Buttermilk Pandesal

Spur of the moment is what bread making is for me.  The thought of kneading, resting and proofing always disappoint me. The craving is there but the thought of its process kills the craving. So its better to buy good RTE (ready-to-eat)  bread than going thru the process.  Though sometimes ego prevails and the process of kneading, resting and proofing come in handy. So once in a while,  we have hot tasty bread/ pandesal at mi casa out of varying recipes. 

True enough, every pandesal is a unique experience. Tonight I was thinking of what would pandesal taste like if I use buttermilk instead, so here is the verdict: compact, soft, smooth, and yummy!  It passed the test of aging with flying colors! It's softer and delicious after a day even without the spread or filling.

Try this and let me know your verdict.

Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll

I made bread pudding today but it never occurred to me that such outcome is a curse because I was expecting  the "BAGAFORO" way of pudding.  I know my gradeschool classmates can relate to this. =)

To appease myself of this devastation, I have decided to make my cinnabon cinnamon roll,  a baking schedule I have long been postponing for those "days of cravings." 

With grateful acknowledgment to the makukulits--Bart and Paige who brought walnuts and raisins from the grocery last friday-- an honest mistake marketing, whew!  Btw, this is how they get me to bake/cook their desires in an instant.  

Anyway, how is this done check this cinnamon roll recipe  from one of my favourite chefs Michael Smith, D' Chef at Home.  I love his show and his kitchen -- he got this walk-in cabinet of spices and all. So much for this envious--ness.

Almondigas

    I can't imagine that this recipe ever existed long enough not knowing that it was called as such. Why I am saying this, because this used to be one of our family  menu (usually misua soup, minus the almondigas of course, need not to elaborate on that) as our day to day survival ;-).   It has been our everyday food but on other days our Mamang has to invent ways to vary it : misua with meatballs, shredded chicken, minced pork with patola or drop egg or spring onions, which were by the way very often occasions as in --"once in a blue moon,"  but on most days, this dish is originally with sardines. Yes! Youngstown sardines (green colour) the one's so popular in its time...there you go, now I revealed one of our family's hidden treasures =D, ssshhhhh, I hope my siblings might not read this post =D.

    Indeed, life is very tough during those times that we need to be contented on what is on our dining table.  Though, you call it so "poor--ish", but we call it a blessing--for we have food for the day! Well, that's how life is, we would never be here now if not for those blessings!... I am starting to be nostalgic so before I may reveal more of our "hidden treasures =) here is the soup of the day...

Chicken Inasal

We had chicken on our lunchdate few days back and I still have chicken legs in the fridge. There is no best recipe than to cook these leggies appropriately...

BAKED CHICKEN INASAL

1.2 kls or about 6 pcs whole chicken legs

Marinade:

2 c apple cider
2 whole garlic (chopped)
3 thumb size ginger (grated)
1/3 c Annatto Oil or more
6 stalks lemongrass (pounded)
3 tbsp rock salt or 1/2 c fish sauce (patis), or more up to your preference
black pepper (coarsely ground)
2 tsps ground black pepper

Bread Pastel

Just as I posted the basic bread dough, I am waiting for my dough to rise and in few minutes I will be turning it into bread pastel.  Everyone is asking me about bread pastel and as I mentioned it to Bart he said: what bread pastel?... hehehe I totally forgot how he missed that pastel in 2009 and he even asked me to make one but unfortunately he is always left with nothing everytime I make one, so hopefully this time a piece can wait...

Basic Bread Dough

Since we started baking or should I say bread--ing in 2009, I laid my eyes on bread then I shifted to cakes and now back to bread-- ing again.  Seeing how breadtalk  transform doughs into spectacular ways inspire me.  So now, back to basic...

I will give you a basic dough recipe which you can use into generic breads like  rolls, pandesal, spanish breads, bread with fillings and even ensaymada.

So if you are looking for bread that tastes like breadtalk here it is--

BREAD DOUGH 

Ingredients: 

A. 
     240 g  Breadflour
       60 g  All-purpose flour
       40 g  Sugar
         5 g  Instant yeast

B. 
         1 pc     Whole egg
      150 ml   Fresh milk

C.   30 g  Unsalted butter


Procedure:

1. Place A in a bowl (stand mixer). Using dough paddle (hook), blend the ingredients until  incorporated. Then add B and knead for 5 minutes. This is how it would look like after 5 minutes-- 

Kneading a rough dough after ingredients A+B are incorporated 

2.  Add C and knead for at least 15 minutes, it will look like a glossy dough and elastic like this ...

After adding the butter, dough is glossy like this

Elastic dough

3. Roll dough into a ball, return to the mixing bowl and cover with cling wrap.
Then, proof dough for 1 hour.  

Proofing for an hour

This is how it looks like after an hour

An hour is just enough to double the size of the dough.

Afterwards, punch dough at the center, take it out of the bowl and divide it into 30 grams each and mould as desired. 

4.  Place the moulded dough on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and let it rest for another hour before baking.

Brazo Frozen Delight

We (Rochelle and Marilyn) barely see each other since our good friend Mhai and her family left Singapore in June. Today, lunch was never the same, of course, with one friend away, one cup of laughter is missed.  Though she's away, this dessert brought her to our lunch date. Ate Mhai loves ube, so I decided to make ube dessert with a twist!

I am not a fanatic of brazo nor sans rival, but its not bad baking one, once in a while.  And the theme for the lunchdate is "brazo mo brazo ko rin!"

So from Singapore to New Zealand.... a dessert for you!