Homemade Pandesal

I have been meaning to make pandesal since last year but I couldn’t find the easiest procedure until I chanced upon When in Manila’s post.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 tsps Instant Dry Yeast
1 1/2 tsps Sugar
1 1/4 cups Lukewarm Water

1/4 cup Salted Butter, softened
1/3 cup Sugar
1 tsp Salt
3-4 cups All Purpose Flour
1/4 cup Bread Crumbs for rolling

Procedure:

1. In a bowl, mix the first 3 ingredients : instant dry yeast, sugar and lukewarm water. Cover and set aside for 10 minutes.

2. Then mix the remaining ingredients (except for the breadcrumbs): sugar, salt and 3 cups of flour, rub in butter. Add in yeast mixture (Step 1). Slowly add additional flour until desired consistency. My bad, I forgot to add in the salt but thank God it still tastes good haha!

3. Knead until smooth about 10 minutes. Form into a ball and transfer into a well oiled mixing bowl.

4. Cover it (I used cling wrap) and set aside until the size doubles.

The difference immediately shows even after half an hour but I opted to let it rise for another half an hour and see how it will turn out.

5. I opened it an hour later and punched down the dough to release the air, divided it into two portions, rolled in bread crumbs. I didn’t have the proper breadcrumbs available at home so I used the Japanese breadcrumbs for making tempura instead and had it crushed until I achieved an almost powder texture. Allow it to rest for five minutes.

6. Slice into equal portions.

7. Roll again in bread crumbs. Let it rise for another 30 minutes.

Above photo was taken 30 minutes later (as per the instruction given) just before baking. Do you see the difference of the size?

8. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. My oven has different settings so I am not sure of its equivalent in Fahrenheit so I just set it on max fire and adjusted when it was almost done.

I totally love how it turned out! The bread is just perfect and a little crunchy on the outside, well… for a first timer at least it wasn’t that bad! Now that I’ve tried making it, I will make sure that the above ingredients are always available at home.