Deliciously soft, these Filipino Bread Rolls (Pandesal) will surely become a regular in your home too! They’re so easy to make, the hard part is waiting for the proofing. But trust me, it’s all worth it!
Pandesal is an all-around bread for Filipinos.
Growing up, we would eat it for breakfast, morning snack, lunch with stir-fry noodles, and then afternoon snack — sometimes we even use it to make an ice cream sandwich.
Now that I’m residing in Stockholm, I make it at least once a week — keeping the tradition alive here in the Nordics, as they say.
WHAT YOU NEED TO PREPARE FILIPINO BREAD ROLLS
WHAT TYPE OF FLOUR SHOULD I USE?
All-purpose flour or a combination of all-purpose and bread flour will be perfect. I alternate between these two randomly, depending on what I have available in my kitchen pantry.
However, I do think that the rolls are slightly softer when I use an (almost) equal amount of both kinds of flour.
IS IT OK TO USE PANKO?
I strongly recommend using finer breadcrumbs than panko; they will stick better to the dough.
If you have not tried it yet, you can easily make homemade breadcrumbs — maybe today is the right time to give it a shot.
HOW TO MAKE PANDESAL – STEP by STEP
Start by warming up half a cup of milk and mixing it with the yeast. Set aside (photo 1).
Using a large bowl, combine all the flour, salt, and sugar. Mix evenly (photo 2).
Once the yeast mixture is ready, combine it with the remaining milk, eggs, and vegetable oil in the stand mixer bowl (photo 3).
Add half of the dry ingredients and mix using the dough hook of the stand mixer (photo 4).
Add the remaining dry ingredients in batches. Increase the speed of the mixer once a dough starts to form.
Keep mixing until you get a smooth dough; about 25 minutes. Place dough into an oiled bowl, cover with a clean kitchen towel (photo 5).
Set dough aside until it has doubled in size (photo 6).
Punch the air out of the dough and divide it into equal portions. I generally make 24 pieces from this recipe (photo 7).
Form each portion into a ball and roll on breadcrumbs (photo 8).
Place each roll on a baking tray lined with a baking sheet and keep some distance between each roll. Cover and set aside for 30 minutes (photo 9).
Fifteen minutes before you uncover the tray, preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F).
The rolls will be quite puffy by this time, ready for baking (photo 10).
Place the tray in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until the pandesal has turned golden.
TOP TIPS IN MAKING HOMEMADE PANDESAL
- To mix with the yeast, make sure you only heat the milk to lukewarm. Don’t make it too hot, or worse, boiling temperature.
- Beat the eggs before adding them to the rest of the liquid ingredients.
- Use vegetable oil or any other neutral-tasting oil, NOT olive oil.
- Mix the salt with the flour, instead of adding it directly to the liquid ingredients (salt and yeast should not be mixed).
- If the dough is too wet, do not hesitate to add more flour. It is indeed a sticky dough, but not a wet one.
- If you want to keep all the rolls in equal size, use a weighing scale to measure each portion of the dough before forming it into a ball.
FOR OTHER ASIAN RECIPES, CHECK OUT THE FOLLOWING POSTS –
OR IF YOU WANT MORE IDEAS LIKE PANDESAL BREAD, THEN YOU SHOULD GO STRAIGHT TO MY BREAD COLLECTION!
Filipino Bread Rolls (Pandesal)
Ingredients
- 1 & 1/2 cups milk (divided into 1/2 & 1 cup)
- 2 & 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (plus 1/2 cup more for adding)
- 2 cups bread flour
- 2 large eggs
- 1/3 cup breadcrumbs
Instructions
- Warm-up ½ cup of milk and mix with the yeast. Set aside until foamy.
- On a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients – all-purpose flour, bread flour, salt, and sugar. Mix evenly.
- Once the yeast mixture is ready, combine all the wet ingredients in the stand mixer bowl – 1 cup milk, eggs, yeast mixture, and vegetable oil.
- Add half of the dry ingredients and mix (using the dough hook) of the stand mixer. Set your stand mixer to low at this time, so you don't sprinkle the flour.
- Add the rest of the dry ingredients in batches and continue mixing until a dough starts to form.
- Adjust the speed of the mixer into medium and continue kneading until the dough becomes smooth. It usually takes 20-25 minutes. You can also do the kneading manually if you don't have a stand mixer.
- Place the smooth dough in an oiled bowl and cover with a clean kitchen towel. Set aside until the size of the dough has doubled. It generally takes me no more than 2 hours.
- Punch the dough in the middle and remove it from the bowl. Divide it into 24 equal portions.
- Form each portion into a ball and roll it in breadcrumbs.
- Place each ball in a baking tray lined with a baking sheet. Keep some distance between rolls to allow when they expand. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and set aside for about 30 minutes.
- Halfway during this proofing time, preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F).
- The rolls are slightly puffy by this time. Uncover the baking tray and place it in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the rolls turned golden.
- Take out of the oven and serve.
Notes
- You can skip the bread flour and just use all-purpose flour instead. The result would still be great. The bread flour gives the rolls a softer texture.
- Make sure you are mixing lukewarm milk with the yeast, not hot or boiling -- or you'll end up killing the yeast.
- Beat the eggs before mixing them with the rest of the liquid ingredients.
- Do not use olive oil, stick to vegetable oil, or any other oil that has a neutral taste.
- Do not add the salt directly to the wet ingredients, mix it with the flour instead.
- Do not hesitate to add more flour (slowly) if the dough is too wet. The dough for this recipe is a sticky one, but not wet.
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