sticky in the beginning, but slowly by continued kneading for 12-15 minutes will get required elasticity. Add oil/butter along with kneading and mix it nicely into the dough.

Keep this dough in a big oil greased bowl for first proofing. Cover the bowls with cling film or wet kitchen towel and wait till the dough rises and is double in volume. This process might take 60 to 90 minutes (read tip numbers 4 and 6).

In between, keep baking tray ready by greasing it with oil and spreading parchment paper. Parchment paper is optional.

After first proofing, take out the dough on clean oil greased kitchen counter and gently deflate it.

Collect the dough together, knead it slightly to make it smooth and divide the dough in 4 equal parts. Do the same for both dough, so totally you will be having 8 parts.

Again grease kitchen counter with oil or sprinkle some flour. Prepare these equal sized dough parts in smooth buns. Grease your palms with oil while shaping the buns. Keep the buns in prepared tin by keeping sufficient space for each bun to puff up nicely.

Apply oil or melted butter and sprinkle sesame seeds over all buns. Cover this tray with clean kitchen towel and let it rise for second proofing (see tip number 4 & 6).

Just 10 minutes before second proofing time is getting over, preheat oven at 185/190 degrees.

Brush up buns with milk and bake them at the same temperature for 30-40 minutes or till buns become nice brown from the top. As every oven is different so temperature and time may vary.

Take out buns from the oven and keep them on cooling rack. When they are still hot, apply melted butter.

You will be having a happy dance and feeling proud that you really baked your kid’s favourite snack which is completely free from harmful chemicals and preservatives!!

Prepare these gorgeous burger buns with your favourite filling and enjoy your delicious home baked meal!!!!!

I had prepared Indian vegetarian version of filling for these burger buns. I had cooked aloo tikki Aalu ki tikiya(potato patties stuffed with spicy peas) for the filling and used cheese slices ,chutney, tomato sauce and sliced tomatoes, onions, cucumber and shredded cabbage.

And I was so happy that I developed my taste buds for this vegetarian wheat flour home baked burger bun which I had never liked in any restaurant before. Apoorva gave big thumps up and she was very happy to get junk food in her meals. Manish was too excited to taste them when I sent him pictures on Whats App!

Would love to hear from you about this recipe and your experience while baking them. Feel free to ask any doubts through the comments section!!!!

February 28, 2019February 28, 2019

Deeksha Pathak77 Comments

Hot dog buns

When I started learning baking bread, I thought that there are only three varieties of breads which are common and popular ……sandwich bread, pav buns/dinner rolls and pizza bread. But as we start learning one thing, we become greedy to know more. Slowly I got introduced to a lot more varieties in breads.

But to keep it simple, we can actually create a lot more varieties through these three types of bread only — sandwich, buns and pizza.

Buns are kind of tiny round shaped bread. I love baking them the most. Just change their shapes and flavors and give them different titles.

Through pizza base basic recipe, do slight changes and create different varieties. Here you have a freedom to add different veggies, sauce and herbs.

The most popular and forgiving is White Sandwich Bread. Unlimited variations can be created with sandwich bread recipe.

Hot dog bun is also a kind of small size rectangular bread. It is named as ‘bun’ probably because instead of slicing it like bread, it has filling in between like burger buns. Whatever you call it, hot dog bun or hot dog bread… it is a wonderful stomach filling snack!!

But hot dog bun is still a fancy variety of bread in India. You wouldn’t find them in local bakeries too. But nowadays courtesy social media, kids have a lot of exposure to different things. They definitely know about hot dog buns. So why not bake this fancy bread at home and give a pleasant surprise to your kids in the evening!!!

I have taken the recipe of Pull apart buns/Dinner bread rolls here to bake hot dog buns. I got total 11 buns from this recipe. But if you want slightly bigger sized buns, divide the dough only in 8-9 buns… choice is all yours!!

I have used all purpose flour here but for a healthy version wheat flour or 50:50 ratio of wheat flour and all purpose flour can be taken. You can follow the same recipe if using wheat flour or mixed flour – just have to increase the quantity of water/milk for kneading as wheat flour absorbs more liquid.

Please don’t forget to go through the whole list of tips before proceeding with the process of baking. I have a separate post for some guidelines on bread/buns baking. You can check that also…. Wheat flour buns with pizza spices (2) (basic tips to follow if following a bread /buns recipe)

Tips:

1. Except water/milk, rest of the ingredients should be used at room temperature.

2. Instead of water, milk can be used to knead the dough. Or you can take both milk and water in 50:50 ratio.

3. Every oven is different – so baking time may vary.

5. Absorbing liquid quality of flour varies. So don’t follow blindly the quantity of water /milk given in this recipe. If required, add or reduce 1 or 2 tbsp of water.

6. Don’t compare the result of homebaked bread with any market bought bread. We are not adding any artificial gluten, emulsifier or bread enhancer. We are trying to bake a healthy bread loaf for our family which is free from preservatives.

