PANDESAL (Filipino Breakfast Bread Rolls)

Pandesal (Filipino Breakfast Bread Rolls) are a must on every Filipino table during breakfast in the Philippines.  This tasty and slightly sweet bread rolls are usually bought early in the morning in every neighbourhood local bakery.  Steaming hot with crusty exterior and that recognizable crumbs, they are packaged in traditional rectangular brown paper bag.

Some prefer to dunk Pandesal in their morning coffee and eat it that way.  Others fill their Pandesal with Reno Liver Spread, Mayonnaise, Scrambled Eggs, Fried Spam or Hotdog, Ham, Peanut Butter, Coconut jam or just plain good old butter…sky’s the limit on what filling you want!

Here in Brissy, Australia….Pandesal is a bit expensive to have, they are sold around AUD$4.50 per dozen and Mr. H even bought a packet for AUD$7-8.00 on one of the Filipino gatherings in Southbank.  It is a luxury thing to have, as a packet of slice bread only cost AUD$2-3.00…so of course the TRIBE only buy Pandesal whenever we have that craving we cannot handle…hehehehehe!

But since I had BBlicious (mixer), I’ve put her hard at work whipping batches of Pandesal here in my kitchen.  We haven’t bought bread for almost a month now and I think it will be a long time before the TRIBE gets sick of Pandesal.

True meaning of Pandesal in Spanish (Pan de Sal) is “Salt Bread”.

 

PANDESAL adapted from Sefie Eats

INGREDIENTS:

4 cups (500g) all purpose flour (I used bread flour)

3 tspn instant dried yeast

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 tspn salt

5 tbspn softened butter

1 tbspn oil

1 egg

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup evaporated milk

1/2 cup fresh milk

 

bread crumbs

*used AUS Measuring Cups & Spoons

 

COOKING PROCEDURE:

~  Combine flour, sugar, salt and yeast.

~  Lightly mix the dry ingredients with your dough hook and then add egg, butter and oil.  Put your mixer into Speed 1 and let the egg, butter and oil mix with the dry ingredients.  Place your fresh milk, evaporated milk and water in a microwavable container and heat it up for 45 seconds first, before pouring it to  your Pandesal mix.

~  Once the Pandesal mix becomes overall wet, increase the Speed to 2 and knead for 15 minutes in the mixer.

~  Prepare a stainless steel large mixing bowl and wipe the inside with an oiled kitchen paper towel.  Once the kneading is done, turn off the mixer and remove the dough hook and bowl out of the mixer stand.  Lightly oil you hands and remove the dough.  Tuck in the edges of the dough underneath to create a smooth top surface before placing it inside your oiled mixing bowl.  Cover the bowl with cling wrap.

~  If the weather is hot, just leave the bowl on your kitchen bench but if it’s cold…. pour some hot boiling water in a container and place it inside your oven (turned off) on the bottom level.  Position your covered Pandesal dough on a rack above the hot water container, close the door oven and leave it there for 1 hour (same amount of time if it’s on the kitchen bench), until it double in size.

~  Place 2 handfuls of flour on one of the corners of your cleaned kitchen bench.  Lightly flour your kneading area with a bit of your flour.  Take out the risen Pandesal dough out of the mixing bowl and knead/punch down the air out of it.  If it gets too sticky, lightly flour your hands and pat the overall exterior of the dough.  Roll the dough till it becomes elongated.  Using a 1/3 measuring cup, scoop some of the dough and level it up with your inner palm and with a sweeping motion (using your palm) cut the dough on the edges of the measuring cup.

~  Cup each Pandesal dough portions with your right hand and roll it into a ball in an anti clockwise motion, if it gets too sticky, dust your hands with some flour.  Dip each rolled Pandesal dough into the bread crumbs.  Before placing it in your baking tray, make the dough slightly oval shaped.  Distance each dough portions about 2-2.5cm away from each other.  Cover the baking tray with cling wrap loosely.

~  Let it rise for another hour (hot weather – leave it on the kitchen bench, cold weather – inside the oven with hot water underneath), it will double its size again.

~  Preheat your oven 200C and bake your tray of Pandesal on the top second rack for 10-15 minutes.

~  Once cooked slide the Pandesal rolls into a wire cooling rack immediately.

MAKES:  15-16 Pandesal Rolls

 

NOTES:

• You don’t need the baking paper sheet as shown in the pictures, I’m just crazy!

• I find that when I used a lighter baking tray the bottoms of the Pandesal rolls are lighter than the ones baked in the darker baking trays.

• Check your oven temperature, my first batches of Pandesals have bottoms that was a bit overdone while the top still haven’t achieved that nice crusty golden colour.  I’ve tried everything, placing another tray on the lower rack….doubling my baking tray, the solution?  Surprise, surprise!  Lower your oven temperature=)  Ovens are not all the same, some are more psychotic than others.

• If 1/3 cup (makes 15-16 pieces.) is a bit large to your liking, use a 1/4 cup (makes 20-21 pieces).

• I tried portioning the dough like the Professional Panaderos (Bakers) in the Philippines by cutting it with a dough cutter, but the Pandesal rolls sizes were not uniformed, so I gave up!

• You can freeze Pandesal Rolls once they’re completely cooled down.  I seal them up in rows inside freezer bags and freeze them that way.  I take a packet out of the freeze and defrost them inside the fridge overnight, ready to be reheated the following morning for breakfast.