How To Bake Pandesal and Other Breads

3. Training Your Staff When i opened my bakery, i did not plan to have it on a massive scale with deliveries and consigments, nope. It was the year after my radiation, i went through a year of chemotherapy and all the works so i just wanted to do something different.  I hired an 18 year old girl who lives near our subdivision, and she was about 5'10 tall so that was a bonus. I had no other applicants at that time but it would have been better of course if i had other choices, maybe i could have asked her if she was interested in baking breads, or if she thinks this could be a career path for her etc.. etc.,  I liked her because she lives near and she seems nice. It went well in the end, she learned how to mix and shape the pandesal etc., The production was not at all that too big, we were only doing Pandesal, Spanish bread, cookies and cupcakes but no loaf breads. The scheduling got to me, siempre i hired someone who does not know how to bake so the bulk of the production went...

Number 2: PRACTICE WHAT YOU'VE LEARNED Let's just say you have finished taking the hands in baking course. You need time to and develop a routine which basically means, the whole routine of writing down the batch and batch number or how much to make for the day, what recipe, the variations (will go back to this later), and when you want to start baking. When, what, how and why. You need to lay all these down to avoid confusion during production. You wanted pan de coco but you have no coconut. You want Spanish bread but you have no left over bread. You can't make Spanish bread if the batch of dough you are making is for Pizza. They don't have the same formula. For example, the breads below are all from the same batch of dough.  2 kilograms of dough were made into Ciabatta, Focaccia, Mini Baguettes, and Pizzas. I wrote this down first before I weighed my ingredients. I made a list of what I need and then I proceeded with the task. This will be your routine. Follow the for...

 Part 2 Continuation So let's just say you managed to attend a baking class, and i mean a baking class that is geared towards opening a bakery. Not just some cups and teaspoons kind of baking class where you end up not knowing how to even compute a baker's percent. Not that. That is not what you need. You need to take baking lessons where you learn how to do food costing, baker's math, what are the different methods and techniques in baking yeast dough breads, the purposes of ingredients in baking etc., Ang dami di ba? Which is only what is right. If you open a bakery and you do not even know why you cannot mix salt with your yeast, or why shortening makes the bread more fluffy and tender, or why egg whites do not really have to be added in your bread and so on... You went to the wrong class. You just wasted your money.  You need to take another lesson. IT is very important that YOU, THE BAKERY OWNER and MASTER BAKER know more than your hired help or baker. Dapat, alam ng b...

First of a series.  Knowing how to bake. I need more than a page to explain the nitty gritty on setting up your own bakery, in fact, in the next few months I will be re-opening mine. So instead of lecturing you guys on what to do i will try my best to tell you my preparations for my bakery. Just to make it simple. Siempre, dapat marunong kang mag bake. In all my years of teaching baking, I started 2001), every month I get students who own bakeries but never bothered to take up baking. Just like that, they would set up a bakery by hiring a baker. Fine, as long as you can trust the baker right? Uh....wrong. That baker will not stay with you forever. Another downside is that 100% of the time, he owns the recipes your bakery is selling. You have no idea how much sugar the pandesal has, or how much egg yolks he uses in the Ensaimada so you can do proper inventory and food costing. Nada.  If he tells you he has a headache and doesn't feel like coming to work today, he doesn't work t...

If there is one thing I get asked to bake every special occasion, it is this beauty down here. I was going to bake a carrot cake and a chocolate cake with tiramisu frosting but got asked to make cinnamon  rolls and fruitcake instead. So cancel the chocolate cake. Yes, my brother in law loves fruitcakes. My kind of fruitcake which is less dense and lighter than the usual you find in your holiday basket.  So here it is, 1.5 kgs of cinnamon rolls, I took about 500 grams off the dough and made hamburger buns within since I don't really eat cinnamon rolls that much.

It's that time of the year again. What is your covid xmas plan ( if you have not been selling your baked products yet)? Mine is to make Xmas cookies, i have several cookie cutters that i bought from Walmart and so i plan to do just that. Maybe make the Minion Gingerbread house if i can muster enough strength, or a cookie xmas treee. I prefer the latter though since i think the xmas cookies will look good on a traditional xmas edible tree. Yum! What recipe to use? I have three choices, Gingerbread, Chocolate and Vanilla Sugar Cookies. OR maybe all three flavors.  Anyway, like most who have been self quarantining these days i do miss my usual routine before the Pandemic. Let us pray that this will be over soon and we  will get back to at least 85 % normal, maybe not that too confident that we set aside the usual precautions such as wearing your masks, alcohol and taking your vitamins.  I honestly became more aware of my health these past few months, i am a cancer survivor s...

How to bake a chiffon cupcake and cake. Yes, i thought i cannot make cupcakes out of this cake but yes, you can. Just be careful, it bakes fast and so it will dry fast inside the oven. If your regular cupcake using a butter based fat bakes for 25 minutes, this one will finish in about 15 to 18 minutes only so do test them once you see the top browning. Light brown color crust is ideal.

shaping a mini baguette or a roll, the heel of the hand and the fingers seal the dough as well. Keeping the top of the dough smooth is hard for beginners and also maintaining an even oblong shape but practice makes perfect.

Siopao or Steamed Soft Bun If you do not like the Asado Filling, you can use any kitchen staples such as ham, cheese, hotdogs or even corned beef or tuna. Saute' the corned beef with onions and garlic and add cube potatoes and carrots. Do the same with your tuna and use these as an alternative filling. Stay safe everyone and i hope i get to open my classes again once this Pandemic is over. I miss talking to my students, miss having fun telling them how wonderful baking bread is and i miss the friendship we build after. Good luck and i hope this video helps you sell and earn money at home.

