Dough Enrichment, Adding Nutrients and Enhancing your Breads

There are so many things that you can do with your plain dough such as a baguette or pandesal dough. I love enhancing the dough with all sorts of grains, herbs, spices, seeds, dried fruits, nuts, and so on. Nothing should stop you from creating another bread from the same Pandesal plain dough or the pizza dough you have stashed in your freezer. Even store bough doughs can be made into something more interesting and hearty.

I am sprinkling the dough with ground flax seed and chia seeds.

Fold and lightly knead the seeds into the dough, be careful not to put too much pressure because you will stiffen the dough and need to relax it back again to shape it.

Pesto Baguette

Or smear your favorite chilli, garlic and onion oil on the dough for a spicier kick

Spicy Ciabatta Toast with Basil

of fill your favorite Loaf bread with the same pesto or garlic filling. I have tried spinach and cheese as well.

However way you want to dress your bread, try using a small amount first and then add more the next time you bake. You can also grate carrots, sweet potato and other root crops into the dough for a healthier twist.

For hands on baking lessons, visit www.breadmakinglessons.com for more details. Lessons start again on November and December.

Text me at 09495705091 and ask for Shirley Villafranca

LET'S BAKE BREAD!!!

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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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