February Session

Sipping warm berry zinger and salabat tea with a squeeze of half a lemon, one week and i am still reeling from this nightmarish of a cough and headache. So yes, i have not baked for a week now, a record feat since i was hospitalized 8 years ago.

I know myself, i am a workhorse when it comes to baking, i even managed to make a dough night the before i left for New York, a cookie dough that is for my sister. If i get wind of you saying how much you loved the cookie, you will get a batch a few days after. That is me. To some Pinoys it is OA, KSP, whatever.

Anyway, so Yola emailed me last night, told me oh, yes, you just renewed your Silver package, so da da da da da. I was told to unpublish my site, then republish it. I think my finger got kalyo, doing this over and over so i gave up and emailed them back. If my site does not go back, well, i found a new home.

Please go over to my Weebly site and i promise to make it look better than my yola. Still a work in progress, i am trying to open my thousands of image file from this Toshiba usb which has my cake photos to no avail so that will put a damper in my work. But needless to say, i am happy that i made a switch. When i was trying to open a new account with Yola, i was being lead to a pay site, meaning i need to click a package or else, it won't PUBLISH AS A FREE ACCOUNT.

I started with yola as a free subscriber, for two years i did not pay a cent, so i am baffled as to how come i cannot open a free account anymore. So, after several tries, i went back to my Weebly account. Still rough on the edges, forgive me as i am doing this amidst a huge horrible migraine and stomach pain. Reminds me not to come here on a winter anymore. Anyways, below are images of my last baking session in Fairview. If i had at least 5 days more i would have managed another bread class for 5 people so i apologize and thank you especially that guy who kept calling, hmmm what's the name?

This is the cheaper Ensaimada version we made out of the Dinner Roll recipe but if you love eating this bread, you know the dough was a lot cheaper than this. Instead of the 25% eggyolk, this one has only 4%.

My favorite, the Monay waiting to be baked.

Why so many thermometers? Those are my students and they bring them home after the lesson.

I have to find the photo were these rolls got their coating of sugar and margarine. Got to go, my head is about to explode. Till next...

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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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