How To Bake Pandesal and Other Breads

On Day 1 of my hands on baking class I always ask my students if they already have a weighing scale. A digital one to be exact. If they don't have one, I give out a few basic rules on choosing and buying a better digital scale. Better because there are so many brands out there and this isn't a baking gadget that you pick up on a whim. After all, you will be weighing your precious ingredients on this thing. A 2 to 5 gram difference on the flour, sugar, water and milk will not be disastrous. But it will ruin the formula if it is salt.  Salt should not be more than 1.8% if the fat you're using is salted butter or margarine. It would be fine if the fat is oil or shortening because both are bland in flavor. If the salt is lower than 1.6%, the flavor of the bread will not be balanced (although some people prefer reduced salt in their bread). Still, we're talking about a properly made bread and not a diet restricted formula. Although some breads in New York are really salty to...

This is the only session I had so far where i used 2 different brands of flour which is Globe by Universal Robina and Sun Moon Star by Pilmico. Now, if you have attended my class, and I know some of my former students still read my blog then you know that i preach water and adore first class flours with a high protein content. Anything that is lower than my expected level is out of the book just like this popular brand I will call Brit (not it's real name). If you know your history and you bake breads, you know what this brand is. Now, you can certainly email me so I can divulge to you in secret what this horrible I mean disappointing brand of first class is. First off, it does not deserve it's price tag. Too expensive for an over P800.00 per sack flour when a P720.00 sack can use up more water. Why is that important? Well, too long to discuss but I hope your teacher can tell you why. If not, then you went to the wrong school. So here I am, using my student's flour ( the...

My 1 on 1 sessions are in full swing. One of students from the group class will be bringing his baker and sister in law for a series of more breads and cakes with decorating starting tomorrow. His sister in law and her cake baker had a 3 day cake class with me 3 weeks ago and it was fun. I learned something from them that I would never have known from someone else since their family owned the bakery for 30 years now. It's one of those stories where the family had a certain type of business and the 3rd or 2nd generation only shows interest when the parents pass away. This is one of those. " how I wish I learned from my father". Talking to her about breads (even though we were doing cakes) makes me want to shift to teaching her breads instead of cakes and so I suggested that maybe she should take some bread lessons as well since she was very much interested with the subject and.....from what I've been hearing at that point,  something is missing and something needs t...

Another batch from my baking class. Although i teach the same basic breads and variations, sometimes it would be the variations that would inspire another variation. A whole wheat pandesal with malunggay, which i had blogged about 4 years ago? and now has sprung up everywhere? For those living in the province, i know it is a huge sacrifice to come here to Manila especially in Fairview, but judging from what i hear lately, i deeply encourage you to take the risks and make a bit of a sacrifice which i did too when i started. Just the other day, i went to my sister's house to teach her and her helpers how to make cupcakes and icing, then basic decorating and we sort of reminisced how she took me to Maya Culinary Arts in Paseo (is it still there?) way back when i don't know when, i think i was only 18, my first year of college, around summer time. It was a disaster, i did not know anything about pre heating, about the oven thermometer, about creaming, none of the things i saw and...

My Royal Icing class will learn how to do make their own sugar flowers, hopefully through practice they will make these lovely flowers after two weeks of constant piping at home after class. I squeeze the said lessons only in between my private and group commercial bread making lessons, i am happy to know that more and more people are now getting into the food business. Kudos to you all, go for it, pursue that dream, that long time lingering thoughts of opening your small bakery could be a reality only if you make a small sacrifice. No pain, no gain. So true. So to all those who dared it, battling wind and rain to attend baking lessons anywhere, i wish you all the luck in the world. There is only 1 thing though that i hope you would allow me to say here, NEVER START SOMETHING YOU NEVER WANT TO IN THE FIRST PLACE. If you think you can psyche yourself into liking bread making maybe after getting a couple of bites into that sweet cinnamon rolls, you are mistaken. I would like to comp...

Using the same dough for regular sized Cinnamon Rolls, i made both my private baking class and group students create minis for a petite size version. Takes a lot of hard work but it was definitely much more fun to eat. When my nephew Luke was only 7 years old he told me it tasted better than the large rolls, and wanted more. Judging from what happens to them when i place them on the table, the mini petite rolls disappear faster than the bigger cousins. Try baking them at 350 F to golden brown crispy to get the sugar thick and gooey or the paler light brown at 325 F for a softer texture. I prefer the first one because the sugar and syrup sort of turns taffy like although this one will definitely have to be eaten the day itself or the next day. We used a sweet yeast dough, do not put cinnamon on the baking pans and use the best maple syrup (ours is from Vermont in Canada). This is the one made by the girls as show below; I show how to do the first one and the rest is done by th...

Here are some of the photos taken from my baking class this September, i will try to put them out here as soon as possible while i nurse my aching feet from standing for long hours during sessions. Ouch! Anyway, i think i forgot to tell you about the visit i had from a friend of a former student way back 3 years ago, i think. So this lady, (if you read this, please visit me again and hopefully you make it to my class as well), and i talked about her short stint taking a class somewhere in Fairview and was totally taken aback because there was no food costing in the lesson. If the class is about bakery business, there must be right? Anyway, it was a very interesting conversation on a quiet afternoon while i was preparing for Doris' private class, much of which centered on her baking snafus, trying out one formula after another hoping to perfect her Pandesal until she finally just had it, bought my ebook and polished her breads at least. She still wanted to attend my baking cla...

I am now posting the September to December 2011 HANDS ON BREAD MAKING CLASS AND CAKE DECORATING CLASSES, PLEASE CLICK THE LINK BELOW for more details. www.breadmakinglessons.yolasite.com and click the link baking class schedule HANDS ON BREADS September 18, 21, 23 October 23, 26, 28 November 15, 18, 20 December 4, 7, 9 Get ready for the Holidays and Parties, bake your own cakes and decorate them!!! CAKES AND CUPCAKES September 5 October 4 November 23 December 2 BUTTERCREAM September 27, 29 October 18, 20 November 27, 30 December 13, 16 ROYAL ICING AND GUMPASTE September 9,12, 15 November 3, 7, 10 The students will get a lecture first, just a short getting to know you ice breaker, introduction to what we will do, the ingredients, equipments, and the procedures. Students then get to know how to weigh, then proceed to mixing, until the dough is DONE. Make-up stage follows, if there is a filling then students learn how to fill the dough which i find very funn...