Pav Recipe – Homemade Ladi Pav

Pav or pao are fluffy, soft and delicious Indian dinner rolls or buns introduced by Portuguese in India. These fluffy warm rolls are served as delicious pav bhaji, misal pav, vada pav and various other forms.

It is easy to make pav bread at home and you need few simple ingredients only. Homemade ladi pav are so much fresher, delicious and economical that store bought buns.

This post will help you make perfect homemade pav that is soft, fluffy, chewy and very delicious. For more bread recipes please check classic white bread, pesto braided bread, stuffed garlic bread recipes.

Ladi pav are very soft, delicious and flavorful dinner rolls from Bombay. If you have tasted these rolls from Bombay or Mumbai, you will that they are exceptionally good with unparalleled softness, taste and flavor. Well the good news is you can make the exactly same Bombay ladi pav at home with this recipe.

About Eggless Ladi Pav

Mumbai Ladi pav or pao are eggless dinner rolls made of plain flour and leavened with yeast. The store bought pav buns are always made with plain flour and some places it contains egg. Pav or pao is the Portuguese word for bread and ladi means a stack of bread or dough.

While making at home you can make pav eggless and also use whole wheat flour if you want. You can also enrich the pao buns with milk powder, butter etc when making at home.

This recipe for homemade pav has been my keeper for more than a decade. The recipe is from a dog eared page of a tiny recipe booklet that I have perfected over the years. I have tried this recipe with tons of variations like using fresh yeast, baking powder, whole wheat flour instead of plain flour and olive oil instead of butter. Also I have a recipe for baked vada pav and spicy buns 🙂

I usually make pav bread recipe with whole wheat flour but at times we crave the soft fluffiest ones just like restaurants and that’s when I use plain flour, butter and yeast 🙂

I have leavened the pav dough using instant yeast or rapid yeast as it is convenient. You can also use fresh yeast as they do in bakeries or active dry yeast too. I have also given instructions to make pav or Indian dinner roll without yeast.

This Homemade Pav Recipe Is

100% vegetarian , no eggs recipe

highly adaptable and versatile

easy and beginner friendly

made with 6 pantry staple ingredients

yields very soft, delicious and flavorful homemade ladi pav

needs just a bowl and spoon, no need for stand mixer to knead the dough.

Ingredients For Making Homemade Pav

Flour– traditionally pav is made with plain flour only. Using plain flour is one of the keys to get exact Bombay ladi pav that is feather light and soft. Having said that, you can easily use whole wheat flour in this recipe. Except for the rolls turning a bit dense, they will taste delicious.

Yeast- in this recipe, I have used instant dry yeast. You can also use fresh yeast or active dry yeast. I have given the proportions for all the three yeasts in the recipe card.

Fat– To make really soft and delicious pav, it is important that you use correct amount of fat like butter. I always prefer to use butter for this recipe. I have made the same with olive oil, but the ones made with butter have amazing flavor.

The other ingredients you need are water, salt and sugar. With such simple ingredients and few pointers to remember you are just 20 minutes away from making the best ladi pav at home:) Here is the step by step pictorial and also check out the tips and variations below

How To Make Pav

Add 3 cups plain flour or all purpose flour or wheat flour, 2 teaspoon instant dry yeast, 2 teaspoon sugar and 1 teaspoon salt into a mixing bowl.

Mix very well. Add 3 tablespoons soft butter and mix well. Slowly add water and start kneading. the dough will be initially sticky but as you knead it will turn soft and supple. You may add the remaining 1/4 cup flour in batches as you knead. Knead well for 10 minutes. You can use a stand mixer with dough hook and knead for 5-6 minutes.

Apply butter liberally on the dough. Place the dough in a bowl, cover and keep aside for 2 hours. Proof the dough in warm place for it to leaven.

Once the bread dough has risen and is doubled in volume, poke the dough with your finger. If the indentation stays as such the dough is ready to use and it is well proofed.

Transfer the dough to the counter again. Knead it again for a minute and divide the dough into 18 small bits Shape each bit into a seamless ball. Place the balls in a greased tin leaving space between them for expanding. Cover with a damp cloth or cling wrap and rest for 20 minutes for second rise.

During the second proofing of the dough preheat the oven at 200 C or 400 F. Once the rolls are proofed give them a milk wash with a basting brush.

Place in the preheated oven and bake the pav for 20-30 minutes. Baking time varies the among the ovens, go by the color change and aroma. The top of the pavs will turn golden brown and hallow on tapping.

Do note that the laadi pav will be appear rough and hard as soon as it is out of oven. Now apply some melted butter al over the with a basting brush. the buns will be very soft and spongy now. On cooling the pav turns light and fluffy.

Serve pav bun warm with any spicy like bhaji or misal or chana masala. You can also use them to make masala pav, pav sandwich recipes.

How To Make Ladi Pav Recipe Without Oven?

How to bake a cake or ladi pav bread without oven is one of the questions that y readers always ask me. So here I am adding brief instructions for baking pav without oven. It is easy and very similar to cooker cake recipe.

To make ladi pav recipe in cooker begin by preheating a pressure cooker base. Add 1 cup sand or salt to the base and place a small plate or the stand that comes with the pressure cooker. Preheat the cooker for 15 minutes.

Place the tin containing proofed buns inside the hot cooker. Close with the lid but do not place the weight valve or gasket. Cook in low flame for 25-30 minutes or until the top turns golden.

Once baked, brush with melted butter and serve as required.

Top Tips For Making Perfect Pav Recipe

Quality of yeast– It is very important that use you very good quality yeast. If the quality of yeast is not very god, the pav will be dense and leave an yeasty aftertaste.

Kneading the dough– You should knead the dough really well for 10 minutes for best results. You can use a mixer with paddle attachment for kneading too.

Amount of water– Amount if water depends on the quality of flour. I generally use 1 cup water for 3 cups whole wheat flour or 3.25 cups plain flour.

Baking tray– to make square pav rolls just like the ones from the shops use a square baking tray. If you use around pan the shape will be more of a bun.

Weighing the dough balls– If you are super particular about the uniform size of each pav, you can weigh and divide the dough.

During baking– place the baking pan in the middle rack with both the rods on. Sometimes the top of the pav will brown very quickly but inside will remain uncooked, in that case just cover the top with aluminum foil and continue to bake.

After baking– Once baked, remove the pav buns from the baking tray and place in a wire rack for cooling. If you leave the buns in the baking tray, they will sweat and turn moist due to condensation.

Storing pav- These buns keep well for 2 days at room temperature and 4 days in refrigerator. You can toast them with butter or ghee before serving.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are you making this recipe? I would love to see a snap of your creation too. Do snap a pic and share on Instagram with hashtag #cookclickndevou and please give a star rating ★ in the recipe card above. Follow us on Pinterest , Instagram, Facebook   for more recipes and ideas.

Recipe