Once in a while, I bake Pandesal. My husband calls this bread - hot rolls. In the Philippines, pandesal is mostly eaten for breakfast paired with hotdogs and scrambled or sunny side-up eggs with a hot cup of instant (Nescafe) coffee. I seldom eat breakfast so; I love eating pandesal at merienda time especially on weekends. This is easy to make even though the hardest part for me is kneading but, it's all worth it at the end. For this preparation, I divide 3 equal cuts and save the 2 parts for the next day or two. One part is enough to make us a dozen of hot pandesal. A consumption that can last for two days. Here's the tasty pandesal I made yesterday ... freshly bake from the oven.
Ingredients:
bread flour, bread crumbs, sugar, salt, active dry yeast, milk, unsalted butter, and one egg.
Procedure:
1. Yeast Mixture: Add 1 tbsp of active dry yeast to 1 cup warm milk and 1 tbsp of sugar. Stir and let set for 15 minutes. The sugar is important to give the yeast energy to grow.
2. Milk Mixture: In a separate bowl, combine 1 cup milk and half of the unsalted butter and use the microwave to melt the butter about a minute. Stir and make sure the butter is all melted. Add 1/2 milk and one egg to the mixture and beat together.
3. In a mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients : 5 cups of bread flour, 1 1/2 tsp of salt, 1 cup of sugar then, mix together.
4. Add the (1) yeast mixture to the (2) milk mixture and beat together.
5. Add this (4)mixture to the mixing bowl of dry ingedients. Mix it well about 10 minutes or more. It is better to use your hand to mix all the ingredients inside the bowl. Add a cup of flour gradually until the dough clears the side of the bowl. Form a dough ball and it should be wet enough ... not too wet.
6. Once you form a dough ball, continue kneading on the floured clean surface for few minutes until all the ingredients are mix together. Make a dough ball and put it back to the mixing bowl and let it sit for 45 minutes. Cover the bowl with a clean and moist towel.
7. Divide the dough into 3 equal cuts. Roll each dough into a cylindrical shape and slice it to make an individual pieces of pandesal.
8. Roll the sliced dough into the breadcrumbs.
9. Put the pieces (cut side up) into the baking tray and let it sit for 30 minutes to rise.
10. Bake in 350 degrees in a pre-heated oven for 15 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
11. Enjoy!
You can do it even if you are not a baker. Practice makes perfect. Thanks for stopping by.