How To Bake Pandesal and Other Breads

When you're at that stage when you're doctor tells you to cut on white bread and start whole grain,  you know you are old. Yup. And so for the past few years I have been supplying my sister with all sorts of breads with this and that. Meaning I add just about anything that can put a new skin on my breads so I can call it healthy er and whole grain. Luckily for us who knows how to do it, I admit my early years have produced failures such as theb awful spinach bread that only me and my helper ate and the slimy flax bread that told me too much of the good stuff is also bad. Now this Pandesal has oatmeal, atta flour or fine whole wheat and potatoes. I used m6 KitchenAid because I want to make smaller batches. The whole baking bread is my one routine I want to do on a weekly basis so a large batch was never an option. Once again, I start with a refreshed starter and then slow rise the dough for about 12 to as much as 24 hrs depending in the crumb I want. Longer rise if i want la...

It starts with the freshest ingredients you can find. No weevil infested or forgotten flour in the pantry, but newly unloaded from the car flour. Then you make a sponge. Then you  wait. After all, as I tell my students, baking is all about patience. And patience needs time. This dough was made with a pate fermentee', 50% and then made to rest for another night in a cool 10 degree C pantry. Your refrigerator will do the job. No need to go to New York. Slow rise. That's the key.  I also did not use any additives so the bread was redolent of that slight tangy yeasty goodness. The crumb structure was fine since I did not over proof it and used a high 375 F for the first 20 mutes then brought it down to 325 for an extra 35 minutes to develop the thick crust.

For those who are just starting to bake cakes, I know what it was like to fail and feel horrible for days after. Imagine spending 100 pesos for a bar of butter, all that eggs and the dishes you have to wash after...it is absolutely a nightmare when that cake fails to rise. Based from my experience, the mist common mistake it the most basic rule in baking. Reading the recipe. Sure, we all know how to read. But in baking, reading goes beyond the fine print. Sometimes I get annoyed when "cut into small squares " gets read cut into big rectangles.  Sabing squares eh, pero rectangle ang ginawa. Or,  "boil the water and reduce to simmer then add the sifted cocoa", but no, he reduced the water and then he added the cocoa. Ha ha ha. It is confusing and baking sometimes makes a fool of a genius or makes someone really look and feel awkward for the first time in his or her life. I saw a doctor cringed at the sight of eggwhites being whipped. So now that I am teaching my...

So I got seriously obsessed with these red mongo breads lately. Believe it or not, the filling was plain boiled and pureed red mongo beans and brown sugar but Michelle, one of my November students cant help but snack on the palaman. So I showed them.how to fill a braid or plait with mongo and when it was done, I sliced it up and saved it for my nocturnal snacking. Yeah. I am old in wake up early everyday. No exception. Anyway, I don't know what got to me but I ate a quarter of the loaf  (got to save some for my ate). You see, I make it a point to share to my dear sister anything great that I tasted or created from my kitchen. If it was just so and so, I don't bother sending them to her. And so 3 days before I left for New York (she won't stay quiet mind you if she liked something ) she dropped by my kitchen for a 4 batch 20 some piece  pound cake baking, that she asked me "ano yong binigay mo na tinapay na may palaman"? I said that's Mongo and you are lucky...

50% sponge with 15% Oatmeal, these loaves will be our baon for Baler and hopefully some makes it to LA Union. I added some turmeric for color and sesame seeds as toppings. This batch also has 3% potatoes for extra shelf life although I'm  worried that due to the heat and because I left the anti mold out,  i need to have them refrigerated or frozen to make them last longer.

Baking and at the same time discovering the many facets of baking from the ingredients to the people doing the baking. That's where my life evolve as of now and for the past 15 some years.  I sound old. Not too bad considering i do really know how to bake my breads. But  part of the fun is when you discover stuff you never expected such as garlic added to the dough may have helped the proofing when you made a Ciabatta. I am not saying it is proven yet but I did notice it several times already. Or when you replaced the potatoes with the box type and get a surprising flavor you have never tasted before in a Pandesal. Or when the bread did not rise because you pureed the raisins and turns out it retards proofing.... That's  baking to you. When I explain to students how difficult it is to deal with the water in the dough, i  try my best not to discourage them. It is what it is. The only way to get perfect results is to keep baking and find out how  fascinating ye...

As always, and as often as I tell my students proofing is subjective. How you proof your dough depends on the kind of bread you want to make and what your customers want. Shown in the photos are two overproofed but not to the point where they collapsed  (that would have been way too overproofed) bread. Not exactly what I want for the day but we were still mixing our third dough which was the Siopao and I could not attend to the reheating and baking while lecturing and mixing at the same time so this batch got away. The open grain tells you that it is overproofed so if you do not want this, then simply proof less. Also consider the temperature in the proofing area, especially if you do not use a proofing cabinet with  a built in thermostat.

I showed Lesley how to make a Sourdough starter yesterday and I cannot believe how bubbly the starter is as shown on the photos below. We did not use any yeast at all.  Just 1 cup bread flour and 1 cup tap water. I used a glass jar then whipped the batter using the butt end of a wooden spatula. I read somewhere that you should not use stainless steel so... I covered  it with cling wrap and then secured the top with a rubber band. After Lesley and sisters left, I placed the jar inside my room up fronting the window. I know they should be in a warm place but the weather isn't exactly cold so the window is a perfect place. This morning as usual, my routine after an all day hands on class is to   head on to the coffee machine so since the jar was near the coffeemaker,  I glanced on the starter. Not really on purpose since the last starter I made from June's group hands on class was just so and so. Normally, the bubbles appear after 2 days, so I was surprised to...

Love love the class this June. I enjoyed the company of true bread aficionados, wuich made me realize iba Pala feeling pag ang mga kasama mo are like you. I barely noticed the time and it was so much fun. We created large breads on our last day and I ate almost all of the Raisin Soft Monay. Actually, i woke up at 2 am and sneaked into the dark kitchen to take a bite of the bread. Yum! You see, I am truly blessed to have the knowledge of making breads at a whim. I just thought about adding glazed fruits and cranberries next time or maybe my favorite chunky Skippy peanut butter and guava jelly. Mmmm. Exciting. Going back 1995, I made the right decision enrolling in a 2 year culinary school instead of a computer course. I wouldn't be this happy. I would not have met these beautiful people, my students. More photos to come..... Enrollment still on for July to November at www.breadmakinglessons.com

Extremely hot but that is what these doughs like so I am not complaining.

So the last batch of dough I made from 2 weeks back was turned into Pandesal as promised. Only about 20 large pieces though, I just winged it since I was so tired from all the cooking and cleaning.  That is life in the US, you want to eat home cooked meals? Better prepare to do the clean up as well. As usual, I gave my brother some and when he went down from his room, he asked me why this Pandesal was different from all the other Pandesal I have made from the past 5 years that I have been here. Well, I said other than the fact that I used 4 egg yolks,  and a sponge, i also used 3rd class in the formula. Not to mention that this dough was retarded (not in a derogatory way), meaning I delayed the process of fermentation by storing it in a cool area. I kinda agree it was superior to the rest of the Pandesal I have made so I plan to introduce this to my upcoming lessons. Exciting. That's what bread making is all about,there is always something new to learn every time you bake. ...