How To Bake Pandesal and Other Breads

Spanish breads and Pandesal What to do with leftover breads. Taken from my eBook, any leftover breads, crackers, donuts, cookies, and cakes can be transformed into a new beginning. Meaning, you can repurpose them and create something new. Not that you are stingy, but if you have a bakery, this is what they call stales turning into cash. What you normally would throw away can be converted into earnings and by earnings it does not have to be a whole lot if you have a small operation but quite a sum if you ran a big one. I have had students coming to me telling me they get as much as 2 sacks of stales, breads that turn hard rock dry, leftovers from returns (meaning sinosoli ng mga tindahan pag hindi nabebenta)and just plain wastage. I once worked in a bakery before and it was their policy to make the baker mark the expiration of each products, then make sure they get out of the shelves 2 days before they expire buy selling them on site to the Owner's offices and factory. I heard...

I decided to make just mini soft buns for sliders this week, enough of the large regular sizes for awhile and make them tiny for a change. I used just one pan, crammed them together so when they bake, they will snug each other and form a set of 4s and sixes when cut. I used several toppings, oats, poppy seeds, sesame, flax for color. Your timing has to be on spot, loading in the oven should be precise or you won't get the results you want. Most students sometimes think you can get away with learning how to bake breads without reading anything. That is something i think you cannot skip nor ignore if you really want to learn the professional way of baking breads. Like trying to find out the what and why of the yeast, sugar, salt, fats etc., Don't tell me you are not curious at all to know what these ingredients do? What are the types of yeasts, what methods are out there when you make breads, what is straight dough, what is a sponge? All of these i also read in the web way ...

This is an image of the Globe mixer my friend from New Jersey got last year. I can't say good things about it because i can't help compare it with my previous two mixers, a 10-quart Hoqurt and the 20-quart Omcan. For its price, it's regrettable if you bake a lot of breads, but if you are just a homebaker, i would say, live with it. Sounds harsh i know but even my Taiwan made P28,000.00 mixer which i purchased way back 1998 can outdo this one in a matter of minutes, NO Time Dough or not. So i taught my friend how to troubleshoot this mixer given there is no way she can return it. My advise to you if you are in the market for commercial mixers, if you can run the motor or mixer right there in the store premise the better. If you can have a short demo where you can run the mixer for at least 20 minutes or even 10 minutes, with a dough of course (you can even bring your own dough), then you can find out if this mixer you are fixed on does not over heat in under 15 minutes. My...

You may think that the breads you see stacked in bakery shelves have been made from different kinds of doughs. You see about 12-15 varieties of breads, sweet and savory, filled and plain, topped and slashed, fruits, nuts, coconuts and cream. What you do not know is that almost 80% of these breads come from just one basic dough. Your signature dough, whatever you decide to use as the master baker becomes the base of most of your products. You do not need to make 6-7 kinds of doughs just because you need to make Spanish Bread, Bitso, Pan de coco, Almond Crescents, Pan de Leche etc., Just one dough. Plus your creativity. The dough below comes from the hotdog and hamburger bun dough posted previously in this blog. Feel like making smaller rolls, which we call Pan de Limon, go ahead and use a square baking pan and scale them into smaller 20-22 gram portions depending on the baking pan you are using. Topping with Poppy Seeds Bake at 325 F for 12-15 minutes. The same dough used to ...

The pizza dough resting. Quite a delight, when you have ready made pizzas at your disposal whenever you are ready to change the menu, dig in to a hot and crispy pizza, entertain friends and just bum out on your sofa when you are so dead tired to cook dinner. What else can be better than that. Ready made pizza crusts may not be gourmet, i worked in a Fine dining italian restaurant where the oven is lined with Italian stones, 5 minutes is all it takes to bake the foccacias, the pizza crusts, and calzones. Well, that maybe the best way to savor your slow rise pizza dough, this thing you have been guarding and saving ( precariously fermenting in the farthest part of your freezer or chiller because everyone else is dying to throw them but you). If you have a very good pizza crust, you will not wait too long to bake them, neither will you dream ever to pre-bake them!!!! The best way to savor that fermented flavor is to bake them fresh, but i have not a minute of luxury to always start ...

I was watching Andrew Zimmern's episode on Italy, i don't remember the city anymore, the names are confusing to me but knowing Andrew, it must have been a foodie's paradise. His guide brought him to this gelato shop where he got to taste their best gelato served in a bun, and he mentioned the country Philippines as to the only nation other than Italy to serve ice cream in a bun. Fantastic! When you watch a foreign show such as this one, and your country is mentioned, that is heart warming. Then i get to remember that when we were brought to my grandmother's native Baler (yes, Manuel L. Quezon's)your friendly Mamang Sorbetero (ice cream vendor) will ask you which one you like, the apa (cone) or the soft bun. My brother is fond of eating his ice cream in a bun, but it gave me brain freeze so i never liked it. I tried it several times, it was very good especially in those days when the ice cream they sell was really top notch creamy, not the kind they sell in the c...

  If there is food and wine pairings, there has to be bread and whatever is out there pairings...I know.. You do this too remember, like when you have nothing appetizing laid out for you because you do not eat pork and everyone else eats them. Poor me. So you make sure that when you bake breads, since you cannot be doing this everyday (unless you managed to sneak some from your class) you have to freeze at least a loaf or 4 pieces of sandwich rolls. This is your insurance. This will ensure you get to eat like the rest of the population. Or starve. Imagine you, teaching breads and you finish work, tired and all, and the helper saying to you" ma'am sher, kain na (let's eat)", When you ask her what's for lunch, she tells you it's pork adobo or pork sinigang, veggies with pork etc., If it isn't pork, then it is something almost similar, that is , a dish  swimming in lard. Now you know why i had to learn how to bake breads. Breads offer you an endless arra...