How To Bake Pandesal and Other Breads

Two of my students for this month, Jenn Apares and Belle Nakpil. Having fun on our 3rd day of session making Monggo Breads. Jenn was able to bake these Malunggay Pandesal as part of their assignment and things to do at home in between our session. This is why there are always a 2 day gap in my class, to give the students time to practice what they've learned and then bring some dough and bread for me to look at. Belle forgot her breads at home so i am very satisfied with Jenn's first time with Pandesal. It needs at least 3% malunggay to be visible but the Pandesal is excellent. I am so happy for Jenn, she can now help her parents' bakery. Finally. This is only after our 2nd session, i admit i have to push my students but it was all worth the challenge. Plus, they had fun doing it!!! after chopping the fresh leaves, just pulse them into the finished dough, lightly kneading to incorporate the veggies. Now that obviously has Malunggay! My...

Whole Wheat Pandesal made using Kitchen Aid Professional 5 Quart Model. Kitchen Aid and Breads are not really that too friendly with each other. If you have tried using yours to make batch after batch of breads, you know what i mean. Not gonna work. My first Kitchen Aid experience was way back when, still in college, google eyed and obsessed with making my own Pandesal and well to say the least was not a happy one. Cakes. Check. Icing. Check. Cookies. Check also. Breads. Forget about it. But i found a way to make it work with less fun fare, meaning, mess and stress in the kitchen. I am just making breads, how come my kitchen looks like a tornado zone? That's what happens when you try to make it work and have no idea how to. Ha ha ha. So finally, after i think about 5 trials, i figured out how to, such a light bulb moment, i feel incredibly pysched, at last, my Kitchen Aid will deliver. More. One of the perks i reward my students with since i brought this 5 quart Pro Model is...

SOME OF THE DOUGH PROOFING INSIDE THE OVEN WITH THE PILOT LIGHT ON. Got to use some of the this Whole Wheat Flour i got from the Pennsylvannia Amish Store in New Jersey last March so i took it upon myself to tell my friend Anabelle that we would be making half a kilogram of Pandesal on her visit. Half a kilogram gone in just half a day, my nephews were asking if there were some more left the following day but i had to send Anabelle home with about 7 pieces, upon my insistence of course (nobody goes home from our house without a bag of bread if we have some). She ate 5 on the spot while the breads were still warm with coco jam my mother just brought from the Philippines. It was fun, she came over to look at the mixer although i felt sad thinking she would somehow like it eventually and buy the mixer altogether.:( Anyway i promised the boys and my Mother i will make them 2 kilograms of the same bread formula before i leave for Manila, and so i did, videotaping the whole thing wit...

Somehow i miss Eden Cheese. We went to the Filipino store last year near our place and it was a whopping $3.49 each. Hello? That's like only P35.00 back home. This is more than triple its price. Okay, so it is imported, whatever but there are so many cheeses to choose from here anyway so i did not bother. When my brother from Canada asked me what i wanted from Walmart when they went there one time, i of course will not miss on asking for a block of cheese. I can make the bread, i just need the cheese. So here it is, the Pandesal i baked with American style Light Cheddar Cheese. My nephews did not like it at first, it has a slightly sour flavor, something we Pinoys are not used to, but once toasted, the cheese melts and becomes delightfully creamy. For the Spaghetti, i basically made a meatless tomato sauce, this one here has some minced clams in them. Nothing fancy, i start out with the basic ingredients of garlic and onions, freshly pureed whole plum tomatoes, celery, basil, ch...

This was the batch of 1.5 kilograms of Pandesal i mixed in a a flurry,( still Spring during this time) when my brother and sister in law visited from Canada. They had with them 4 relatives of my sister in law from Europe. Europe? I asked myself, what can i serve them? Has to be something they miss from way back home. Answer. Pandesal. What else? So day before i made 1 kilogram first. Woke up the morning after, they were all gone, meaning both the Pandesal and the guests, off to Manhattan for a tour of the city and i guess the Pandesal for snacks. This is the proofed dough, good thing i brought with me some baking sheets, my "plancha" from my baking class, so i can actually make up to 6 kilograms right here in my mother's kitchen. NO problem at all. I used a sponge so the dough was really getting quite a height in this photo. , This is the baking size, now inside the oven. Again, i am using an old American size Hotpoint oven, a brand i have never seen or heard...

If you already have a copy of the ebook then you probably have read some of the things here, proofing is not judged by the time although we normally use the clock to know where we are at when we are proofing doughs, and to set the timer when we need to check on the dough etc., If only we can all have one of those proofing cabinets with built in timers and thermostats right? but not. First off, they are expensive. If i am selling Pandesal in my neighborhood, like most Filipinos do since Magellan stepped in Cebu, why bother? If you plan to operate like Goldilock's and the French Baker, then you might need to get one of those huge Proofers. I have seen one on sale here for at least a thousand dollars which is not bad considering it can fit 24 half sheet pans. Back home, one of my students bought a metal, not aluminum fabricated proofing cabinet and it looks bad from the outside, way much worst on the inside because of the rusting. I was thinking she could have just asked someone t...