Spicy Creamcheese Buns

If you have visited 'Iyengar Bakery' in southern Indian states, you know about khara bread. You can read about that here. Imagine yourself wanting to eat them, but have to use up a block of cream cheese somehow. These buns were conceived. I have not used onions like most of the khara breads use since I thought of using the onion powder instead. When I did open the onion powder to add it to the dough, I didn't like the smell of it, so left it out. These are great with a cup of coffee or you can even make a spicy burger with it. Now that I think of it, I would like my sandwich or burger to have some flavor in the bun/bread part too. So, if you are like me, you will love these. They are so flaky and soft that it is hard not to finish the whole batch.

One year back - Vegan Vanilla Cake
Two years back - Vegan Peanut butter Cornmeal Cookies
Adapted from - Cream Cheese Sweet Bread
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 3 cups
Warm water - 1/2 cup
Cream cheese - 1 block (8 Oz) at room temperature (I used 1/3 fat)
Salt - 1 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 1 TBSP
Green chillies - 12 chopped very fine (or per taste. You could use red chilli flakes)
Cilantro - 1/2 cup chopped fine (Or your favorite herb - See Notes)
Instant yeast - 2 tsp (Use 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast instead)

Optional:
Milk to brush the rolls/buns before baking
Butter or oil to brush rolls/buns after baking

Method:
To make the dough by hand: Mix the warm water, sugar, yeast. Let it froth for 5 - 10 minutes. Start mixing the cream cheese, salt and the flour to the yeast mixture and knead it for about 5 - 8 minutes. Knead in the chopped green chillies and cilantro. If needed, adjust the dough by adding a TBSP or more flour. Dough should be silky and not sticky or tacky. Coat with a bit of oil and cover and let rise till double about one hour. When the dough has doubled in volume, punch down and deflate and proceed with shaping the dough and baking as described below.

To make the dough in a bread machine: Place all the ingredients in the bread machine pan in this order. Water, cream cheese, salt, sugar, flour and yeast. Set the machine on dough setting and start. Add the cilantro and chillies after a minute or two of the dough cycle. When the cycle is complete, take the dough out, deflate it and proceed to shaping.

To Shape and Bake:
Lightly spray a large baking sheet with vegetable oil spray. Set aside. Divide the deflated dough into 12 equal parts. Shape the rolls. Place them on the baking sheet leaving enough space between them so that they do not touch each other. Cover with an oiled aluminum foil and let rise till double - about 45 - 60 minutes. When the dough has doubled, preheat the oven to 375 F. Brush the loaf with milk if desired. I didn't do it. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes (mine were done at 25) or until nicely browned. Brush with butter or oil if desired. Remove to the wire rack to cool completely. Serve warm or at room temperature with a cup of coffee.

Today is day 13 of the Bake-A-Thon.  My fellow bloggers doing this are - Preethi, Veena, Priya. Sending these to Susan's 'Yeastspotting'.

Enjoy.