Skip to main content

Last Session


Breads proofing, Day 1 of my Hands on class which i call the Pandesal session. I decided to do some tweaking with the regular varieties i usually do with the students so since i have Ube Haleya left over from Christmas, i made some Ube Rolls.

Using 30 grams of the sweet yeast dough, we filled it up with pre made Ube, rolled it into a coil and placed them on cupcake liners into muffin pans.




See the Ube?


The same dough, no filling, 30 grams as well, but with toppings. That right there is one dough with two variations. The same dough can also be made into Special Pandesal if you so wish, depending on your mood which i suggest you do if you are a beginner. In fact, what i teach my class is that, it is part of a sound bakery management, a true test of your baking skill and business acumen to be able to create as many variations, basta bagay sa dough or masa. Something like, 1 sack of flour, 12 variations, but the dough you use to make Pandesal, Spanish Bread, Pan de coco, Soft Buns, etc., cannot be made into a Baguette or Ciabatta. Parang oa na, and besides the latter needs a different type of dough.


If you have kids in the house, this is the bestseller. Dunk it in sugar (c'mon, not going to be everyday anyway so why not?)after smearing it with margarine and voila. We used Spring because it tastes clean and sweetish. Kids (and even adults) will devour them in seconds, as long as the bread is soft and fluffy, and yummy.



The Pandesal dough, plain, with Corned Beef and Spanish Bread.
You can still take the hands on baking class scheduled on January 31, Feb 3 and 5, my last one before i leave for New York. Thank you to all my students, some of you are on my facebook so i get to see what is happening to you guys. May your business grow, may you find joy in honing your craft, and may your baking be merry.



Incidentally, i got home safe from renewing my passport today. I left at 8:30 am for an 11:30 am appointment and got there 11:15 am. No driver available so i almost took a bus going there, good thing i saw this cab and took one. Had i not boarded it, or even spent 15 minutes trying to get a ride, i would have been so late. I have no idea it was so far, like it was the end of the world. My fare was 450 pesos, gave him a 50 peso tip, seems fair enough i guess because he did not make me get off. I was just wondering, even with the appointment system, the lines are still way too long. Although it was not as worst as the time i waited for my medical to be released, (10 hours), i left the DFA building around 2 pm. Still i think there should be a satellite office somewhere in Quezon City and let those who live near Manila go to this one. One thing is for sure, i would never get an afternoon schedule. Taft avenue near MRT smells horrible, squalid, gutter ridden. Calling MMDA. I was fine with the idea of commuting for a change, may wifi ang bus, sosyal, and there was not too much traffic going home. I paid P64.00 from MRT to Sm Fairview, not bad, then took a cab home, another P80.00. That is less than $5.00. Still way much less than what i would spend if i am in New York. Huh. 1 1/2 km cab ride will cost you $16.00 back and forth. Hohum. My passport better arrive as promised.


Mother and daughter after the baking.

Comments

Anonymous said…
It is really a nice and useful piece of info. I am satisfied that you shared this useful information with us. Please keep us up to date like this. Thank you for sharing.
Scarpa Women's Kailash GTX Lady Hiking Boot

Popular posts from this blog

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