Corona Virus has kind of taken over the World. We have been in quarantine for 15 days now. I have stepped outside the house only to go to the backyard or to walk to the post box.
Well, quarantine has its fun times too. As movie lovers, this is the time we are catching up on tons of movies. Weekdays are still quiet busy for the hubby and the baby as they both have work and school respectively. However, weekends are filled with movies and lots of popcorn.
Yesterday we watched this cute Netflix Original movie called 'Maska'. Maska means butter in Hindi. The movie is a lighthearted coming of age story centered around a century old Irani Cafe. These cafes were a hightlight of South Mumbai. Not many exist now, but a few that do still serve this amazing bun maska with Irani chai and a lot of other goodies. These cafes are owned and run by people belonging to the Parsi community in India.
I was watching the movie, but wa secretly salivating thinking about Bun Maska and Irani Chai.
So, today morning - woke up and got this bun started and waited with eager breath for it to be baked.
Yum Yum Goodness.
Ingredients
1/2 cup lukewarm water
3 tablespoons sugar
2 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast (1 packet)
4 tablespoons butter (melted)
1 cup lukewarm milk
3 1/2 cups Bread Flour or All Purpose Flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 tutti fruti or raisins
2 tablespoons milk (to brush the tops)
oil for coating the dough
Method
in a stand mixer add the water, sugar and yeast. Let the yeast bloom for 5 to 0 minutes. Now add the milk, salt, butter and flour. Mix it at a very slow speed till everything is intergrated. Once integrated, inscrease the speed and let the mixer knead the dough. If the mixture looks too wet, add 1 tablespoon flour at a time to get a soft dough. Knead the dough for about 10 to 12 minutes. This can be done by hand too and believe me when I say, its a very theraputic experience. At the end, add the raisins or tutti fruti and mix well.
Once done, coat the dough with oil and let it rest covered in a warm dry place. In about an hour or hour and half (depending on the heat and humidity of the place) the dough would rise in volume, almost double. Now get it out and give it a nice punch to get all the air out. punch and knead for about 3 to 4 minutes. Now grease a 9X13 cake pan with oil. Make 15 small rounds of the dough. Make smooth rounds and place them in the pan with space in between. Cover and let it sit in a warm place. About 45 minutes or an hour later, the dough would have risen. Prheat the oven to 380 degrees farenhite. Take a brush and brush the tops very softly with the milk. Be very careful, as you do not want to get any of the air out and deflate the dough.
Bake it in the oven for 15 minutes. The tops should look nice and golden brown and when you tap it, it should be hard and sound hollow. Get it out of the oven and let it cook. After 15 minutes, remove it on a cooling rack. Seperate the buns. Cut it int he middle and slater with some yummy butter (maska) and relish the yummy goodness.
If you want it to be a bit sweeter. After the first raise, add some sugar to it before kneading and shaping it into pavs.
This maska pav with Irani chai is like heaven in your mouth. Took me back to the Irani Cafes.
