Pandesal is the most popular bread in the Philippines for a good reason! With a golden, crumb-coated exterior, slightly sweet taste, and soft, fluffy texture, this Filipino-style bread roll is delicious on its own or with your choice of filling. Perfect for breakfast or as a snack!
Although I am comfortable with pie crusts and do well with simple coconut macaroons, cheese cupcakes, and chocolate cupcakes, I find baking with yeast a whole different kind of beast. But since one can't have a Filipino cooking blog and not have a recipe for the most popular Filipino bread, I stepped out of my comfort zone and set out to make the best homemade pandesal ever which I found on Lisa's Salu-salo blog.
After baking a batch today following her recipe and enjoying a couple of pieces slathered with copious amounts of Chez Whiz, I realized, sometimes, our fears become our limits. Making pandesal is not as difficult as I thought. In fact, the hardest part is waiting for the dough to rise!
What is pan de sal
Pan de sal which is Spanish for bread of salt is traditionally made with wheat flour, yeast, water, and a pinch of salt added to the dough. Over the years, ingredients such as eggs, milk, and butter were incorporated into the basic recipe resulting in a sweeter than salty flavor.
Pandesal is the staple bread of the Philippines. Widely enjoyed throughout the day for breakfast, as a snack or as part of a larger meal, its place in our cuisine is almost synonymous to that of rice.
While the soft, fluffy rolls are fantastic on their own, it's also common to serve them with coffee for dipping or with choice of fillings such as cheese, coconut jam, margarine/butter, and peanut butter. My personal favorite is stuffing them to the brim with pancit bihon guisado. So good!
For variety, you can also bake the bread buns with meat fillings such as shredded chicken adobo, flaked tuna or sauteed corned beef.
How to know if the bread dough has been adequately kneaded
- The dough turns from shaggy to smooth. It will lose its stickiness and will only be tacky to the touch.
- The dough is elastic. To test, take a little portion of the dough and stretch it out with your fingers. It should be thin and translucent in the center.
- The dough forms a dimple after you poke a finger in the surface then springs back up again.
Baking tips
- Make sure the temperature of the water used for proofing is within 105 F to 115 F as hot liquids (about 135 F and above) will kill the yeast.
- The purpose of activating or proofing the yeast is to ensure it's alive and active before proceeding with the recipe. If bubbles don't appear on the surface of the mixture after about 6 to 10 minutes, it might be the liquid is too hot or the yeast is too old.
- You will need 4 ¼ cups of flour for the dough and about ¼ to ½ cup when kneading. Add the remaining flour sparingly and just until the dough is manageable. Knead the dough until it is smooth, elastic, and no longer sticky.
- Yeast grows and multiplies best at 75 F to 85 F. If your house is too cold, turn on the oven to the lowest setting for about 2 minutes, turn off, and place the dough in the center of the oven to rise.
- If you prefer the cylindrical shape of traditional pandesal, divide the dough into two parts and shape each into long baton with 4 to 5-inch diameter. Cut each baton horizontally into 12 portions.
Pandesal
Ingredients
- ¼ cup warm water
- 1 package (¼ ounce) active dry yeast
- 1 cup lukewarm milk
- 2 ounces butter, room temperature
- 2 eggs, beaten
- ½ cup sugar
- 1-½ teaspoons salt
- 4 ¼ cups flour and ¼ to ½ cup more for kneading
- ½ cup fine breadcrumbs
Instructions
- In a stand mixer bowl, combine water and yeast. Allow to sit for 10 minutes or until the mixture becomes bubbly. Stir well.
- In a small bowl, combine milk, butter, eggs, sugar, and salt. Stir together until incorporated.
- Add milk mixture and 2 cups flour to yeast mixture. Using a dough hook, beat to combine.
- Gradually add the remaining 2 ¼ cups flour in ½ cup increments and continue to combine all ingredients.
- On a lightly floured surface, turn over dough and knead, sparingly adding the remaining ¼ cup flour as necessary, for about 10 minutes or until smooth, supple and elastic.
- In a lightly oiled large bowl, place dough. Cover with film and allow to rise for about 1 to 1 ½ hours or until double in size.
- On a lightly floured surface, transfer dough and divide into 24 pieces. Shape each piece into a ball and roll on breadcrumbs to coat.
- Arrange balls about 1-inch apart on a lightly greased baking sheet. Cover with a cloth and allow to rise for about 1 to 1 ½ hours or until double in size.
- Bake in a 350 F oven for about 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Serve hot.
Video
Nutrition
Sarap! Very easy to follow, and well worth the wait! These are delicious!
Thank you for the 5 stars. Glad you liked the recipe!
Hi Lalaine,
Thank you for.sharing your recipe. My family loved it... tried several.recipes before but yours made me a perfect baker😊😊. Thumbs'up!!! God.bless.you.
Yay! Happy to know it was a success!
Re the yeast, the only available I can find is Instant yeast, will that be okay? Thanks.
Yes, instant yeast is fine 🙂
Hi Ma'am, about the yeast of 1/4 ounce - is it 1/4 tablespoon? as 1 ounce is 2 tablespoons? Thank you po in advance for the reply.
I mean 1/4 ounce is 1/2 tablespoon if 1 ounce is 2 tablespoons?
1/4 ounce of yeast is 2 1/4 teaspoons 🙂
I've been craving a pandesal and thanks to this recipe. I have never made a pandesal before and my family loves it. They haven't had a pandesal before coz I bake this today and turn out really good. It's one of their favorite to munch on❤❤❤
Thanks for the feedback! Enjoy the bread rolls! 🙂
can i use all purpose flour for pandesal? is it necessary to use bread flour?
The recipe actually calls for all-purpose flour not bread flour 🙂
Just wanted to thank you for this amazing recipe! My family loved it.. comments are ‘so soft’, ‘so buttery’.. its just perfect! God bless you po! I’ll try some of your other baking recipes 😊
I am happy to know their comments! Glad the family loved the recipe!
Does the dough really double in size during the first rising? Mine rose a little bit but not quite. Should I continue with the process? This is my first time using yeast in baking. Thank you so much for this easy to follow recipe.
It should roughly double in size and will look puffed up 🙂
Hello! So glad that I found your recipe, I saw a lot of recipes online that many commenters said would turn hard in just a couple hours after baking but saw many great results on yours so I decided to try it out. Been two days since then and the breads are still soft and fluffy, love them so much! Next time I'm making this I might have to double the recipe up too cause half of them are already gone by now. XD That's how good your recipe is!! Thank you so much for sharing, 10/10 would recommend! Love from Hong Kong. xx
Aww, thank you so much, Cynthia. I am glad the recipe worked well for you. Enjoy!
Hi! Thank you for posting thiis. I made the pandesal and it turned out perfect but when I tried to remake it I added more sugar to it coz me and my wife likes it sweeter like the pandesal in Cavite but it cracked and got harder when it cooled down. Is there something I can adjust to make it sweeter and comes out the perfect pandesal? Thank you so much again and hope you can help me!
I haven't tested this using more sugar so I am not sure how to adjust it without changes in texture. From what I've read online, too much sugar in the dough can slow down or even stop yeast activity. As your sugar levels increase, the yeast becomes stressed as less water is available for it to function. You might want to increase the amount of yeast to compensate for the higher amount of sugar added.