7. Don’t get discouraged if your first bake is not as good as you had expected. Try to find out the problem, sort it out and with the same excitement, give another trial, you will surely get it!!

Ingredients :

All purpose flour /maida 3+3/4 cup
Instant active yeast 1+1/2 tsp (Gloripan brand)

Milk powder 1/4 cup

Salt 1+1/2 tsp
Sugar 1+1/2 tbsp
Oil/butter 3 tbsp
Water/ milk 1+1//2 cup minus 2 tbsp (slightly warmer than lukewarm but not hot)

Process:

Combine all dry ingrediants in a big vessel.

Start adding water/milk and collect all ingredients in shape of a dough (don’t use whole quantity of water).

Keep this dough in a big oil greased bowl for first proofing. Cover the bowl with cling film and keep it in a warm place so that the dough rises till it is double in volume. This process might take 60 to 90 minutes.

After first proofing, take out the dough on clean oil greased kitchen counter and gently deflate it.

Collect the dough together, knead slightly it to make it smooth and divide the dough in 11 equal parts.

Again grease kitchen counter with oil or sprinkle some flour. Roll these equal sized dough parts in smooth rectangular shaped buns. Spread the buns about 6 by 4 size.

Roll the bun from the top exactly the way we roll bread.

Seam the edges tight by pinching them. Prepare all the rolls in the same way.

Keeping this seam side at the bottom, place them in your butter/oil greased tin by keeping some gap between each bun.

Brush these buns with oil and keep them covered at a warm place for second proofing. Second proofing will be over in 20-30 minutes. If weather is cold it might take slightly more time.

Just before second proofing time is getting over, preheat oven at 185 degrees. Brush-up buns with milk and bake them at the same temperature till they are nicely brown.

Take out the buns from the oven and keep them on a cooling rack. Apply butter evenly on hot buns. This will be helpful in keeping the buns soft and buns will get nice sheen.

Prepare filling of your choice. I finely chopped onion, cucumber, tomato and cabbage, added salt, pepper crushed paneer, dry mint powder and mix with Coriander Chutneyand tomato sauce. It was delicious vegetarian filling.

Instead of paneer… cheese and boiled potatoes with mustard sauce and oregano flakes can be added. Choices are unlimited!!!!

I am sure some of you are definitely planning to give your kiddo’s a wonderful delicious surprise.. don’t forget to share your experience with us. I would love to here from you about this post and your baking experience ❤️❤️

February 17, 2019October 7, 2019

Deeksha Pathak46 Comments

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 !!

November 21, 2018August 17, 2019

Deeksha Pathak20 Comments

Sweet milk brioche buns

Sweet milk brioche buns are kid’s delight, though in my house I never bought sweet buns. We are more inclined towards plain or savoury buns. My daughter Apoorva also prefers savoury ones more but when she tasted home-baked sweet milk brioche buns with milk, she too liked them! That’s the magic of home-baked fresh stuff!!

These brioche buns are enriched with lots of butter, sugar and milk. Very light, buttery, fluffy and balanced delicious sweetness; you just can’t stop with one!!

You can bake sweet buns for your little one’s birthday party by adding tutti frutti in them and pack them in return gift basket.

Brioche buns can be done with wheat flour also – the only change would be to increase the quantity of milk as wheat flour absorbs more liquid.

Get few more tips on bread/ buns baking in a seprate post from the blogWheat flour buns with pizza spices (2) (basic tips to follow if following a bread /buns recipe)

Ingredients:

Maida (all purpose flour) 2 cups
Milk powder 1 tbsp
Salt 1/2 tsp
Sugar 3 tbsp
Instant active yeast 3/4 tsp (if using dry active yeast the quantity would be 1 +1/4 tsp and you will have to bloom it before using)
Milk 1 cup minus 6tbsp (slightly warmer than lukewarm)
Butter 3 tbsp

(All ingredients except milk should be at room temperature)

Process :

Combine all dry ingredients in a big vessel.

Start adding milk and collect all ingredients in shape of a dough and knead it for 12-15 minutes. It will be wet dough but slowly by kneading it will become smooth. Keep adding butter while kneading and mix it nicely into the dough.

Keep this dough in a big oil/butter greased bowl for first proofing. Brush up top of the dough with melted butter. Cover the bowl with cling film or wet clean kitchen towel, keep it in a warm place so that the dough rises till it is double in volume. This process might take 60 to 90 minutes depending on the cold or hot temperature of your kitchen.

After first proofing, take out the dough on clean oil greased kitchen counter and gently punch it.

Knead it again to make it smooth and cut equal size buns from the dough.

Keep greasing your palms with oil/butter to roll these buns smoothly like a ball between your palms and keep them in an oil greased baking tray, keeping some distance in between because they are going to puff up nicely. Apply some melted butter on them to avoid drying, cover them and keep them for second proofing.