Pandesal is probably the most simplest and common bread in the Philippines. Made of simple ingredients (flour, egg, yeast, sugar, salt) yet it is beloved by every filipino and found in every Panaderia (Boulangerie/Bakery). It’s popular for Breakfast or afternoon Merienda, a typical way of eating Pandesal is by dipping it into a cup of steamy coffee, very filipino! It can also be eaten with peanut butter spread, margarine, jam or plain as it is.
Filipinos came up with a wide variety of Pandesal now, from the simplest formula to Ube(purple yum) Pandesal, Pandan and even Red velvet flavour Pandesal. Like a lot of recipes people innovate over time and these innovations are not bad at all but let’s stick with the very basic one here.
A NO JOKE very easy to follow Pandesal Recipe:
Ingredients: 2 1/2 tsp Yeast, 5 cups AP Flour(includes extra for counter dusting), Salt to taste, 1 cup of Milk, 1 cup Sugar, 2 large eggs, 1 cup bread crumbs( to coat each roll before baking). Yield: Depends on the size of your roll
Warm the milk up to 100F, add the yeast and sugar, set aside let the yeast activate(around 10 mins). Meanwhile mix all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, once the yeast is foamy combine it with the dry ingredients mix and knead for 15-20 minutes. Set aside the dough and leave it to rise for about an hour or so.
Start setting up your sheet trays for baking, line it up with parchment papers. Deflate the pandesal dough divide and portion it into 45 to 50 grams per dough ball. Next step is to coat each balls with bread crumbs, place the coated ones on your lined sheet trays (make sure they do social distancing), cover with a kitchen towel and leave it to rise again for around 15 minutes. Finally for the last step, bake your doughs in a pre-heated oven (280-300 degrees C) for 15-20 minutes.
Enjoy your freshly baked pandesal, oh and a cup of coffee too!!
I did half with cheese filling..soft and very delicious!
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