how to make pandesal (filipino bun) at home - recipe

pandesal is the one bread almost all filipino love to eat at breakfast, you can have it bland, salty or sweet depends on your taste.

this bread brings back a lot of memories of being a kid, growing up and having a family of my own. i like to eat it as it is or dip it on my coffee or with scrambled egg.
now that we are living abroad, this kind of bread is not easy to find and your best way of having it is if you make it on your own.

my daughter and i have tried a lot of sites to find the best recipe for pandesal but nothing really comes close to what we really like so after a lot of trial and error we end up with this authentic pandesal taste recipe.

it is very easy to make and you can make it at night time and just bake it in the morning or bake it the same time and just freeze it – this is what we usually do, bake it at night time and freeze it and just microwave it to defrost and reheat at the same time.
the taste is still good and it wont be hard like most bread you leave outside your counter.

hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

servings:
28 medium size pandesal

ingredients:
2 cups warm water
2 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/3 cup + 1 tsp white sugar (make it less if you dont like it sweet or add some more if you like it sweeter)
1/4 cup canola oil (vegetable oil)
1/2 tsp salt
5 cups all purpose flour

procedures
(using a stand mixer) if not still follow the procedures just make sure that the consistency of the dough is elastic and still a bit sticky in your hand:

1. place the warm water on the mixing bowl, sprinkle the yeast and 1 tsp sugar. let stand for 5 minutes or until creamy – not more than 10 minutes if it did not turn creamy it means your water is not warm enough or your yeast is already dead, throw it and do it again.
2. add remaining sugar, canola (vegetable) oil and salt, mix for about 30 seconds.
3. add 1 cup of flour and mix until flour is dissolved. do this 1/2 cup at a time until the 5 cups all purpose flour is gone.
4. knead for 2.5 minutes using the no.2 set of your stand mixer or according to your mixer manual for bread dough (if using hand knead it until it becomes elastic and smooth.
5. oil the same mixing bowl you use and roll your knead dough, cover for at least 45 minutes or until double in size.
6. punch the dough and divide into 4 equal parts, turn onto a lightly floured surface and roll.
7. sprinkle the surface with bread crumbs and roll each again until it forms a cylinder, roll till the log is 1/2 inch in diameter.
8. place it on your baking pan/sheet and cut lengthwise 5 times, do the same for the 3 other log.
10. let it stand for about 15-30 minutes (until it double it size), make sure that 5 minutes before it fully reach it doubled size you are preheating your oven.
11. preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
12. bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) until golden brown, 15-20+ minutes. I like it a bit toasted so i add a few more minutes to it 23 minutes in total. my daughter likes it very soft and light colored so i bake it for 15 minutes for her. just check your bread once in a while until it reach your desired doneness)