Pandesal

I still have a hangover from last week's spring break and Cherlin is a little sick (so she wants mommy by her side), hence I'm quite late for my post today...but better late than never, right?! Besides, I'm sure you'll love my recipe for today regardless of the time I post it. :) I made pandesal again last week, and they turned out really good! So I know it's time to share it with you...

Pandesal (Pan de Sal) which means salt bread in Spanish is a famous roll in the Philippines. It is usually eaten during breakfast to accompany a morning cup of coffee, but it is good for snacks too. It is made of flour, eggs, yeast, sugar, and salt. It is the most popular yeast-raised bread in the Philippines which can be eaten plain or with “palaman”(filling) like butter (or margarine), fruit jams, and peanut butter or anything your taste buds want. I love it with corned beef, sardines, scrambled eggs and Viena sausage.

In the Philippines, pandesal is sold everywhere: bakeries, market, grocery stores, and convenience stores…but here in Texas, you can rarely find it…so the only way to enjoy it is to bake it from scratch. I tried it twice already, and it came out good. I even put filling in some of my pandesal dough so I wouldn't have to slice it after baking. Yummy indeed!

It’s a little time consuming to prepare like siopao, but it’s worth it!

* I shared this on Let's Break Bread Together , Melt in Your Mouth Monday, Hearth and Soul Hop, Delectable Tuesday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Tasty Tuesdays, Tuesdays At The Table, Made From Scratch Tuesday and What's On The Menu Wednesday.

Yield 28 pcs.

Ingredients:

• 1 envelope active dry yeast (0.25 oz)
• ¾ cup warm water
• 1 Tbsp sugar (for activating the yeast)
• 4 cups bread flour
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• ¼ cup unsalted butter
• ¾ cup evaporated milk
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vegetable oil
• ¾ cup bread crumbs
• about ¾ cup all purpose flour for dusting

Procedure:

1. Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand for 10 minutes. Be sure to use just warm water. Too hot water kills the yeast. The mixture should increase in volume if the yeast is active.

 

2. In a large bowl, combine 4 cups bread flour, ½ cup sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix well. Add the butter, milk, egg, vegetable oil and yeast mixture. Mix until well combined.

3. On a clean surface dusted with flour, knead the mixture into a smooth elastic dough. Shape into a ball and put back in the mixing bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 30 minutes. Knead the dough again, shape into a ball and put back in the mixing bowl and let it rise until it has doubled in size, which is about 45 minutes.

4. Punch the dough, knead again and divide the dough into three for easy rolling. Roll each piece of dough into a log about 2 inches in diameter. Using a dough cutter or a flat knife, cut the log diagonally into pieces of desired thickness. Mine is about 1½ inches.

  

5. You can put filling in the pandesal just like I did with 2/3 of my dough. The first time I made pan de sal, I used corned beef and viena sausage, then sardines and  sauted ground pork the second time. If you decide to do so, put your desired filling in the middle of the dough then let the edges meet. Seal and shape into oval. Roll over breadcrumbs and arrange on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper. If you don't like filling in it, just roll the dough pieces on breadcrumbs and  arrange on the wax paper covered cookie sheet.

6. In the Philippines, pandesal are baked in such a way that they stick to each other. I want that in my pandesal so I put the dough pieces on the cookie sheet with just 1 cm gap. If you don't want them sticking to each other, leave a larger gap between each piece, about 1 ½ inch. Let the dough rise for about 15 minutes, the last time before baking the bread.

 7. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake for 20 minutes or until the pandesal becomes light brown. (After the first 10 minutes of baking, turn each pandesal upside down so it may turn brown on the other side too.)

 

8. Pandesal is best enjoyed straight from the oven.  But you can also reheat left-over pandesal either in microwave or oven toaster. Pandesal can last up to a maximum of five days. Put them in a ziploc bag and store in room temperature or in the refrigerator.

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