Go Back
Print Recipe

Masala Buns

Just to tempt and inspire you, here is the recipe for Masala Buns and if you like it, there are plenty more bun recipes in The Book of Buns.  If you would like to take a vegetarian bread course, let me know!
Course: Breakfast
Servings: 8 Buns

Ingredients

Dough

  • 300 g Strong whole meal flour  Wheat germ is a great source of vitamin B
  • 200 g Milk Heated to boiling point and allowed to cool right down (vegans, use water)
  • 1.5 g Instant Or 3 g dry Or 6 g fresh yeast
  • 6 g Salt
  • 1 tablespoon Ghee Or butter clarified butter Or coconut oil if you are a vegan

Filling

    Any kind of masala curry that you like (or have left over from the night before).  Here is a simple recipe for masala potatoes that I have adapted only very slightly from Vivek Singh’s excellent book, Curry:  Classic and Contemporary.

    • 250 g Floury potatoes
    • 2 tablespoons  Ghee  (clarified butter) or high smoke-point vegetable oil of your choice (avacado is good)
    • 1/4 teaspoon  Cumin seeds
    • 1/2 small Onion, diced
    • Pinch  Tumeric
    • 1/2 cm piece of  fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
    • 1 small green chilli, deveined, deseeded, and finely chopped
    • 1/2 teaspoon  Salt

    Glaze:

    • Milk

    Topping: 

    • Sesame seeds

    Instructions

    Make the dough

    • Measure the flour into a bowl and make a well in it.  Add the yeast into the well and pour over the milk (use water if you are a vegan).  Let it sit for 15 minutes and then add the salt and the butter and bring all of the ingredients together in the bowl.  Turn the dough out on the counter and knead it well for 10 minutes.  There is so little butter in these that you can pop it in at the beginning.  Put the dough back in the bowl, cover and let it rest for 2 hours.

    While the dough is resting, make the stuffing:

    • Peel the potatoes and boil them until they are cooked.   Drain them and let them cool before you cut them into little cubes
    • Heat the fat in a large frying pan and add the cumin seeds followed by the onion.  Cook over medium heat until the onion is translucent
    • Add the turmeric, ginger, and chilli and stir for 30 seconds.  Add the potatoes and salt and lower the heat.  Stir gently to colour the potatoes evenly
    • Remove from the heat and let cool completely

    Shape the buns

    • Gently pull the dough out onto a non floury surface and shape it into a tight sausage (if you are not sure how to do this you can watch a video here).  Divide the sausage into 8 equal pieces and then let them rest under a dry tea towel for 15 minutes
    • Flatten one piece with your hand into a disc about 1/2 cm thick.  Brush the edge with water
    • Place a spoonful of potato masala into the centre of the disc, bring the edges together to form a little parcel and pinch them firmly to seal them.  Don’t over fill them!
    • Turn them over so the seal is down and place them on a baking tray that you have lined with non stick baking paper
    • Let them rest for an hour
    • Preheat the oven to 220 degrees.
    • Brush the tops of the buns with milk and sprinkle with sesame seeds.  Bake the buns for 20 minutes and let them cool completely on a wire rack before you bite into them because the filling will be hot!  Pack them as an alternative to sandwiches and you will be the coolest person at the picnic.