Pandesal is a Filipino soft bread roll and made with bread flour, all purpose flour, yeast, sugar, milk, eggs, butter, bread crumbs, salt and oil. t is soft and airy with slightly sweet in taste. There are just so many ways to enjoy it, from dipping it in hot chocolate or coffee, adding sweet or savory spreads to other meaty fillings like hot dogs, corned beef and so much more. This Soft and Fluffy yummy kitchen traditional pandesal recipe gives so much of a homey feel that once the aroma of fresh bread hits the whole house you’ll be sure to have your family or friends readily awaiting you to take the bread out of the oven.

A brief history of the Soft and Fluffy Pandesal

Pandesal is the most popular breakfast bread in philippines and you can see mobile food venders selling pandesal in the morning. Pandesal has been a staple in many households since the 1900’s and even earlier from its beginning alterations. This used to be a made with wheat flour and was seen as the Spanish-Filipino version of the French baguette, and was baked in a ‘pugon’ or a wood fire oven. This slowly shifted to more affordable flour that was readily available in the Philippines, which resulted to a softer, doughy textured pan de sal. Made with a minimum of ingredients like flour, sugar, egg, oil, yeast, and salt. All mixed and kneaded to create a smooth dough risen to double its size and cut to small pieces. Rolled into breadcrumbs and risen again to ensure it’s fluffy like texture. Baked in the oven and readily served with a warm drink to complete the afternoon break time

Pandesal Ingredients

As I explained before, the main pandesal ingredients are bread flour, all purpose flour, milk, sugar, brown sugar, milk, eggs, butter, bread crumps, with yeast. But Pandesal can be eaten with different filling. Some people make dedicated and special pandesal fillings like chicken filling, hot dog filling, tuna filling, sweet chocolate or meat mix filling like embutido, that gives you feeling like eating embutido with tasty and fluffy Pandesal. We will providing recipe and videos different pandesal later

Bread flour vs. All purpose flour and a combination of the two

There are some debate on how to make super fluffy bread, whether you use just one type or flour, to the brand, a mixture of flour, and how much each ratio of flour is needed, but how much of a big difference is bread flour, all purpose flour, and is it better to use a combination of the two?

While both flour are made from wheat or grinding grains, the big difference comes from the gluten and protein content. Bread flour has a higher protein content which produces more gluten, this allows for a higher rise, a chewier and lighter textured bread. Bread flour or also called “strong flour’ is typically used for yeasted breads like pretzels, cinnamon buns, and bagels. These can also create for a great dense chewy and almost sweet like dough. Whereas all purpose flour while versatile and can be used in almost all baked goods like cakes, muffins, cookies, breads, frying, and many more, has a lower protein that creates a firmer textured but structured bread with less rise. In some recipe some do replace bread flour with all purpose flour, and as most bakers have noticed all purpose flour does still create a tender structured bread this may also depend on your use of flour brand.

These can both be interchangeable when making bread in a pinch, but be aware that the texture may come out differently after it’s baked. many who do love the texture of denser bread but want a better rise or a structured bread combine both all purpose flour and bread flour to make a ‘best of both worlds’ like bread. It creates a middle line of texture, structure, look, and better overall feel from crispier outer shell, and better holding bread to a soft fluffy but not so fluffy that it almost crumbles when to try to cut a slice. There are many recipes that try out different ratios of all purpose four to bread flour. In this recipe below we’re sure to give you a guaranteed success in making a fluffy with enough density warm pandesal.

Try out this easy foolproof Pandesal recipe and enjoy your afternoon with freshly baked pandesal, a sweet or savory spread on the side and a warm mug of coffee to wash it all off.

How To Make Pandesal