Paneer pull-apart rolls

The best part of bread baking is that the bread dough is very very versatile. With the same dough, we can make many churn out many different bakes. You just need to be ready to experiment a bit. One such experiment was these paneer filled pull-apart rolls. Another advantage of these rolls is that you don’t have this long wait of 2-3 hours to eat them unlike the bread loaves.

The latter half of last year saw me baking breads for almost 2-3 times a week. Once you understand the basics of kneading and proofing, its fun to play around with the yeasty dough. One fine sunday evening, I planned to bake something savoury for the family, and I was excited beyond words to see that these rolls got over in flat 15 minutes. According to my hubby and Neha, this was the best bake then.

Ingredients:

• Maida 125 gm (1 cup)
• Whole wheat flour 125 gm ( 1 cup)
• Instant yeast 1/2 tsp
• Sugar 1 tsp
• Salt as per ur taste
• Oil or butter 2 tbsp
• Milk plus warm water (50:50) 1 cup minus 2 tbsp

For the filling:

• Paneer crumbled  200 gm
• Onion 1
• Capsicum 1/2 or 1 small
• Tomato 1 small
• Garlic 2 cloves
• Ginger a small piece
• Coriander leaves as required
• Salt as required
• Turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
• Chilli powder 1 tsp
• Coriander powder 1 tsp
• Olive oil 1 tbsp
• Grated cheese 2 tbsp (optional)

Method:

• Finely chop the onion, capsicum, tomato, ginger, garlic, coriander leaves and keep them aside.
• Heat oil in a frying pan or kadhai and saute onion till translucent. Add capsicum, tomato, salt and other spices and combine. Add crumbled paneer and coriander leaves and mix well. Allow the mixture to cool completely.

• Mix maida, whole wheat flour, sugar, salt and instant yeast. Add milk-water mixture to the dry ingredients and combine.
• Add oil and knead into a smooth elastic dough for 10-12 minutes. Allow it to rise in an oiled bowl covered with cling film for an hour, or till it doubles in volume.
• Gently punch the dough and knead for 1-2 minutes on a floured surface. Roll it into a rectangle using a rolling pin into approximately 12 by 10 inches.
• Spread the filling and gently roll into a log. Slowly elongate the roll a bit by rolling it again on the floured counter.
• Cut the stuffed roll into pieces of approximately 2 inches length, using a sharp knife or a scrapper. ( I got 16 pieces). You can dip the knife or the scrapper in flour and then cut to get neat pieces.
• Arrange these pieces in an oiled pan (round, square) or bread tin or tray. Brush it gently with some milk or egg wash or spray some water on top.
• Cover the tin with a big lid and allow it to proof again for 20-30 minutes or till it puffs up nicely.
• Preheat the oven for 10 minutes at 180 degree Celsius. Sprinkle little grated cheese over the rolls.
• Bake the rolls for  20-25 minutes  and increase the temp to 200-220 degree Celsius and bake again for 3-4 minutes or till you get a golden crust. You can apply some more butter on top.
• Remove from oven and serve hot.

Notes:

• With the same recipe you can make pull apart buns instead of rolls. Instead of rolling the dough, make small balls, stuff the filling and bake.
• You can make it with 100% whole wheat flour too.
• You can make a lot of variations in the filling as per your imagination. For the sweet toothed one, replace the paneer with a mixture of apple and cinnamon cooked with some sugar or a combination of coconut, sugar/jaggery and nuts.