Multigrain Achari Buns

Multigrain Achari buns are the healthy and delicious appetisers. Made with whole wheat flour, oats and Quinoa these homemade multigrain buns are egg-less and spiced with minced garlic and achari masala (pickled spices) to give a lip smacking taste and wonderful aroma. These soft and spongy buns are mildly spicy in taste. They can be made ahead of time and can be had at breakfast or packed into kids lunch boxes. You can serve them at tea time or enjoy them at any time of the day with favorite drink. I pair them with some tomato soup and butter for a soulful meal.

We Indians love spicy food and achar or pickles are an important part of our meals. Achari masala is a blend of spice mix made from the aromatic and flavorful spices used for making pickles. Many North Indian dishes are made using this spice mix like the Achari Bhindi, Achari Aloo, Achari Baingan etc. Adding achari flavors to the multigrain bread gives it an Indian touch. My house was full with the wonderful aroma of achari masala when i baked these beauties. My last baking
experiment of making Whole wheat vegetable stuffed buns was super hit at my place and i made those buns with different vegetable stuffing multiple times since then. Now, i feel i have finally
tamed the yeast and i can work with it with much ease and confidence.

I owe a lot of my learning as a blogger to the various Facebook food groups where i get to interact and work with like minded people and talented bloggers. Once such group is the Recipe Swap Challenge, where i participate every alternate month. Here paired bloggers visit each others blog and bookmark recipes they like and wish to try out. any one dish is recreated with and published on their blogs with due credits given to the author.This is my 8th share on this group started by my dear friends Jolly Makkar and Vidya Narayan. For the month of August, a twist is added to this challenge. We are doing a baking challenge here, which means we chose a baked dish from our paired bloggers space. I was lucky enough to be paired with Preethi Prasad. Preethi di is a full time working professional based in Singapore who takes out some time from her busy schedule for her passion for blogging and cooking. I have known Preethi di from last 2 years through various food groups. We have yet to meet in person but know a lot about each other as person. Preethi di shares her culinary skills in her blog Preethicuisine.com. You can check out her space for wonderful recipes both from regional Indian cuisine and from around the globe. What i like about her blog is that all her recipes are easily doable and fuss free. I have worked with her earlier as well and already bookmarked many recipes to try out. Last recipe i recreated from her space was Banana Cherry Muffins. For this month's challenge i had bookmarked a few recipes from her space and these Multigrain Achari Buns turned out just perfect. I made a few changes in the original recipe, like i replaced the refined flour with whole wheat flour and added the garlic butter sauce to make it more flavorful. So let's get started.

                                                

Preparation Time: 90 minutes
Cooking Time: 25 minutes
Serves: 8 multigrain achari buns

Ingredients: Measurements used 1 cup = 250 ml

• 1 1/2 cup hole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup multigrain flour * 
• 1 1/4 cup milk 
• 5 teaspoon milk powder
• 2 teaspoon dry active yeast
• 2 teaspoon achari masala
• 1 tablespoon white sesame seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

For the garlic butter sauce

• 3 teaspoon butter 
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon fresh coriander, chopped
• 1 teaspoon chili flakes
• Salt to taste

Other Ingredients:

• Milk for brushing

* To make the multigrain flour at home, grind 1/4 cup roasted oats with 1/4 cup quinoa and 2 tablespoon flax seeds.

Method:

1. In a bowl take 1/2 cup lukewarm milk. Add sugar and dry yeast to it. Stir well and keep aside for 10 minutes for the yeast to bloom.

2. While our yeast blooms, we will make the garlic butter sauce. For that take 3 teaspoon butter in a small pan and heat on medium flame. Add minced garlic to it and allow to saute for around 30 seconds. add chili flakes, salt and fresh coriander leaves to it and stir fry everything for another 30 seconds. Put off the flame. Allow the sauce to cool down.

3. After 10 minutes, our yeast mixture will turn frothy. If it does not , it means the yeast you are using is old and of no use. Throw away the mix and start again with step 1 using a fresh batch of yeast.

4. Next, in a mixing bowl take whole wheat flour, multigrain flour, milk powder, achari masala, 3/4th of the garlic butter sauce and salt to taste. Mix everything very well.

 5. To this, add the bloomed yeast culture . Mix well and knead the flour. Use warm milk as needed to knead the flour to a soft dough.

6. Tug the dough and keep it in a greased bowl . Cover it with another bowl and keep for proofing for about an hour.

7. After an hour, the dough will be double in size. Punch it and knead it again for 2-3 minutes. Now shape the dough like a log and cut into equal portions using a knife.

8. Roll each portion into a dough ball and place it over a greased baking tray. I could make 8 dough balls from the above mentioned quantity of ingredients. Brush these dough balls with the remaining garlic butter sauce. Sprinkle sesame seeds over each dough ball and keep the tray in dark place for 15 minutes. Meanwhile preheat the oven at 200 Degree Celsius for 15 minutes.

9. After 15 minutes the dough balls will further increase in size. brush them delicately with milk so that they do not dry out while baking. Place the tray in preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes at 200 degree Celsius.

10. Once done, apply butter on the buns and keep them covered in the kitchen towel. Serve them as starters at party or enjoy them simply as tea time snack. My son takes these multigrain achari buns merrily to school in his snack box .  Serve them plain or with some butter or mayonnaise.

Recipe Notes:

• If the dry yeast does not bloom and your milk does not turn frothy , it means the yeast you are using is old and of no use. Discard the milk yeast mixture and make a fresh culture with new batch of yeast.
• Another important factor to be kept in mind while using dry yeast is the temperature of milk. Always add dry yeast to the lukewarm milk. If the milk is hot it will kill the yeast culture. If it is cool, the yeast will not bloom.
• You can totally skip the garlic butter sauce and simply add about 1/4 cup oil to the flour while kneading the dough instead.
• Finely chopped onions may also be added to the garlic butter sauce for extra flavor. 
• You can use store bought multigrain flour or make it yourself the way i did by grinding equal portions of roasted oats and quinoa with flax seeds.

If you like this recipe do like it and give your feedback in the comment section below. I would love to hear from you. You can share what you think about this blog, the ways i can improve it or the recipe you would like to see on this space. For new updates and recipes, do follow us on my social media handles, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Google +

Related posts:

• Achari Bhindi

                          

• Achari Aloo

                       

• Achari Baingan

                                 

• Whole wheat vegetable stuffed buns