August Special Hands On Class

Just sharing my special hands on session with two brothers, 3 days as usual and these guys are beginners which is mostly what i usually get to teach since 2001. Honestly, i would have occasional students who have attended baking lessons somewhere else, you know trying to update their skills, some have attended only a few weeks before and some were like months or years ago. That is normal. If you take these lessons, be sure to practice, practice, practice no less than a week after you take the class. Everything should be fresh in your mind especially, if you have never baked breads before. I always tell them, do not let a week go by without baking at least a flatbread, or a small batch of dinner rolls because it keeps you interested, and for ehem...rich people sometimes this is a problem. Unless this is really what you have been dreaming for the past 10 years or so and not just some whim because you happen to bite into a crusty roll and you liked it, baking will be like a routine to you. Something that happened to me, way back 1995. I will tell you that story on my next post and i apologize if i have not been posting regularly, because another passion of mine have taken over my timeline at the moment and i am obsessing to be honest with you so please bear with me. It was fun teaching these two,and for the first time in my class, someone ate 5 Sugar Donuts in less than half an hour. Right there, while sitting one of the boys who at first was too shy when i offered for them to taste the freshly fried batch of Sugar Donuts using the Cinnamon Roll dough. But the moment Pancho tasted one, oh boy, and when i realized that he liked it, i told him to just grab all the donuts on the plate. I did not expect that he would eat all of them. Hahaha! I thought he would pack 3, and just eat another piece, but that was heaven to me. To see that my students not only liked what we do, but love them is joy. Pure joy. So have a look at the photos, i forgot to take a photo of Day 2 breads, something that never happened to me before because i love taking photos of the breads from start to finish but i was distracted somehow so the photos of the hamburger and hotdog buns are not here.

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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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