Ladi Pav or Pav as it is called in India are soft, spongy eggless dinner rolls or slider buns eaten with a variety of Indian street food like pav-bhaji, vada-pav, dabeli, burger, or all by itself, smeared in butter with a cup of masala chai.
These Ladi Pav are super-soft, pillowy, spongy, melt-in-the-mouth treats. I made it to eat it with Pav bhaji.
I have tried several recipes but this one is by far the best. The inspiration from this recipe comes from the talented Yaman from cookingshooking.com.
Ladi is a Hindi word and it literally means a chain or a string of something. The way this bread is baked by putting the dough balls alongside each other makes it into a slab or chain of joined breads, which is then taken apart using hands when consuming.
In these Corona times, since we are not going out for almost a month to get groceries from outside, and also limit the online orders to non-perishable goods which can be disinfected, I made a batch of pav one day to eat it with pav-bhaji. Everyone at home loved it and it was gone in no time. I had clicked a picture and put it on my social media and got many requests to share the recipe. hence the very next day – today – I made a double batch to try it out again, and then put it on my blog.
So here goes. I highly recommend if you are more than a family of 4, make a double batch. You will have some leftovers but you won’t regret having those the next day. In the recipe card below, there is a way to show ingredients for double the batch with the slide of a button next to ‘Servings’.
Note: 1 batch makes 16 small Pavs. Instead, you can make 12 medium sized ones.
Ladi Pav | Soft, Eggless Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
- 2 cups All-purpose flour / Maida + 2-3 tablespoons for dusting
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 ½ tablespoon Milk powder Also called dry milk
- 4 teaspoons Butter + ¼ teaspoon for brushing on Pav
- ¾ cup Milk + 1 tablespoon for brushing on Pav
- 2 teaspoons Yeast I used active dry yeast, you can use any kind
- 1 tablespoon Sugar
Instructions
- Prepare the yeast mixture.Warm ¾ cup of Milk. Make sure it's warm, not hot. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar and quickly dissolve it. Add 2 teaspoons of yeast. Keep it aside for 10 minutes. The yeast should bloom and this mixture will rise in 10 minutes.
- Mix flour, salt, dry milk powder, yeast mixture.Take 2 cups of flour in a bowl. Add salt, dry milk powder. Mix well. Make a well and add the above yeast mixture once it's ready.
- Form a dough, add butter, knead the dough for 15 minutes.Form it into a dough either using a stand mixer or by hand. Once the dough comes together, add 4 teaspoons of butter that is at room temperature. Knead the dough for another 15 minutes. The dough will initially be very sticky and wet.It is best to use a stand mixer if you have one. If not continue using hands. But make sure do not add extra flour or else the Pav will not be soft. Please see the note, in case. your dough is not sticky/wet/soft.
- Rest/Prove the dough for 45 minutes.Once the dough has been kneaded for 15 minutes, form a ball, place it into a bowl, brush some oil on the dough as well as on the side-walls of the bowl. Cover it well, making sure it doesn't dry up. Keep it aside for at least 45 minutes to rest. This process is called proofing/proving the dough.
- Form 16 dough balls.After the dough has rested for 45 minutes or more, dust a surface with some flour, put the dough on it, punch and knead it for a minute. After that, cut it into 16 equal pieces using a scraper or a knife. Make these into smooth round balls using palm of hands.
- Place dough balls in a baking tray, cover and leave it for resting/proving again for 45 minutes.Brush the insides of a square or a rectangle baking tray (with raised sides) with few drops of oil. In case you don't have a baking tray, you can also use any oven-safe container. Line the round dough balls in the tray next to each other. Don't squish it, but don't leave space in-between either. That will help the dough to rise vertically instead of sideways. Cover the tray with a damp cloth and let the dough balls rest for 45 minutes.
- Pre-heat the oven to 395 degrees Fahrenheit (about 200 degrees celcius).
- Bake the Pav.Once the dough balls have rested for 45 minutes, brush little milk on top of these. This will help with browning the tops when baking. Once the oven is heated, place the baking tray with the dough balls in the oven. Bake it for 15 minutes, brush some more milk on the top of the bread, bake for another 5 minutes. The bread tops should become brownish, but not too brown or else it will start drying up. To reach that level you may have to reduce or increase the baking time by a few minutes, depending upon the oven. In general, 20 minutes baking time should do the job.
