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.


BUTTERMILK PANDESAL
my original recipe

makes about 800g raw dough, you can either make a regular size bread of 30g or a bigger bun of 50g  bread roll each, your choice.  As my kids are growing and is use to bigger buns, i mould 45g for our pandesal and 50g for our filled breads.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 c bread flour
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast (if using a packet yeast use about half sachet = 5.5 g instant yeast= which is a little less than 1 3/4 tsp yeast )
1 egg
1/2 c caster sugar
1 c buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp salted butter
Panko ( Crushed Japanese bread crumbs ) for dredging or use the off-the-shelf commercial plain bread crumbs {progresso brand}, saves you some time ;-)

Procedure:
Mix bread flour and yeast in the stand mixer.
Add egg, buttermilk, sugar, vanilla and butter.
Knead until elastic at least 15 minutes...knead some more if you must.

NOTES: 

1. Dough is very elastic, gooey and sticky.  Using a spatula, slide it on your DUSTED work area, dust your hands with flour and slowly form into a big ball.  ALWAYS place dough on a dusted work area and dust your hands before working on the dough.

2. To prevent excess buttermilk, here is the home made version:  1 tbsp fresh lemon, and a little less than a cup of fresh milk. Here's how... Place 1 tbsp of freshly squeeze lemon (or lemon concentrate) in a measuring cup then fill the same cup with fresh milk up to the rim. Let it stand for 10-15 minutes. Mix and ready to use. =)

Rest for 1 hour to allow the dough to rise.
Punch and divide dough into 30 grams each ( why 30 grams?... 30 grams is generally a reasonable bite size for bread, and weighing the dough gives you a more or less uniform size of baked bread.)

Form these small doughs into ball and dredge in panko.
Place in a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Make sure the doughs are at least half inch apart to make room for dough expansion.  Proof these babies for another hour.
Before an hour is up, pre-heat oven to 175 degrees.
Bake dough for 10-15 minutes or until brown.

This bread uses panko bread crumbs

Serve hot with cheese or your preferred fillings.

Soft cheese for spreading and corned beef for filling.
Nothing beats a good breakfast with hot coffee and hot pandesal.

If for some reasons you failed in making a perfect pandesal, try again you might have missed some important notes.

Cheers!

(06 September 2018) updated Photo... recently {more than year actually ;-)} i have been using a home made bread crumbs instead of panko to achieve the real texture of pandesal and the result is deliciously amazing-- ahhhh nothing beats the perfect round, crumby, soft, sweet pandesal 😋