Mumbai Special Pao

After my success with Classic White bread I picked up some courage to make Mumbai Pao. Let me tell you my first attempt was better as the only missing thing was salt! The second attempt was with just 1 cup of flour and the pao turned out a little hard as I baked it for the same period as for the large quantity. However since I was the one who made it no complaints ;). The third time I try hope it will turn out perfect.

I am sharing this recipe on demand from my readers but remember I'm still tweaking it. It is ofcourse adapted from the Classic White bread

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups warm water (105-115F)
1 tbsp active dry yeast (.25 oz)
1 tbsp sugar
4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp peanut oil

1 tbsp butter softened

These are the perfected proportion as on 17th Feb 07

Mix 1 cup water and sugar then sprinkle yeast over it. Leave it to stand for 10 mins till the mix is frothy.

Measure out the flour in a big bowl. Don't forget the salt. Mix in the frothy yeast mixture in the flour with a wooden spoon. Then mix in the remaining 1/2 cup of water and mix till it form a ball and leaves the sides of the bowl. Now add the soft butter and oil and knead till you get smooth dough.

Sprinkle some dough on a counter and then knead the dough on it for 2 mins. Make a smooth ball and store it in a greased bowl untill doubled or min 1.5 hr. Keep it covered with a wet kitchen towel. The towel should be dipped in water and wringed a bit to removed excess water.

Grease a baking tray of 8X10 inches and keep ready. Sprinkle a little bit of flour on the counter and divide the dough into 9 equal parts. Shape them into balls and line them up in the tray like shown in the picture. Leave the tray covered with wet cloth again to double up or for atleast an hour. Once risen brush the pao with molten butter or whole milk to get the glaze.

Now preheat oven at 190 deg cel for 10 min. Then push in the tray laden with pao into the oven and bake for 25 mins or till you see a slight glaze on the pao as in the picture. Once you get the glaze it indicates the pao is well cooked from inside.

Remove from oven and allow to cool on a grill or in a bread basket. Don't leave it in the tray else the pao will sweat.

This pao is so ubiquitous in Mumbai that it has several combos like:

1. Vada pao
2. Maska Pao with tea
3. Pao bhaaji
4. Misal pao
5. Masala pao
6. Samosa pao
7. Fiery Sunday mutton/ chicken curry (especially in Colaba koliwada)
8. Chutney Pao like chutney sandwich
9. Homemade burger when burger buns were still not available in India.
10. Stuffed and fried Masala pao.
11. Farsan pao to have with tea (quite far fetched)

Well I think thats enough!

Mumbai and Pao are synonymous. Some gyan on Pao. It is the humble bread made in Mumbai its name originates from the Portugese word for bread Pao. It has a very distinct taste and it does not taste the same anywhere outside Mumbai. In Mumbai it is called just Pao but outside Mumbai it is called Mumbai Pao so I added the special to the title of the post. The Christian People from Goa, the neighbors to the state of Maharashtra eat a lot of Pao hence their nick name paowale. They were only consumers I guess but the real poawala were the Iranis in Mumbai. In old Mumbai bakeries were mostly owned by Iranis and Parsees. In most Mumbai households it was a Dad's job in the morning to get a bottle of milk and maska pao for the family as well as keep a stock of 1 ladi at home to feed anyone hungry in a jiffy. Now you will say what is ladi? It is a set of six pao stuck together on baking like you see in the picture above but here my ladi is of 9 paos. Pao is almost indespensible to Mumbaikars. As a kid I always prefered pao to chapati and that I went to a convent school labeled me as a paowali at home. To add to it my neighbourhood Irani baker in 1st koli lane, Colaba showered so much love on me that if any home deliveries were needed they just had to be told to deliver to my home. I am still teased about it. I wonder why it took me soooo long to try making pao at home.

See the cross section of the pao it is so fluffy!

Updated: Also read

• I'm Simply Exhausted
• Baking n Tweaking

Today 8th Sep 2013,

I made the pao with 1 cup atta + 3 cups Maida. It had even crumb and was flavourful. Will try 50-50 next time.