- Remove from oven, brush some butter on top, Enjoy!Once done, take it out of the oven. Brush it with some butter. This will give a nice glow on the bread. After a few minutes, run a knife on the sides of the tray to remove the bread from the tray. Soft out of the oven pav is ready for devouring.
Notes
- I used the Kitchen-aid mxer to make the dough. I highly recommend using a stand-mixer in case you have one.
- Please note that the dough should be sticky and wet initially and after kneading it for 15 minutes, will become tacky and still remain soft. If your dough looks a bit dry/hard to begin with, please add more milk or water, else the pav will not be soft. The dough consistency depends on the flour – each flour brand is different. When I made it recently, the dough felt hard even with the same quantity of ingredients as mentioned in the recipe. Hence, I added more milk and brought it to a soft/wet consistency. The pav came out very nice and soft as a result.
♥ Did you like or try this recipe? If so, I would love to hear from you. Please rate the recipe and leave a comment below. You can also follow me on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook for more delicious posts and recipes. ♥
This Pav goes really well with Pav-bhaji, Vada-pav, Dabeli etc. To tell you a little secret, cut a pav from the middle, add a dollop of Amul butter and it tastes heavenly. You will not be able to stop at one 🙂
Veena wagle
Thank you for a lovely recipe Sonal. I have never tried making ladi pav because its so easily available in mumbai. Thanks to the lockdown and you, i have a new recipe saved on my pinterest board. 🙂 Have posted a picture on your facebook post of the ones i made. Do take a look.
I substituted milk powder with an equal qty mix of milk and water. Wondering if you have tried ladi pav with whole whear flour. Please share a recipe if you can. Thank you once again for an easy recipe.
Eat More Art
Thank you dear Veena. I saw the picture you shared and it was delicious 🙂 Thank you for trying the recipe and sharing it.
I have not yet tried the pav with whole wheat flour. When I do, I’ll share it with you. Happy baking 🙂
Madhu
Your recipe is awsm. Just a small question. Breads r to be baked in microwave option or convention option is used?? Plz give ans.
Eat More Art
Thanks a lot. The bread is baked in the convection oven. Happy baking 🙂
Shweta
In convection mode of microwave did you bake the pav on lower rack or upper rack.. Please let me know
Eat More Art
Hi Shweta, I baked it in the lower rack.
khushbu agarwal
Hey. I followed your recipe and made some pasta yesterday. Followed everything exact but mine didn’t turn out to be very soft. Lil hard from crust and seem it has not risen completely somewhat 80%. 2 things I did- used middle rack as per my otg guidebook and 2nd- there might be a break of 5 min between the timing of 15 min n 5 mins of cooking time in oven (actually I forgot to check in between). Pls help me here it was my 1st baking exp and have no clue on oven tips and cause n effect.
Eat More Art
Hi Khushbu,
Thanks for writing.
The middle rack should not be a problem.
Did you make sure the oven was pre-heated before you put in the pav? Also anything beyond 15 minutes, you might have to keep checking as each oven is different. Lastly, did your yeast bloom well? Did you. measure the ingredients as in the recipe? Was your dough soft? It needs to be soft.
You can share pictures or ask me any other questions on my blog’s Instagram or Facebook page and I can help if need be. Hope it turns out well.
Sarika gandhi
Does instant yeast works same way.since it doesnot require activation do I need to directly add to dough
Sweta goyal
My pav become dense from inside even though I kept the dough aside properly, it rises to double amount. Pav become flatten instead of vertical rise..
Eat More Art
Hi Sweta,
The rising of the dough/pav, softness, etc. is a factor of few things – the ingredients used should be exact as mentioned, the timing, temperature, as well as yeast should not have been expired or ineffective.
Since your dough rose, the yeast seems to be ok.
Did you use exactly the same ingredients in quantities measured? Did you preheat the oven as suggested and also kept the pav in the oven for the time suggested?
Dishna
Hi, wanted to ask you, how much time did you knead the dough in kitchen aid, as I read somewhere that 2 mins of machine mix is equivalent to 10 mins of kneading the dough.
Eat More Art
Hi Dishna, I generally knead it for 12-15 minutes in the stand mixer as well.