How To Bake Pandesal and Other Breads

The only good reason to use the phrase "buttering up" is with these hot fresh off the oven Sesame Seed Pandesal. So i decided to use this brown sesame seeds i bought in Patel's in East Brunswick, New Jersey. It is unlike your regular sesame seeds, these are plump, larger and of course brown. So why not a Pandesal with a Sesame Seed topping? Hmmm, to do it, i have to spray the top of the rounded or shaped dough with water, then dunk it on a plate of sesame seeds, adding a dredging of the traditional breadcrumbs alongside. Not bad. First off i have to make a sponge, if you are at the mercy of the flour we have here, with my formula, you have to make a sponge. I fermented this overnight, about 12 hours. Because it is made with whole grain, about 3%, this sponge will ferment fast so i kept it inside our pantry which gets really cold especially at night. I made this around late April, and it was still very cold in our house, around 63-64 with the heater on. Pantry can...

Lately i think i have had extra sugar in my diet that i decided to counter the effects or purge myself off it by having more whole wheat and grains in my diet. Not easy especially if you live with two teenage boys who are carnivorous. My brain tells me to go ahead, i have been "sinning"lately especially after that 2 month trip out of New York. When you live in someone else's house, you cannot choose your food. Even if you can afford to buy your own, i feel embarrass at the least to buy and cook my own food, it's like telling your host "your food sucks" in a sort of cerebral kind of way. So i try to avoid that. Just before i left, i already told my mother to tell my Aunt in Sacramento that just in case i drop by, they should not fuss over what i would eat because i have my own special diet etc etc.. Still, it didn't stop them to invite me to pizza dinners which i kindly obliged twice and politely just excused myself the third time. Yes, i do eat a bi...

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...

Decided to make my own bagel, not the Montreal soft style bagels my nephews like to eat but the chewier version which they do not like to eat. The soft bagels are addictive i suppose because they fight over who gets the last piece and they can eat two of these huge almost 150 gram bread in one day. I have tasted it, it has this dark bitter sweet glaze, the interior is soft and does not look like intimidating at first but when you start chewing it, it gives you a slight fight back when you chew. Love it, although i prefer if it would be a whole wheat version, but this is the only bread i did not make myself that i liked so far. Not the same with the original bagels because these are slightly soft on the inside and very chewy outside, smaller in size too but has a heartier flavor to it. I like both depending on what i am in the mood for. I cannot replicate the wooden planks they bake it with, nor that "water" they use and even the boiling syrup they dunk them in etc., This is...

As promised these are images taken in Sacramento when i made my cousins some Siopao, half of which i steamed and half i shoved into the oven. I did not use the same dough for the Baked version, the end product was dry and heavy maybe because of the extra sugar/less water in the Siopao dough not to mention it does not have eggs compared to the Baked version. I used the Soft Bun dough recipe, actually any kind of plain yeast dough will do. Same proofing and baking, the only thing different i guess is that i placed a hard boiled egg inside instead of the usual salted egg. Lucky enough to use two bowls, each batch is 500 grams of All Purpose Flour. Dough still looking rough, takes time to mix using a Kitchen Aid. Just make sure the mixer does not over heat. Relaxing the dough for 30 minutes, this allows the dough to not only mellow but for the mixer to cool down as well. You can cook the filling during resting times if you want although mine was already cooked the day before. Scal...

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...