Khara bun

A very happy New Year to all my blogging friends. Our trip to Bangalore was short & sweet with both the little ones enjoying it to their best. But for us the most shocking experience was, the soaring prices of basic amenities. On the last day of our trip, we went out to an Iyengar bakery near our home. We relished on some Yummy vegetable puffs & palya buns. It was after a long time with lot of courage we ventured to eat out. Thatz when the idea of baking Khara buns stuck to me.

I'd a recipe from the blogging World readily available. I've so many new recipes in hand these days that I just have no time to try them. But taking it up as a challenge to get back to pre-parenting days to start blogging again. One of the recipes for Khara bun I came across was while Face booking :) LG posted it some time back; was very much determined to try it. Sunday was a gloomy day here & was some how trying to squeeze in time to prepare the buns. AmAr looked after all the routine cooking for the day & let me indulge myself into baking the buns.

LG's recipe using the bread machine is here. I don't have one. So I followed the recipe as LG suggested from her friend's blog. LG, believe me I would love to try the combination of Congress with the bun. I'll surely make Congress some other day.

Ingredients: -

For the dough: -

1 1/2 cups Maida

1 1/2 tsp active dried Yeast

1/4 cup Milk + 1 tbsp Milk, to brush the buns

1/2 cup Water

1 1/2 tsp Sugar

3 tbsp Ghee (2 tbsp for the dough preparation & 1 tbsp for brushing the buns after baking)

Salt

1 tsp Sesame seeds, Poppy seeds or Mustard seeds (The recipe says optional),to sprinkle over the buns

For Masala: -

a pinch Asafoetida

1 tsp Cumin seeds

1 tsp Mustard seeds

3/4 cup finely chopped Onion

4 Green chilies, finely chopped

Curry leaves, finely chopped

Coriander leaves, finely chopped

Salt

Oil

Method: -

1. Mix water & milk & microwave till Luke warm.

2. Blend in sugar & yeast to the luke warm milk. Set it aside for 10 - 15 minutes till the milk mixture becomes frothy. The yeast activates.

3. In a mixing bowl add 2 tbsp of ghee first, then 1 ½ cups of maida, salt & the activted yeast mixture.

4. Knead the dough. I used a hand kneader. Check the dough.

5. Add the other ½ cup of dough & adjust the dough. It should be little sticky.

6. Scrape the dough out of the bowl on to a clean working area.

7. Knead the dough by adding maida as required to make it non-sticky.

8. Make small pit in the center of the dough & place the Onion mixture.

9. Knead well so that the masala incorporates evenly into the dough.

10. Keep the dough covered in a warm place or in a sunny spot for a minimum of 2 hours. The dough doubles in quantity.

11. Punch the dough down & knead well.

12. Pre-heat the oven for around 10 minutes at 180 Deg C. I used the fan setting for both pre-13. heating & baking rather than using the broil setting.

14. Divide the dough into equal portions.

15. Give each portion a bun shape & place it on a butter paper (on a baking tray).

16. Using a pastry brush, brush each portion with Milk for the browning reaction / Maillard reaction.

17. Sprinkle Sesame seeds, Poppy seeds or Mustard seeds on each portion. Pumpkin seeds can also be used.

18. Place the baking tray into the oven & let the buns bake for 20 - 30 minutes.

19. Once the buns turn golden brown, remove from the oven & brush each one with the remaining table spoon of ghee. The recipe says, this is done to retain the color, smell & soft crust.

20. Serve warm or cold.

Onion Masala preparation: -

1. In a hot pan add 2 tsp of Oil.

2. Add a pinch of asafoetida & mustard seeds. Once the mustard seeds begin to crackle, add curry leaves, green chilies & turmeric. Roast for a few seconds.

3. Add finely chopped onion & little salt. Saute till the onion becomes transparent.

4. Remove from fire & garnish with finely chopped coriander & keep aside for cooling.