Musings of a Traveling Chef

The humble Pandesal is a staple Filipino breakfast or snack bread roll.  It is one of the most sought after bread in our household here in the US.  It is best eaten fresh from the oven and can be dipped in coffee or hot cocoa.  To enhance flavor, some people spread butter or margarine while others add adobo, tuna, cheese, sardines, pesto inside.  Pandesal has evolved to several variants, most notorious is the malunggay pandesal, touted as one of the healthy variants.  The pandesal recipe I will share with you today is the basic one.  Variants of pandesal will be shared below. Pandesal (Filipino Bread Rolls) Ingredients: 375g bread flour 68g  sugar 7g  salt 23g  shortening 214g  warm water 6g  instant dry yeast 1.5g  bread improver Yields:   22-25 pandesal

For the past week, I've attended two bread courses which I believe has earning potential when I migrate to the US.  If you've been following my blog, I'm into breads more than cakes.  Even if I've been attending bread making classes for quite some time, never did my instructors mentioned the 12 steps of bread making.  These steps are essential and quite practical for beginner bread enthusiasts. The 12 steps are as follow: 1.   Selecting your ingredients :  make sure to choose the best quality and unexpired ingredients.  If you choose to use instant yeast, do a test before you bake breads to ensure that your yeast is still active.  You wouldn't want to rest your dough for a long time without any rise. 2.   Weigh ingredients :  it is very important to be accurate with your ingredients.  You wouldn't want to kill your yeast because of too much salt or too hot water.  Best to sift your flour as it gives a softer dough.  Also, it's best to set all yo