Thursday, September 13, 2007

Pan de Sal: Attempt I

Yesterday my sister Charmaine and I attempted to make a very popular Filipino dinner roll--Pan de Sal. Our blog is actually named after this type of bread, as you might've noticed, but we replaced the word "Pan" with our last name, Platon, because "Pan" in the Tagalog pronounciation is "pawn" instead of "pan" (as in frying pan). Our last name, Platon, is pronounced "Pluh-tawn", so it rhymes a bit with "Pan", making the blog name "Platon de Sal"! Clever, isn't it? Charmaine thought of it and I think it's a rather cute name.

Anyways, back to the bread! Pan de Sal (actually translated to "salt bread") is a soft type of bread, but I wouldn't call it airy since it can be filling at times, and a bit dense. Nevertheless, it's a rather simple bread, so we thought we'd take a shot at it. We got the recipe from the site, All Recipes. While preparing Pan de Sal though, be aware of how much bread you want to make. My sister and I didn't exactly follow the measurements of the bread while cutting the dough, so instead of yielding about 20-30 servings, we made well over 40 small rolls of bread! Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/3 cup white sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
6 cups all-purpose flour

Directions:
1. Put the warm water in a small mixing bowl and add the yeast and 1 teaspoon of the sugar; stir to dissolve. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the remaining 15 teaspoons of sugar and the oil and mix until smooth. Add the salt, 1 cup of flour and the yeast mixture; stir well. Add the remaining 5 cups flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

3. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, supple and elastic; about 10 minutes. Lightly oil a large mixing bowl, place the dough in it and turn to coat the dough with oil. Cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap and let sit in a warm place until the dough has doubled in volume; about 1 hour.

4. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 4 equal pieces. Form each piece into a cylinder and roll out until the 'log' is 1/2 inch in diameter. Using a sharp knife, cut each 'log' into 1/2 inch pieces. Place the pieces, flat side down, onto two lightly greased baking sheets. Gently press each roll down to flatten.

5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

6. Cover the rolls with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled in volume, about 30 minutes.

7. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) until golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Makes 20-30 rolls.

My sister and I followed all the directions as stated in the directions until we had to leave the dough to rise the first time for roughly an hour. As soon as the hour passed, we had to leave since we had made plans to meet up with friends (we thought we'd finish baking by this time). So instead of finishing the baking, we left the dough in the refrigerator so we could finish it up when we were done. By the time we came back though, a couple of hours had passed and the dough seemed to have stiffened quite a bit. I should've waited for the dough to warm itself up a bit more before proceeding, but I just went into the next step and the cut the dough into four pieces, etcetera.

Verdict:
After cutting the rolled up dough into smaller pieces, however, the dough didn't rise as much and that's probably because it was still cold. I forgot at the time that the yeast had to be warm in order to rise. When we baked the bread, it ended up rising very little, so it just turned out as tiny as before it was baked. However, it still ended up tasting like Pan de Sal, and it was quite good with jam or butter! I'd say that these are more like bite-sized Pan de Sal than real Pan de Sal, but I'm glad my sister and I gave it a go anyways. We'll definitely try again another time! :) This is the first time we've experienced bread-making, so hopefully we'll be more successful in the future, and we'll make sure that the dough's warm and we have enough time to bake.

Recipe courtesy of: All Recipes: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pan-De-Sal-I/Detail.aspx

No comments: