Pandesal

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.

Pandesal

★★★★★ 5 from 5 reviews

• Author: Raymund
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 15 mins
• Total Time: 45 mins
• Yield: 24 medium or 30 small buns 1x
• Category: Breakfast
• Cuisine: Filipino

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Description

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.

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 4 cupshigh grade flour + some for dusting
• 75g butter, softened
• 1 cup full cream milk
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp of salt
• 1 egg, room temperature
• 3 tsp yeast
• breadcrumbs

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Instructions

1. Dissolve the yeast in warm water, set aside until bubbly.
2. Mix in milk, egg, sugar and melted butter.
3. 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.
4. Knead the dough for 15 minutes until it resembles a soft clay. Place flour on the surface if needed to avoid sticking.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. Set aside in a warm location and let it rise for 1 hour.
8. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top then bake on a 200C pre heated oven for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

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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.