Many cultures all around the world have their own recipes of sweet fried dough. The French with their beignets, the Italians their zeppoles, the Americans with their crazy sweet doughnuts, so on and so forth. Not ones to be left behind the Mangalorians have their own recipe which they call “buns”, plain and simple. Buns or Mangalore buns as they are called in other places, is basically made by frying a slightly fermented dough made from flour, yogurt/curd, butter, sugar, baking soda and a pinch of salt. Some add bananas, some add grated coconut. When dusted with powdered sugar it tastes just like French beignets. As kids we (both my sister and myself) used to devour this with such fervor, it literally used to disappear. Amma used to make it for breakfast with moong dal usli, which as kids, we used to ignore and pretend as if it didn’t exist . By evening we would be begging her to make some more for tea time. She would have made enough dough to fry up another batch anyways.

Ingredients :

• Yogurt/Curds – 1 cup.
• Maida (all purpose flour)-  3 cup. (approx)
• Sugar – 6 Tbsp
• Butter (Softened)- 2 Tbsp.
• Salt – 1/4 Tsp.
• Cooking soda ( baking soda ) – 1/4 Tsp.
• Oil – enough for deep frying.

Method :

1. Sieve the flour.
2. In a mixing bowl add yogurt, sugar, salt, butter and baking soda. Mix it well.
3. Add the flour a little at a time and kneed to a smooth dough. This dough is sticky so put enough flour till very little dough is left sticking on the hand while kneading.
4. Keep covered for 8 to 10 hour.
5. Make even sized balls, dredge in the flour and roll out,  thicker than normal puris.
6. Deep fry in hot oil till golden brown on both side.

Variation : 

1. Add 1 Tbsp of fresh grated coconut to the dough.
2. Add 1 small mashed ripe banana (preferably devbale or baby banana) to the dough. In this case leave out the sugar and slightly increase the maida to get the consistency.
3. Sprinkle powdered sugar with a little bit of powdered cardamom on top of the fried buns, while they are hot.

Notes:

Adjust the sugar according to your taste. This recipe makes it medium-low sweet. I usually add about 3 Tbsp as I prefer it to be with just a hint sweetness and add powdered sugar on top for those who want it sweeter. I have even seen people enjoy these less sweeter versions with sambar and chutney.