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    Home » By Category » Breads & Pizzas » Breads

    Published: Dec 7, 2015 · Modified: Oct 11, 2020 by Usha Rao

    Iyengar Bakery Style Khara Buns

    Today I have a popular Bangalore Iyengar bakery style khara buns. These buns are savory and can be served for breakfast with some cream cheese or with butter. These can also be served as an after school snack or for dinner. From what I have read, the popular way of serving it is with butter and some spicy peanuts.

    Home Bakers Challenge, Savory Bakes,  Dinner Rolls, Savory buns,

    I made these buns in May for that month's Home Bakers Challenge and could not post it right away. I had drafted the recipe and saved it on my hard drive, uploaded the pictures to Flickr and was going to update the blog in few days. Then my laptop crashed and lost the recipe draft. Once I got my new laptop, I got lazy and never got to draft the recipe again. Well, I guess it was good in away, it is coming handy for this bake-a-thon. I was going to post it on Friday but could not get the post ready & had to swap the posts. I posted the recipe I had initially scheduled for today.

    Home Bakers Challenge, Savory Bakes,  Dinner Rolls, Savory buns,

    This preparation of buns is lengthy, at least time consuming as the dough has to be proofed and all that time invested in the preparation is worth. I lost the notes I noted down after baking the buns, when my laptop crashed. Hence I am rewriting the source recipe. I do remember using more flour than listed in the recipe but do not remember exactly how much I used. I followed rest of the recipe to T. I would not have minded baking these buns again but never got to bake it again. If it were not this time consuming, I somehow would have managed to re-bake the buns.

    Home Bakers Challenge, Savory Bakes,  Dinner Rolls, Savory buns,

    After my laptop crashed, I learnt the hard way to backup my drafts to another drive right away. So now, I directly draft all my posts or make rough drafts of my recipes and post using google docs. This way the drafts are always online and I can access them from any device, regardless of where I am.

    Home Bakers Challenge, Savory Bakes,  Dinner Rolls, Savory buns,

    Source: Eat, live, burp (link not working)
    Total Time: 3 - 3 ½ hours
    Preparation: 40 minutes
    Proofing Time: 2 ½ hours
    Baking Time:20 - 25 minutes
    Yields: 8

    Ingredients:

    • 1 ½ cups All-Purpose Flour + more for kneading (I think I used a total of 2 - 2 ¼ cups flours)
    • 1 ½ tsp. Active Dried Yeast
    • ¼ cup + 1 tbsp. Milk
    • ½ cup Water
    • 1 ½ tsp. Sugar
    • 3 tbsp. Butter
    • 1 tsp. Salt
    • ¾ cup Onions finely chopped
    • 5-6 Green Chilies, minced (I used small green chilies from Indian store)
    • ⅓ cup Cilantro Leaves, finely chopped
    • 1 tsp. Cumin Seeds
    • 1 tsp. Oil

    Preparation:

    • Take milk and water in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 30 seconds, until warm.
      Place milk in a large enough bowl to hold the dough.
    • Add sugar, yeast and mix well. Let it rest for 15 minutes until the mixture is frothy. If it is not, that means the yeast has not been activated and start again.
    • Meantime, heat oil in a pan. Add cumin seeds and let them pop. Add finely chopped onions, green chilies, pinch of salt and cook until onions are soft. Add cilantro, mix well and keep aside until required. It is essential to cook onions to not kill the yeast in the dough.
    • Melt 2 tablespoon of butter and add it to yeast mixture along with salt and mix well.
    • Add flour one cup at a time to the yeast mixture and whisk until the dough is smooth.
    • Transfer dough to a floured surface and knead for at least 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and non-sticky. Add more flour if necessary.
    • Flatten the dough with hands, place onion mixture in the center and fold it to seal.
    • Knead again for another 15 minutes until the onion mixture is incorporated into the dough. If the dough becomes sticky because of the onions, add more flour and knead well.
    • Grease a big bowl with oil, place the dough in it, cover with a kitchen towel and let the dough almost double in size. Keep it in a warm place and this should take about 1 ½ hours.
    • After the first rise, knead the dough again for another 7-8 minutes to remove air bubbles.
    • Divide the dough into 8 equal parts and shape into buns. Place them on a parchment lined baking sheet.
    • Cover and place the baking sheet in a warm place for about 45 minutes. Make sure the buns do not double more than the original size.
    • After 45 minutes, preheat the oven to 425F.
    • Brush the tops of the dough with milk and bake in the oven. Reduce the temperature to 350F and bake for 20-25 until the top is slightly brown and the buns sound hollow when tapped on top. Since oven temperatures vary, it could even take upto 30 minutes. Keep checking 20 minutes into baking and keep checking every 3 minutes until the buns are baked.
    • Melt 1 tablespoon of butter and brush the baked buns for a nice shine.

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    1. Srivalli says

      January 21, 2016 at 4:35 am

      Even though it is time consuming, I am sure its all worth it..I love these buns..

      Reply
    2. Priya Srinivasan says

      January 13, 2016 at 12:25 pm

      How many will I bookmark usha! ! These buns look so attractive similar to the savoury buns I made. Makes a yummy snack !

      Reply
    3. sapana says

      December 20, 2015 at 6:44 pm

      I have had bookmarked since long.Yours looks fantastic.

      Reply
    4. Mireille Roc (@ChefMireille) says

      December 19, 2015 at 6:02 pm

      these have been on my to do list for quite some time - yours look so perfectly shapes and lovely texture

      Reply
    5. Sowmya says

      December 12, 2015 at 5:50 am

      These remind me of our stay in chennai where our neighbor was the owner of the local iyengar bakery. He used to ply us with free stuff for every occasion...yumm days. Love your dish..,,bookmarking it for sure

      Reply
    6. Nalini says

      December 09, 2015 at 6:58 pm

      Khara buns turned out so perfect and love the texture, shaped it very well..

      Reply
    7. Priya says

      December 09, 2015 at 3:31 pm

      Even mine is still sitting in draft, am yet to post this khara buns, they looks prefectly round and super tempting.

      Reply
    8. Divya @ Divya's Culinary Journey says

      December 08, 2015 at 4:04 pm

      These Khara Buns look great! I will love to have them with butter.

      Reply
    9. Pavani says

      December 08, 2015 at 3:24 pm

      What a yummy looking khara buns. They look delicious. I made khara bread a while back and loved the flavors. Will try these buns some time.

      Reply
    10. Amara says

      December 08, 2015 at 7:26 am

      Khara Buns looks delicious:)

      Reply

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