Cheesy dough balls
Ask Adya what his favourite food is/ what he wants to eat at anytime of the day and the answer will be ‘Bun’. We try and limit his store bought bun/ bread intake to weekly once/ twice but it’s very hard to considering how much he loves bun and bread. He forces my fil to add to it to the shopping cart if he doesn’t find bun at home :D. Anywho last week he was crying way too much for some bun and I promised him that I will bake it at home for him. Honestly all of us love these home made melt in your cheese stuffed buns and so I was more than happy to make it. Adya was so excited on seeing these and had a few upon returning home from school. Mil & I were discussing about return gifts to be given to the kids who come home that way (Golu season) and we were talking about if we had enough etc. Adya somehow thought we were thinking of giving the buns away, came to us and diligently informed that he wants all the buns for himself and doesn’t want to share it with anyone else :D. Possessive about food just like me :D. Anywho, most of the buns got distributed between Adya’s and my tummy in a span of 24 hours :).
Btw, all my pizza/ bread doughs base is exactly the below base recipe. They taste perfect and came out well consistently each time. It’s really easy to make and can totally be rocked by anyone who’s not much into cooking/ baking.
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 tsp instant dry yeast
- 1.5 tsp refined white sugar
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1.5 tsp garlic & herb seasoning any italian seasoning would do
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 cup + 2T warm water
- 6 nos processed cheese cubes
- 1 tsp milk for brushing on top before baking
- 1 tsp garlic butter to brush once baked
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In a large bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients using a fork – 3/4c all purpose flour/ maida, 3/4c whole wheat flour, 1.5t garlic & herb Italian seasoning, 1t instant dry yeast, 1.5t sugar & 3/4t salt.
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Make a tiny well in between & add the wet ingredients – olive oil & warm water.
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Combine & knead the mixture with your hand (in the large bowl or on a flat surface) till you have a smooth and elastic dough (imagine a slightly loose chapati dough).
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Coat the top surface of the dough with some oil/ water (to prevent from drying), close the bowl with a lid & let the dough rest for atleast 1 hour. I place my dough in my microwave during this time.
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After an hour, the dough would've risen to double its quantity.
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Punch the dough to release the air bubbles.
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Knead the dough for a few minutes on a flat surface (I do this on my silpat). If the mixture gets too sticky while kneading, just dust a bit of flour on to the dough.
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Divide the dough into 4 quarters and then pinch out 6 equal sized balls from each quarter (roughly the size of a big grape) to form 24 equal sized dough balls (don't need to roll them out into proper balls just as yet).
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Chop each of the 6 cheese cubes into 4 quarters so that you will have 24 small cubes of cheese.
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Now stuff each of the dough balls with a quarter cheese cube and then roll the dough ball properly to cover and center the cheese.
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Repeat this step for all the remaining dough balls.
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Arrange the dough balls carefully in a greased cake pan (9×6) leaving a small gap in between each to allow for proving.
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Cover the cake pan with a wet muslin/ cotton cloth (the cloth needn't be touching the dough) and let the dough rest again for an hour.
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The dough will raise once again into double its size.
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Uncover the dough and brush the dough with 1t olive oil.
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Bake in a pre-heated oven of 200c for 20 mins (mid rack).
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Take out the tray and brush the top of the dough balls with 1t milk.
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Continue baking for another 10 mins (mid rack).
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Take the dough balls out of the oven, brush with 1t garlic butter and let it rest for a few minutes.
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Once the dough balls are warm, remove them from the cake pan and dig in!!!
- You could use 1.5c all purpose flour instead of mix. This would require 1T or 2T less water.
- You could also use 1.5c whole wheat flour but it won’t be that soft. This might also require a bit more water while kneading the dough.
- You could do a generous brush of butter/ oil mixed in garlic & herbs before starting the bake. Since I bake often, I wanted to reduce the oil/ butter used.
- You could use seasoning of your choice for seasoning the dough. I love the garlic & herb italian seasoning that I always have on hand. If you don’t have this, good old dried oregano would still be good + a bit of garlic powder if you have it on hand.
- Do not skimp on the rest time. It’s very important to get soft, fluffy and well risen dough balls.
- You can stuff the dough balls with cream cheese instead of moz cheese. Tastes really good. If you live in Dubai and have eaten these in Caesars, you know what I mean.
- This process of brushing butter right after taking the balls out of the oven helps making sure the top gets more of that gorgeous golden brown as well ensures the top isn’t too crusty but moist and soft.
- My airfryer oven max is 200c. But if yours has an option to go higher then the ideal setup is 220C/fan and bake for 20 minutes, that’s it.
