The city of Mumbai loves its bread. After all, it is home to bread-y treats such as the spicy vada pav and the classic Bombay sandwich. While these are savoury, bread is also a hot favourite with pastry chefs here. “Bread is extremely versatile since it adds texture in different formats from soft to crunchy. It also absorbs liquids well like in a classic French toast,” says chef Rachel Goenka, founder of The Chocolate Spoon Company. For her cookbook Adventures with Mithai (2019), Goenka reimagined the Mughlai dessert ‘shahi tukda’ as cinnamon rolls in a dish called ‘Shahi Tukda Cinnamon Rolls with Rabri Cream’.

The US celebrates ‘Real Bread Week’ between February 19 and February 27 every year to encourage eating bread from local bakeries. Mumbai doesn’t particularly need an excuse for that because it does so daily anyway. Mid-day Online asked pastry chefs to talk about the sweet possibilities of bread. 

While Chef Irfan Pabaney uses brioche to make the Sweet Pull Aparts (left), Chef Rachel Goenka has used simple sliced bread to make Shahi Tukda Cinnamon Rolls (right). Photo Courtesy: Olive Pizzeria/The Chocolate Spoon Company 

Proof in the pudding 
Goenka’s love for bread extends beyond her restaurants, where the team experiments with bread often. For her cookbook dish, she decided to make use of easily available sliced bread so that it would be easy  for anyone who wants to make it at home. Apart from the rolls, Goenka has also made a kala jamun bread and butter pudding, where bread is the star ingredient.