Pav bread is a sweet, buttery, mini loaf of bread that is available as a part of many Bombay street food dishes. I have previously posted a pav bhaji recipe which is the most common dish you can use with pav, but your options are limitless. Pav bread is used to make Bombay style sandwiches, cheese toast, or even a simple butter and bread dish. It is basically the Indian version of a soft dinner roll!
Pav bread is eggless, spongey, and it only requires a few ingredients. It is really easy to make as long as you say patient, leaving time to let the yeast rise. And when you bite into it, you'll really get a light, fluffy, warm, fresh taste that far surpasses anything store-bought.
The first step in this ladi pav recipe requires combining the milk, sugar, and yeast - similar to all the other bread recipes I've posted which require dry active yeast. Once the milk mixture has started to foam, you gradually add the flour and butter in and and knead until you have a smooth (ish) ball of dough. Then you let it rest!
After two hours, the dough will have accumulated some air. You can (nicely) punch through and knead for a minute or two, removing any excess air from the dough. Use a knife or bread slicer to create 12 equal-sized balls of dough. Take a baking tray and grease it, and align the pieces next to each other side by side as you can see in the picture. You're going to brush it with milk and then cover it for another 30 minutes, and then get it ready to bake.
Be sure to check out the recipe for the Pav Bhaji, because once you make this soft bread you're going to want a nice, salty, spicy dish to dive each bite into. The combination of the homemade bread with the salty bhaji and the crispy onions is true perfection, I promise that!