Baking Frenzy

My sister and I have been going on a serious baking frenzy in the past few weeks. On September 12, that's when we made our first ever batch of Pan De Sal (that's right--our blog's namesake). Pan De Sal is basically a Filipino dinner roll. It's made of flour, yeast, sugar, and salt. Recipes can very, though--some have eggs, some don't. Some have baking powder, others do not. It's odd how such a simple bread can have so many varieties. Anyway, if you read Charlene's previous entry on our first attempt at Pan De Sal (Pan De Sal: Attempt I), the pan de sal actually turned out smaller than we anticipated since we separated the dough into small pieces. Also, the dough didn't rise much since we refrigerated it prior to baking... which affected the yeast.

And so, Pan De Sal: Attempt II was underway two days after. Charlene and I followed the same recipe from Allrecipes (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pan-De-Sal-I/Detail.aspx) and we cut the pieces into larger sizes... but we didn't let the yeast rise in a warm area, exactly. So the yeast didn't rise much again... though it was an improvement from the last batch of pan de sal. But when the bread was done baking, it didn't really brown at all... and it even seemed a bit uncooked for some reason... but it was definitely baked. It tasted better, and it was softer. The inside was still dense, though... I think our major problem there was that we didn't knead the dough correctly and we didn't let the yeast rise in a warm place.

Finally, Pan De Sal: Attempt III came last Wednesday, Sep. 19. This time, we tried a different Pan De Sal recipe from Allrecipes--Pan De Sal II. Charlene read about kneading dough online. And we figured since the first pan de sal recipe wasn't really working for us, we should try a different one. Pan De Sal II was slightly different--it required milk, baking soda, baking powder, butter, and breadcrumbs for a topping. When we were done making the dough, we let the dough rise in the oven under the "Warm" setting. I'm not sure how hot it was in that setting, but it seemed to work since the dough rose way more than our first pan de sal attempts.

Also, Charlene kneaded the dough for the right amount of time. The dough wasn't absolutely perfect, though--there were still some flakes and a hole or two here and there, but it was much better than last time. Finally, we baked the bread, and the result was pleasantly satisfying. The rolls rose incredibly larger than the first "flat" pan de sals we made, and they tasted delicious (must've been the butter).

And speaking of baking, Charlene and I made turkey empanadas with our friends yesterday afternoon. The recipe was from Pinoy Cook--a Filipino food blog. The recipe can be found here: http://www.pinoycook.net/recipes/the-amateur-baker/turkey-empanada/2/. I'll post more about the empanada later. They turned out great, though... although their shapes didn't exactly look empanada-esque.