Cooking Tuesday - Pandesal (bread)

Memories of early mornings and cries of "Pandesal, Pandesal!" have driven me to try to re-create the mouth-watering goodness they sold on the streets in the little villages where I spent my early years. 

So many memories of "Chippy, chippy gum is a bubble gum.  Bumili kayo sa tindahan.  Masarap ito at mari-nam-nam.  Chippy chippy gum is a bubble gum."  My sister and her kids still sing that song. 

Memories of climbing on the fence to look out the gate - a dog bite - an even bigger house where we lived with another family and got in trouble for eating the choclate only to find that it was actually the rats that dragged it behind the desk and had helped themselves.  I remember the look in my mom and Aunt Wendy's eyes as they told of the stories of the rats that had actually been mistaken for cats.  How on earth do you manage tiny babies in a setting like that????  I would have been terrified.

And then the sweet memories of going to market and seeing green mangoes with salt - oh, so yummy!  But one thing that I have hoped to be able to make again is the taste of Pandesal in the morning.  You can never re-make that same taste.  I don't think there is a way.  I'm in an entirely different setting now.  But last night my daughter helped me and we tried to make it. 

So I thought I would share with you my "pandesal".  It means, in Spanish, salt bread.  Though it  doesn't have a lot of salt in it. 

First we made our bread. 

2 T yeast

 1 1/4 cup of warm milk

1/2 cup sugar

Later add

1 egg

5 T melted butter

1 T oil

In a large bowl, the recipe calls for

2 cups of flour

2 cups of bread flour (I just used four cups of flour)

1 t baking powder

1 t salt

Knead it till smooth. Cover with a damp cloth for an hour.

Divide into four equal parts
Roll into a tube.

Mine as you can see is not perfect

Try to get the "tube" into a uniform thickness.  I read somewhere that it should be about an inch in diameter. Slice diagonally - that's what the knife is for.

Roll in bread crumbs.

Place on cookie sheet.  Bake for 10 to 15 minutes at 375 degrees.

Ready to go into the oven.

Delicious!!!!



Do you know I was the only one who did not know that they didn't taste quite like the real thing?  No one else did.  I'm afraid that the setting has something to do with it tasting different.  They definitely were good.  And I think I'll make them again.  Just wish that I didn't like sleep so much and we could have them warm for breakfast. :)

Making the most of today,

Steph