These pillow-like Mini Slider buns are not only easy to make at home, they’re also quite versatile when paired with a variety of fillings!

It’s been a long time since I baked ‘bread’ – sure I made these Coconut + Jaggery filled rolls a few weeks ago, but that was more dessert than ‘bread-bread’, you know what I mean? I wanted fluffy, pillow-like, soft, airy bread that I can slather with jam and enjoy while it’s still warm from the oven. And that is exactly what I did.

Called ‘Slider Buns’ here, but in India, we call these Pav buns – an integral part of the street food we call ‘chaat’, these soft rolls are used to mop up a minced vegetable curry fragrant and spiced to entice.

See how soft these are? Would you believe me if I told you that I had to knead these for less than 5 minutes? The yeast and a little time did the rest, making this the perfect weekend afternoon project!

The process of making these slider buns is just the same as any other. I used instant yeast instead of active dry, so I could skip the initial yeast activation process. Simply mix all the ingredients till you have a soft, pliable dough – thanks to the high liquid+oil content of this dough, fret not, the dough comes together quite quick.

Once it’s has an hour to double in size, lightly knead the dough to punch out the air in it, and divide it into 12 equal pieces. Take my advice and use a weigh scale to make sure all the pieces weigh equally. First weigh the punched-out dough. Then divide that by 12, and make sure each piece weighs that much.

Roll each piece into a smooth dough and arrange in a large baking pan – I used a 9″ baking pan, lined with parchment paper and sides greased.

Then one final rise, will make them looking almost as they would when baked. See how cute they are??? This is always my favoruite part – lifting the towel to see plump, fluffy looking dough!

Brush with milk and bake in a hot oven for 10-12 minutes. When you knock on the tops, they should sound hollow. Brush generously with olive oil/butter and it will soften as it cools.

I usually rip into one when it’s still warm, and even if you do, make sure the rest cool completely on a wire rack – otherwise, condensation will collect at the bottom and make the bread soggy and wet.

Enjoy these slider buns, filled, dipped or just slathered with butter/jam. Whatever you do, there’s nothing but deliciousness headed your way. And if you can wait a couple more days, I’ll have a recipe with my favorite slider recipe – something my mother used to make us for breakfast!

Notes:

Substitute with Active Dry Yeast 

I’ve used instant yeast here, but if you want to use Active Dry Yeast instead, substitute the same amount given in the recipe. But activate it first. Dissolve sugar with about 35 ml of liquid (milk + water) and heat till lukewarm. Stir in the yeast and let sit until frothy and bubbly. Then add this to the remaining ingredients and follow the recipe instructions. You may need to increase proofing time (30 mins extra or so), but the rest of the process remains the same.

Butter!

I used only Olive oil in this recipe to show that with 2% skim milk and oil, you can still create soft, fluffy buns without butter. But if butter is what your taste buds desire, substitute the oil with 34 grams of soft (room temperature) butter instead.

When you make these (which I really think you SHOULD!), be sure to SHARE YOUR PHOTOS with me through Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. I’d love to see what you cook from here!