I many not be an authority on FATS, i'm not saying it because i am not overweight ( i might be but whatever) or something but this is about FATS for baking. Margarine, Shortening, Oil and Butter. From top clockwise: Butter, Shortening, Tub Margarine, and Table Margarine When we say Tub margarine, this is the kind you buy per kilo from your local bakery supply store or market such as Spring ( been using this brand since 1998) and table grade margarine is your Dairy Creme, Butterfresh, Dairy Magic, Baker's Best.  What is the difference between the tub and table grade margarine? Tub margarine does not melt at room temperature. Table grade or bar margarine melts at temperatures higher than 70 F.  I have been using all of these regularly including the 0 Trans Fat version in New York, Country Crock mostly and although you can use them interchangeably at most times for baking, it does not apply when it comes to making icings...  I can substitute any of the butter with these marg...

So i am getting more inquiries these days regarding my hands on classes and yes, there's still a pandemic and more positive cases have been reported lately so folks, as much as i really want to teach you, it is not happening anytime soon. It is so sad. I miss talking to people who were mirror images of the NEWBIE baker me, way back oh dear, it is embarrassing to say, mga 30 some years ago. My handle on baking was tested on really fire and stove! I remember looking at my Aunt's oven and turbo broiler as she bakes something that looks like a cake but doesn't taste like one. Hahaha. So yes, she has an oven but they never used it for anything else other than chicken. Nothing else. I was a teenager minding my own business but had some free time and saved up money to buy ingredients so i bought a Betty Crocker cake mix. It said in the package that i can make cupcakes out of it, and since i don't see any cake pans but muffin tins only (my aunt used it for Puto), i baked my ver...

I received several inquiries about holding baking classes during this quarantine and yes, i will still hold sessions but only after the quarantine or lock down is lifted. Does not seem to me that there is a difference between a lock down and quarantine since i can't leave the house because i am too scared to go out. To me, it seems like i am in a lock down. I can't hold baking lessons, no one will enroll and who can if there are no public transportation available anyway.  Going to groceries and markets is also stressful. We have one designated shopper, actually two since she cannot drive herself and he, my brother does not want to queue the long lines. So he stays in the car, while my sister in law goes inside the supermarket. But despite having everything available in the market, once you ran out of something say, butter or confectioner's sugar, you cannot go out the day after to buy one. Lining up for just a bar of butter? or cornstarch? or bbq stick? glutinous rice? No. ...

Baking classes are all cancelled this March and April due to the Covid 19 virus sweeping our country, i was thinking of maybe doing the rest of my 3 day class by the end of April if things look good enough to declare that we have also cancelled out the virus itself. But so far, with the way things are going right now, it's March 16 and i am very sad that this is happening to us. Too late to be blaming anyone, we all just need to focus on keeping ourselves healthier than the usual and make sure we do not go out unless it is absolutely a matter of strict importance, like wala ka ng mailuto or ubos na ung bigas mo na stock, etc., etc... So we went on with our Day 1 class, Commercial bread making as scheduled last March 9. It was a Monday, and things went perfectly as expected. New fresh batch of ingredients, and new students. It was exciting to meet new people in my craft. Same passion i had when i was starting, but the breads are even better because of the new variations i also l...

The schedule for March will be 9 13 and 16, all hands on session from 9 am till about 2:30 PM.  This is a non-stop baking class, we start at 9 am sharp with lectures and introduction of what we will do, and we get to have our lunch break only when all 3 kgs of base flour have been mixed. Which means students have to eat a heavy breakfast, you are free to bring something to snack around with you but we will have coffee and crackers so don't worry. Let me know if you're under medication so you can take your mini break.  All 3 kgs base flour will be in the proofer usually around 1 pm and then we take our break. Wait time is not that long, before you're even finish with your lunch the oven is already pre-heating and the dough is ready for baking.  All breads will be ready at around 2 to 3 pm. Then before everyone goes home, I will explain the assignments. Yes, meron pong assignments, so please don't forget to bring a pen to write down details or you can record my instructio...

It's just part flour, water and a tiny bit of yeast or none (if you're making a Sourdough starter). Mix using a wooden spoon, cover and leave for at least 4 hours or up to 12 hrs. That's a sponge, a pre-ferment or patê fermenteè.  The formula could be anything from 2% to as high as 80% of your base flour depending on the kind of bread you are making, but it ultimately ends up on you as the baker deciding on how much sponge you really need or want. Martha Stewart sometimes uses a cup of flour where she adds a tsp of yeast, ferments it for half an  hour to 1 hour. That's here recipe. Mine varies too depending mostly on the type of bread I want to make and then the ingredients. The length of fermentation also depends on your production demands and the kind of recipe you're making. Longer fermentation yields more flavor. That's a fact.  If you ask me, I prefer an overnight sponge, the kind I mix in less than 5 minutes then leave for the next day. I sugge...

Question: What do i do with uneaten cakes and breads?  Answer: for as long as they have no molds, you can shred hard and dry cakes or breads, cookies, crackers and biscuits and add them to any, I mean any baked goodies.  The amount of old breads or cakes you can use is limited though, you can't just throw them in and expect the cake or bread to turn out the same. My rule is that I only use up to 15% if I'm baking a bread and 10 to 12 % if it's a cake because the extra flour in the recycled cake will dry up your cake. Not a lot but it's better than throwing away a failed cake, un risen bread because you forgot the yeast, someone gave you cookies and you didn't particularly like them etc... You might ask, but what about the sugar content. Should I reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe if I'm adding old cake crumbs that is already sweet? In principle, yes. But 15%, isn't exactly that much but if you feel like you don't want the added sweetness, you'r...

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...