How To Bake Pandesal and Other Breads

Anyone baking breads for so long has to know which works for a particular recipe and not. I have been a long time user of Purefood's Flour for about 10 or so years and had to change only because i am here in New York.. I have only managed to use King Arthur Flour so far and it is okay... I am still looking for that extra push and volume but this could also be caused by other factors and not just the flour only.. so i am not ending the sentence... This weekend i made a regular lean dough using just 20 % whole wheat flour (king arthur) and Gold Medal's Better For Bread flour.. I am disappointed. Again, i am not closing the door yet, not until i have made at least 5 testings, but  i switched flours before and this never happened to me. The bread did produce a satisfactory height, there was no "oven spring" even if i used an almost 14 hour sponge, (strange) and the texture of the finished product in the crust is similar to one made from all purpose flour... Can someone...

  If there is food and wine pairings, there has to be bread and whatever is out there pairings...I know.. You do this too remember, like when you have nothing appetizing laid out for you because you do not eat pork and everyone else eats them. Poor me. So you make sure that when you bake breads, since you cannot be doing this everyday (unless you managed to sneak some from your class) you have to freeze at least a loaf or 4 pieces of sandwich rolls. This is your insurance. This will ensure you get to eat like the rest of the population. Or starve. Imagine you, teaching breads and you finish work, tired and all, and the helper saying to you" ma'am sher, kain na (let's eat)", When you ask her what's for lunch, she tells you it's pork adobo or pork sinigang, veggies with pork etc., If it isn't pork, then it is something almost similar, that is , a dish  swimming in lard. Now you know why i had to learn how to bake breads. Breads offer you an endless arra...

When I left the restaurant scene out of a broken eardrum (no, not from swimmer's ear) I decided to take up on baking seriously since i know i will not dwell well in the hot kitchen or as we call it "the back of the house".. It was hot, you bump on to guys who are sweating round the clock and being new and a "girl" you kinda like the unofficial muse in the kitchen and nobody takes you seriously. Seriously. It is true, these guys all 8 of them trained together for a month before they opened the restaurant so they know each other. Here you are, apprenticing and so small you look pretty much like you entered the restaurant looking for your father. Meaning one of the cooks. For a while you do not seem to care, but later on as the gruelling task of unending potato peeling and onion chopping, you feel like you needed to say something, or else, you will be buried with more potatoes and onions to peel and chop. Not that it looked so bad, after all there were 3 of us. Ver...

THE TEXTURE AND THE INNER CRUMB IS SOFT AND LOOSE HOMEMADE SOFT BUNS WITH TOMATO AND BEAN THICK SOUP RECIPE FOR THE SOUP garlic 2 tbsps minced onions and celery 4 tbsps minced carrots 1/2 cup diced saute' over low fire until they soften black olives, 2 tbsps diced 2 cups of dice or crushed tomatoes in can, add this to the pot, simmer and then add; garbanzo beans kidney beans black beans lentils a cup of each of these or use any beans you have in your pantry; slowly simmer until sligthly thickened, about 30 minutes over low fire,add; leeks, 2 tbsps chopped parsley, 1 tbsp or more basil, 2 tbsps or more button mushrooms, 1 cup sliced salt and pepper or chilli garlic to taste, slowly simmer for another 5 minutes more and serve... with your favorite bread... I like to eat this with my homemade baguette or crusty foccaccia, i would add fresh herbs after reheating to get that off the garden snap in my mouth.. The Soft Buns all purpose flour 500 grams yeast ...

I just got an email asking me about mixers, the subject i believe is an open ended topic, no definite answer, what you get is what you end up with. Once you buy that mixer, you are stuck with it, the best thing to do is just try to learn how to operate the mixer the most efficient way possible despite its many flaws...If you are one of the "unlucky few", it does not mean you have to rid of the mixer and buy a new one. There will always be a way to run that mixer, still get some good mileage out of it while you save "again" hopefully for a better mixer. My first mixer, a Kitchen Aid 4.5 quart which i used to make cookies, cakes and icings. Nope, no yeast dough ever made it through this one. I tried to mix twice, an ensaimada dough and a pullman/loaf bread but it took 45 minutes plus 3 chilling times to finish the job. If you will use a sponge or starter in your yeast doughs, you might be able to get a good batch of around 300-400 grams of flour with this model. Shown...

RAISIN AND NUTS ROLLS -- One of my very few favorite breads to eat when i want some carbs, usually half of these batch is destined of course to my sister's house since she and my niece love it, but not anymore since i left 2 months ago. The only difficult thing about this recipe is that, raisins are unpredictable when you use them in baking. If they are too dry, they soak up the moisture in the batter or dough, too wet, makes for a sticky dough. They also have the tendency to fall out of the baked bread, and burn when you forget to soak them. Soak the raisins in warm water at least two hours before using them, then drain at least an hour before you start mixing. Never add the raisins during mixing, pulse them AFTER THE GLUTEN has developed or you will wait for 2 days for this dough to rise!!! The crushed raisins affect the fermentation, believe me it happened to me. Add the raisins gradually while pulsing the mixer at low speed until the raisins/and nuts is distributed in the dough...