OMCAN 20 QUART MIXER

So my mixer came in yesterday, and boy it was hefty. Somehow the dimension as printed in their website did not configure well in my brain as i pore over the pages since my mind was set on a bigger mixer. I used a 10 quart mixer for 12 years and i did not want to settle on the same size. Looks like this 20 quart model is way too big, i can set up a bakery on my own with just this one. I wish i had one this big back when i was teaching back home in the Philippines, i could have made my lessons so much easier.

Anyway, it was a good deal and i like the features it has. I still need to wait for my bread improver to arrive, i have tested several brands of flour here and i want to try mixing a sweet yeast dough with a bread improver this time. Problem is, if i make a sweet yeast dough, the sponge is not enough to extend the shelf life to more than 5 days. I am currently thinking of devising some natural ingredients to fix this problem, looking into our pantry to see if there is some hidden magic ingredient there that i can use to replace the bread improver somehow.

The best thing is that i would be mixing a bigger batch this time, instead of the 1 kilogram batch i do back home. Pretty neat!!!! The only downside i see is that the bowl is heavier than me, for those who have attended my baking classes, you know what i mean right? I am intimidated by the balloon whisk, it looks like one of Freddie Kruger's weapon or something.

Another problem with my experiments is that there are not too many occupants in this house to eat my breads. Half a kilo would take a week and a half to disappear while in the Philippines, 1 kilogram of dough would be gone in two days. I am too shy to knock on our neighbor's door lugging a baguette on my arm. This neighborhood has not grown on me yet. I saw a squirrel the other day, and i sowed some seeds and onions into pots yesterday. I need to see more green after weeks of torturing winter cold and snow.

Comments

3rd Class Flour, What's It All About

For starters i cannot make this Hard Monay if i did not bring any 3rd class flour or soft weak flour to New York. Once i ran out of 3rd class and tried Cake Flour, it turned bad, do not even think of using All Purpose, it will be soft but not chewy as this one made with yes, 3rd class indeed. So third class is hard to find here in the US if you will use that term. You have to say or look for soft wheat flour, that's it, not hard wheat flour, not cake or All purpose but something in between these two. It is easy to find in the Phil., just ask your local bakery suppliers and they know it is Tercera. Tercera is not for bread, bakers use it basically for cookies, cakes and other pastries, but we bakers know how to create bread recipes using part of this flour with the bread flour or hard wheat flour. It makes a softer version of any of your fave breads, with a cheaper price tag. Plus if i own a bakery, i get to use the third class for my cakes and cookies, lowering my food cos

Cutting Pandesal, Baston Style

So how do we really do the Baston style "singkit" cut? First start with a slightly stiff dough, if your dough does not have eggs or eggyolks, a hydration of around 55% is ideal. I have seen bakers use less water, but that will make your Pandesal too dry and dense after 1 day or so so try to keep it slightly on the soft side, but not too sticky. Why? If you use a sticky dough for the Baston style cut, the dough will spread and will have a flat look rather than a rounded shape we are all familiar with. In Tagalog, "lalapad" ang dough so medyo flat ung Pandesal. So after you mix the dough, divide it into 2 to 4 portions if you are mixing kilogram. Experienced bakers divide their dough into 500 gram portions, i do mine the same way. Flatten the dough, focusing more on the length and not on the height. The height of the dough should be around 2 to 3 inches only. Next, fold the dough while pinching the edges making sure the dough surface

Kape at Pandesal

When someone emailed me about Kape at Pandesal, i suddenly felt home sick. Just these two words. Dipping Pandesal in coffee. Who got this phenomenon or practice started? We all know the colonial Spanish era and Gregorio Zaide mentioned our fondness for idling around in the history books (Juan Tamad and siesta), but for breakfast? Who wants to jump up and down when you wake up? This is the answer. Dunking the warm, crispy Pandesal into hot, steaming coffee. How did this thing start? Who invented it? What made the Pinoys dunk their Pandesal? Maybe the Pandesal in those days are rock hard, or maybe it is one way to sweeten the bread. Baka may alamat dito. Is it because the Pandesal is salty in those days? After all, sal means salt right? The Italians love to dunk their Biscotti in coffee, but the Biscotti deserves it. Seriously, Biscottis if not dunked in coffee can give you a free tooth extraction. But the Pandesal? Okay to some, it cools down the coffee. Don't tell me they

How To Bake Pandesal and Other Breads

Search This Blog