Skip to main content

Pandesal Dough

So my nephew and i were baking Pandesal the other week and it was soooo hot in the kitchen despite the left and right electric fans covering all corners. I thought maybe we can just bake half today and let's freeze the dough, we'll think of something to do with it next time, whatever. It was so, nakakatamad gumalaw when it is so hot. There was no air even if we were surrounded by large trees, i have never experienced over 99 degrees of hot air in the Philippines, nah uh. So, we were supposed to mix two kinds of doughs, one for the Pandesal and one for the Calzone he wants to make. Forget about the Calzone dough, which is basically just like a Pizza dough. Lean, sponge and dough based but with very little or no fat and sugar at all. We did just one kilogram of dough, because i just want to stop moving and just sit and relax in front of the electric fan. We baked the Pandesal, and two days after took out the dough from the freezer and looked at it. What if i just use this dough to make the Calzone? It will be like a soft dough, not crusty type of Calzone. Why not? It will be more interesting because the bread when baked will be soft unlike the lean dough based where the dough when baked will only be soft while warm and toughen and become dry once it cools down.
I took a video on how to assemble and fill these so hopefully i will be able to edit them for youtube asap. The portions are about 180 grams each, filled with three kinds of cheeses. Cottage, Cheddar and Mozarella with hotdog (kids) and salami cotto. I squirted some Sriracha inside for some heat and then baked them at 350 f. Now i think i should have lowered the heat to just 325 F because this is a Pandesal dough and there is sugar in the dough which will hasten browning a whole lost faster than the Pizza lean type dough that i normally use for this savory product.
Slice some fresh tomatoes, basil and drizzle with a bit of olive oil, this bread is a complete meal for light eaters like me. I was not sure if my nephew John will like it, but when i went down at 11 pm that night, all the Calzones were gone ( i ate only half of one piece). Now, folks if you are a baker and you want to find out if what you made is a hit, peek into the kitchen 6 hours after and if there is nothing left then yes, it was a hit. When my nephew asked if there was any dough left in the freezer for more Calzones, then you can bring out the pen and start writing the recipe. This one is for the books.

Comments

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...