Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Baking Ladi Pav - a beautiful experience



By now you know that I have been venturing into the baking world every now and then to find recipes that would help me improve my skills. On one such trip I came by this beautiful blog and Aparna's ladi pav recipe and the pictures were just too hard to resist. I just had to try it.

Baking pav was not one that I had ever contemplated and this is probably attributable to the ease of access. All I had to do was step out of my home and I could easily get my supply of freshly baked pav. Why then take the trouble of doing it all on your own? Guess you realize the value of things when it is not available. My tastebuds desirous of biting into some fresh pav and homemade bhaji, I decided to give the recipe a try.

I must admit that bread baking is not one that I had ever tried and so was comfortable doing a set of mini pavs first. Also had heard and read a lot on how yeast can play a spoilsport if not handled by experts. The step by step recipe provided the perfect guide and I decided to go on. The recipe suggested 3.5 to 4 cups of flour for 15 beautiful golden pavs. I decided to give it a try with 1 cup and make a batch of mni pavs. To my amazement it was really simple and can't describe in words the aroma of freshly baked pav that filled by home. I was so excited to see the small balls grow in size and merge so perfectly into one another like siamese twins. A golden crispy outside and a soft netted inside...I got it right the first time...yeah!!..and can't explain how happy and elated I felt at this success.

I went on to try on the larger version and Aparna's recipe is just perfect...the right place for a baking beginner to get started with some home baking.
You can check out Aparna's recipe here. For my pavs I used sugar and not honey. Made my second lot of larger pavs with 4 cups of maida/all-purpose flour. The yeast that we get here is the powdered form of instant dry yeast and so I added 1/2 tsp(not heaped) for every cup of flour. Above are some of the pictures from my baking ladi pav project...didn't get a chance to photograph the larger pavs as I baked them for hubby's birthday party and they were gone before I could say "click".

12 comments:

Sushma Mallya said...

Nothing better than a home made one, looks perfect and so soft..

Hamaree Rasoi said...

Home made Pav looks awesome dear. Love to munch on a few of those.

Deepa
Hamaree Rasoi

Sarah Naveen said...

wow!! that looks so perfect and yummy!!..loved it..

Chanchal said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Chanchal said...

That looks perfect..
I always wanted to make pav at home but never tried..gonna try this time.

Chanchal
RecipeRaaga.com

Jayanthy Kumaran said...

Nice creation & looks yummy n delicious..

Happy to follow u..do drop in at my space sometime..

Tasty Appetite

Nithu Bala said...

wow! looks very tempting..so perfect..

Krishnaveni said...

beautiful pav, looks yummy

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

They look very good, am really happy you liked them. :)

abraham said...

i would try this for sure as i make vada paav often..

Kitchen Boffin said...

looks airy n soft.. i love this!

Raks said...

Looks very cure and indeed soft inside! Great effort!