Year End Bakes 2013

It was a great year, these last couple of months was tiring but very interesting, students now had more yeast dough knowledge than before so i guess they are reading nowadays. I mean reading more and more before they come to class compared to years before when some students barely know what household measure is versus gram scales. Below are just some of the breads we baked in class. It was fun to play with the dough if you know what you are doing. Going back to the tiring question if 3 days is enough to learn all these, my answer of course is not. I cannot pick a right term for it, but neither i nor Daniel Leader of Bread Alone learned how to bake breads in 3 days. My baking class used to be 4-5 days, reduced to just 3 to make it cheaper for everyone to get a glimpse of commercial baking. However, you can do it. 3 days is better than nothing at all. The only quirk i have is that i do not accept 1-2 day sessions, it has to be a minimum of 3. Happy New Year to all!!!

ABOVE ARE ARTISAN BREADS FROM MY 2 DAY SPONGE AND DOUGH METHOD CLASS.

BAKED AND STEAMED SIOPAO, NO TIME DOUGH 3 DAY CLASS

PROOFING

THE BASTON CUT, if you take the 5 day class you will more or less likely get even perfect cuts just like the ones above. Students get the chance to do the baston cuts 3-4 times within the 5 day class.

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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

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