Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Pan de Sal Revisited

I guess it was just natural for me to then move on to making pan de sal after a very successful ensaymada experiment. It's no longer an experiment, I suppose, as I have made ensaymada a few more times the latest batch always better than the previous. I froze half of the dough of the most recent one. I'll tell you how the frozen dough works in comparison to a fresh one in a future post.


But anyway, this post is about pan de sal. It's been a while since I made pan de sal. I was disheartened as all my attempts in the past fell short of my "ideal" pan de sal. (read earlier post on pan de sal). We've never made it at home in the Philippines that is why my "ideal" pan de sal is store bought hot pan de sal. Our neighborhood bakery bake pan de sal all throughout the day. You're almost always guaranteed to get hot pan de sal any time you feel like it.


Although pan de sal is available here down under they are normally not freshly baked. They are either frozen or, if you’re lucky enough to have a Pinoy bakery nearby, already packed but never fresh from the oven. There is no other way for me to get hot pan de sal unless I bake it myself.


Thank God once again to Miss Eufemia C Estrada who wrote a really wonderful book that renewed my interest in baking! I, of course, used her recipe which she apparently got from Dexter Rebolledo (of the famous Dexter’s Bakeshop & Coffeeshop in Manila).


I was a bit ambiguous about step 2 of her recipe but nevertheless the resulting pan de sal smelled, looked and most importantly tasted like my "ideal"!

Here's the recipe:

Dexter's Pan de sal

2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup hydrogenated shortening
2 egg whites
1 cup scalded milk
1 cup lukewarm water
7-8 cups flour

1. In a bowl, sprinkle yeast in lukewarm water. Wait about 5 minutes for yeast to dissolve. Add sugar and wait for the mixture to bubble. Add the salt, shortening, egg whites and 1 cup flour to make a soft dough. Mix by hand thoroughly. Add 1 cup milk with 1 cup lukewarm water. Add all of the flour. Knead until smooth. Form into a ball and let rise until double in bulk. Do not cover with cheese cloth. Do not brush with butter.
2. After dough has doubled in size, divide into 3 parts. Flatten each piece into a rectangle and place one on top of the other.
3. Divide rectangle pieces into strips. Powder the strips with bread crumbs. Cut into serving pieces. Place each piece on slightly greased cookie sheets, standing on cut side. Bake in preheated 450F oven for 15 minutes. Yields 62 pieces.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

These look so awesome! I've always wanted to make pan de sal but I'm pacing myself through Filipino cuisine. I've got puto and ensaymada in line ahead of it for now. But I'm saving this post for when I'm ready!

Anonymous said...

This brings me back to my trips back home to the Philippines. I can remember getting a brown paper sack filled with pan de sal in the mornings. I love having fried eggs to go along with them to make them the perfect breakfast bite.

The Beancounter said...

Hello there Tangled Noodle! Can't wait for your puto and ensaymada... i'm always on the lookout for others recipes that can hopefully improve mine...

The Beancounter said...

Hello there Lando! Yup, it's got to be fried egg... and i add SPAM and Purefoods hotdog to mine... not incredibly healthy but really yummy!

Anonymous said...

These looks very yummy! Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

dude, this looks great. i love the smell of freshly baked pan de sal.

The Beancounter said...

Thanks 5 Star Foodie and paoix... it's 11.30pm here and i'm in the middle of making pan de sal for tomorrow's breakfast...

Lory said...

I make my pandesal using a bread machine recipe, that way I don't end up with a lot, because I always want my pandesal freshly baked, not reheated. My pandesal should be only a day old for reheating. I grew up in the company of bakers in my father's lowly small cheap bakery in the Philippines, and shaping pandesal and waiting for them to come out, I was quite "spoiled" that I always had them freshly baked from the oven, still steaming hot yet with the crust very crunchy! Ate them with ice cream at times. I had to improvise once I was in the US, and now I am very satisfied with the recipe and the bread machine method I have been using since 2004.

The Beancounter said...

i'll have a look at your recipe and probably try it out... usually i only do half the recipe so i don't end up with a lot of stale pan de sal... i give some to my friends who live nearby...

JoSo2003 said...

Hi! Seems 2 TBSP of yeast is too much. Correct me if I'm wrong. I would want to try your recipe. Thank you for sharing.

The Beancounter said...

Thanks for dropping by Josephine. I think you can probably get away with just one tablespoon. It might take a bit more time to rise but you'll get there. Just need a bit more patience.