Try this easy pao recipe at home. (Chef Vineet Bhatia/Instagram;designed by Gargi Singh)

Baking and cooking have become fairly common these days with many people experimenting with their culinary skills during the lockdown. But it can come extremely handy when you run out of something and have the option of making things from scratch. So ready for one such recipe? Here’s chef Vineet Bhatia showing us how to make a simple pav bread or pav, which is popular across Maharashtra. What caught our attention was that the simple eggless recipe can be made in both an oven and a cooker.

The pav can then be enjoyed for snacks like vada pao, tikki or even a pao burger with a cup of tea.

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

300g – Atta or whole wheat flour
60g – Maida or plain flour (that gives gluten which bread leaves)
1/2tbsp – Salt
1tbsp – Sugar
1/2tbsp – Yeast or 2tbsp yogurt and a sachet of Eno
1/2 cup + 1 cup + 1/2 cup – Warm water
1tbsp – Oil

Method

*For activating the yeast, mix sugar, yeast and warm water for 10-15 minutes. If you don’t have yeast at home, you can add yogurt and a sachet of Eno to make it fluffy and light. In a warmer area, yeast will rise faster.

For the dough

*In a bowl, add atta, maida, salt and oil. Add the yeast and another cup of warm water to the mix. Start mixing the dough together. Add half cup of water. Make a soft dough. Put a little oil on top and cover the dough with a wet, clean cloth. Leave it for 30 minutes.

*Once the dough aerates, take it out and pour some more oil on it. Fold the dough but don’t overwork it. Cut into small portions.

*In a tin, add some oil. Rub the oil on the base and the edges. Sprinkle some flour on it to avoid sticking. In an anti-clockwise direction, make roundels. Cover the roundels in the tin for 30 minutes.

*In a pre-heated oven, after milk wash, place the tin at 175 degree centigrade for 20-25 minutes.

*Alternatively, you can also make in a cooker. In a pre-warmed cooker, put a ring/cake tin/stand or put a layer of salt. Insert the cake tin. Put on high heat for two-three minutes and after that on a low flame for 20 minutes.

After it is cooked, remove it and put a littlebutter on top. Let it rest for five minutes. Run sharp knife on the edges after the rest period. And it is ready.

Would you like to try?