The name literally means “bread of salt” which refers to the pinch of salt used on the dough, made with few simple ingredients such as flour, water, sugar and milk.
Pan de Sal or pandesal means salt bread in Spanish, the most popular bread in the Philippines which is made out of basic bread ingredients such as eggs, flour, sugar and salt. This bread was introduced during the 16th century by Spanish bakers in the Philippines. A very flexible soft and semi sweet bread which can be accompanied by almost everything from sardines, jams, cheese to even stir fried noodles, spaghetti and ice cream.
This bread is nearly as staple as a rice hence Filipinos in every corner of the world have adapted to make their own versions overseas, mostly using bread makers just for the sole purpose of automatic kneading of the dough but for my version I used my own hands. This is the first time I will try this again for years and infact the last one was when I was in Primary School where we have a subject regarding Home Economics and one of our assignments is to bake this bread, it turned out really bad as the outcome is harder than a rock, since then I never had the guts to bake it again. So after 25 years I will be trying it again and what invoked me was the pizza dough that I made earlier which was a disaster, it turned out really fluffy which nearly resembles a bread rather than a pizza so that made me think I can use the same ingredients and adjust it to have that pan de sal taste.
The name literally means “bread of salt” which refers to the pinch of salt used on the dough, made with few simple ingredients such as flour, water, sugar and milk.
Dissolve the yeast in warm water, set aside until bubbly.
Mix in milk, egg, sugar and melted butter.
In a clean and flat surface place flour and salt then make a well in a middle, pour the liquid in the center and start combining the wet and dry ingredients.
Knead the dough for 15 minutes until it resembles a soft clay. Place flour on the surface if needed to avoid sticking.
Once finished kneading, shape the dough into a ball then place in a large bowl, cover with damp cloth then let it rise for an hour on a warm location.
Lightly deflate the dough, divide into rolls of 1-inch diameters, cut into 1.5-inch pieces then form into small buns, place on a baking pan lined with parchment paper.
Set aside in a warm location and let it rise for 1 hour.
Sprinkle bread crumbs on top then bake on a 200C pre heated oven for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.
Notes
Total Time does not include rising time
You can also use a bread maker to make things easy, if doing so you will need to omit steps 3 to 5, just dump everything in the bread maker, set into dough mode.
What a pity you had a bad experience in Home Economics all those years ago. Your pandesal look great, well done on making them again after such a long time. 🙂 Mandy
Not sure about adding stuff on its ingredients (not a pro on baking, specially anything with yeast) but I am sure that as a bread you can use any filling as you want.
I think u should mix one tsp of sugar to a warm water first stir until dissolve before adding your yeast.. Let it stand for 5 to 10 mins.. It should be foamy and double the volume if not , your yeast is deAd and u should do it all over again..
What a pity you had a bad experience in Home Economics all those years ago.
Your pandesal look great, well done on making them again after such a long time.
🙂 Mandy
This looks delicious ! Do you think I could substitute using wholemeal flour?
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I guess you can substitue it with wholemeal flour but it wont have that silky smooth texture pandesal is known by.
Congratulations. Twenty five years later you produced a wonderful outcome, and even published a recipe:) You deserve another drink for NY eve!
This bread looks like a lighter version of brioche, I will try sometime.
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I am so intimidated by cooking with yeast! I really need to get over it and take the plunge. Bread making intrigues me!
Yum- this looks really good. I bet it would be really versatile too, and you could add whatever you wanted as a herb or glaze?
Now i want some bread to help get me through the winter!
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Not sure about adding stuff on its ingredients (not a pro on baking, specially anything with yeast) but I am sure that as a bread you can use any filling as you want.
What a great recipe! Uncommon
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daddy check mo ang web ko my post na ako!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
made this a couple of times now. and we loved it. i just notice that you forgot to mention egg in your instructions.thanks
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Thanks for trying it out!
When do you add the egg
it doesn’t appear in the list of steps…..
Sorry for the confusion, its a part of the wet ingredients
I think u should mix one tsp of sugar to a warm water first stir until dissolve before adding your yeast.. Let it stand for 5 to 10 mins.. It should be foamy and double the volume if not , your yeast is deAd and u should do it all over again..