How To Bake Pandesal and Other Breads

I apologize for making a few changes in the schedule below, i made way for some private one on one sessions so i nicked off the last dates of these lessons, first day did not change though. Breads Hands On September 18, 20 and 21*** Buttercream Class September 27 and 28 Royal Icing and Gumpaste/Fondant September 9,12 14 Thank you and sorry again, i hope this does not put a damper on your schedule. See my most recent post of CUPCAKES ON STAND, in my cakesandpetals site.

Cookie recipes if you are in the mood for making a batch this week. CAKESANDPETALS

I want to show you the difference between the Whole Wheat Flour i use and the Wheat Bran, both good for making your hearty and healthier versions of Pandesal and loaf breads. Below is the Wheat Bran, which you cannot use 100% of course, a cup of this to your regular recipe will go a long way. Now, grab your favorite Whole Wheat Bread from the grocery aisle and peek through the crumb and count the flecks of whole wheat visible to your minus double lens eye. Find any? Chances are you will not find A LOT, and this could mean two things. First, they did not use the wheat bran below, what we call back home as cracked wheat. Because if you do, you will be amazed at how very little of this can totally change the dough structure, from a smooth gliding dough to a brown speckled mass. So if you see your Whole Wheat Bread having very little tiny brown colored dots, chances are they use just a small percentage of wheat bran or cracked wheat (which can be very expensive) or that, they use whol...

BAKING BREADS AND PASTRIES: Baking and Cake Decorating Classes and Little Caylee

I am reposting the schedule here just in case you missed the previous post for the upcoming baking and cake decorating lessons in September. I will be arriving in Manila on August 22 so please call me after if you have any questions and to make reservations. The requirements and fees are in my website, www.breadmakinglessons.com and you can also email me at sherqv17@gmail.com for any baking questions under the sun. Again, the Royal Icing and Gumpaste class will be for 3 days, no need to buy your gumpaste tools if you have no time or if you cannot find them, i will allow the students to use my tools. ROYAL ICING SCROLLS AND ROYAL ICING FLOWER ON FONDANT CAKE Just recently there is an issue regarding All Purpose Flour. Yes, you can make breads with it, practically all kinds of breads but there will be a big difference in terms of volume, oven spring, proofing time, hydration level, etc., When i first arrived here in the US, i had a hard time adjusting to the 100% All Purpose Flou...

My main focus when i teach bread making is how to commercially produce breads, which means large batches, and so it goes on to say that i would normally work on at least a kilogram when i hold a class. You can understand my discomfort when i attempt to do such over a a household type mixer such as Kitchen Aid. Kitchen Aid may work, but then again, not with the formulas i use. We Pinoys love sweet, fluffy and flavorful breads. Some of my former students who open their bakeries use up to 24 % sugar in their recipes, i even heard one who used 26%. My recipes range from 15-19% only, but despite that, a Kitchen Aid will still have a hard time finishing a 300 gram dough in under 30 minutes. 30 minutes is pretty darn long, my 20 quart can whip up a 2 kilogram dough (NO TIME DOUGH METHOD) in 12 minutes. So what do you do when you drop by a client's house and all you see is a Kitchen Aid? Better with a Kitchen Aid, than nothing! So instead of working on with 3 kilograms a day, i redu...

For those who are asking about the oven i use, this is just one of those four sheeter fabricated ovens that you can buy from P13 to P15 thousand these days. I hope my friend Sencio who was a former student still sells them at these prices. They come in different designs though, some have glass doors, others like mine are just plain so if you love to peek inside while baking, you better get the one with the glass door. I bought this after i graduated Culinary school way back 1998, actually i belong to the first batch in OB Montessori, 95-97 but because i lack at least 700 hours of OJT, i slipped off quietly from the scene. You will not believe what i thought about this oven when i first caught a glimpse of it, carried by 4 burly men straight into our kitchen,I honestly thought it will never worked at all. I had no idea what to buy back then really. I was baking from mini toaster ovens, an old La Germania counter top, and even tried the microwave, so the price at least got me hooked...

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...

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...