Pandesal Recipe
Pandesal is probably the most popular Filipino bread of all time. This has been a staple for breakfast. Enjoy it with cheese or dip it in hot coffee, the choice is yours.
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This pandesal recipe will give you a fluffy, and simply tasty bread that you can enjoy anytime of the day. I tried to make the process as simple as possible so that even beginners can follow with ease.
How to Make Pandesal
Activate the yeast
Start stirring 1 pouch of rapid rise yeast, ½ cup of white sugar, and 1 ¼ cup of warm, fresh milk. Keep doing this until you can see that the yeast and sugar have dissolved completely.
Combine the dry ingredients
Then in a separate mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients, starting off with the 2 cups of all-purpose flour, 2 cups of bread flour, sugar, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1 teaspoon of baking powder. Stir this as well.
Complete making the dough
On the same bowl, add 1 raw egg, 1 tablespoons of melted butter, 1 tablespoon of cooking oil, as well as your yeast-sugar-milk mixture in the mixing bowl containing your dry ingredients. Mix this again until your dough has formed. Then with clean hands, mix your ingredients and make sure they are blended well together.
Knead the dough
Use a flat surface for kneading the dough until you achieve a fine texture. You could also utilize a stand mixer with a dough hook if you’d like to have an easier kneading process. Also, mold the dough until it becomes a round shape. Then place it back in your mixing bowl and cover it with a damp cloth. You will be waiting for at least 1 hour to let the dough rise.
Divide and slice the dough
Place your dough on a flat surface, and using a dough slicer, separate this into 4 equal parts. Form a cylindrical shape with these parts by rolling them, then slice each cylindrical dough diagonally. Take note that these slices will later be our individual pieces of pandesal.
Roll the dough in breadcrumbs and let it rise
After this, roll your sliced dough over breadcrumbs, and put this in a baking tray lined with wax paper. Since we expect our pieces of pandesal will be rising, make sure to provide enough space among the dough. Then leave it in the tray with breadcrumbs for 10 to 15 minutes more for it to rise.
Bake your pandesal
Get your oven ready for baking by pre-heating it at 375 °F for a total of 10 minutes. Then we’re good to go with our tray of dough! Bake this in your oven for 15 minutes. When this is done, turn your oven off. Then place your warm, delicious batch fresh out of the oven on your serving plate or tray of choice.
History of Pandesal
This is because the famous bread originated from a need to turn to innovation when early Filipino bakers were looking for a cheaper option for flour. Pandesal, in turn, was originally made from wheat flour. Additionally, American wheat soon became more affordable than rice in the 1900s. And so this bread and other recipes that largely made use of wheat grew in popularity.
Commercial yeast, canned dairy, and baking pans also became cheaper to produce. This is because of the massive population of American immigrants in the earlier part of the 20th century. This only helped increase the demand for pandesal.
However, it also evolved from a bread that was present in the country before the American colonization. Pan de suelo or “floor bread” was popularized by the Spaniards upon their arrival in the Philippines. And it is still popular in the country today. But it is comparably less of a household name than the familiar pandesal or “salt bread”.
Despite not possessing the richest flavors, it is an incredible go-to for Filipinos looking for a versatile snack. It works as a savory treat, as it makes for a great sandwich with a bit of corned beef, ham, or most meat you might be able to name! Alternatively, most locals also opt for simple sweet fillings for this bread. You might have heard of the infallible combinations of pandesal and condensed milk, or with peanut butter.
The possibilities are endless for this blank canvas of a bread. But it can also taste great on its own, compact, fluffy, and delightfully salty-sweet!
How do you like your pandesal? Let us know in the comments!
Did you make this? If you snap a photo, please be sure tag us on Instagram at @panlasangpinoy or hashtag #panlasangpinoy so we can see your creations!
Pandesal
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 cups bread flour
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 5 tbsp butter melted
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/4 cup fresh milk warm
- 1 pouch rapid rise yeast
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup bread crumbs
- 1 piece raw egg
- 1 tbsp cooking oil
Equipment
- 1 stand mixer
Instructions
- Combine the yeast, 2 tablespoons sugar, and warm milk and stir until the yeast and sugar are fully dissolved1 1/4 cup fresh milk, 1 pouch rapid rise yeast
- In the mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients starting with the flour then the remaining sugar, salt, and baking powder . Mix well by stirring2 cups all purpose flour, 2 cups bread flour, 1/2 cup white sugar, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking powder
- Add the egg, butter, cooking oil, and yeast-sugar-milk mixture in the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients then mix again until a dough is formed. Use your clean hands to effectively mix the ingredients.5 tbsp butter, 1 piece raw egg, 1 tbsp cooking oil
- In a flat surface, knead the dough until the texture becomes fine. For faster and easier kneading, you may use a Stand Mixer with dough hook.
- Mold the dough until shape becomes round then put back in the mixing bowl. Cover the mixing bowl with damp cloth and let the dough rise for at least 1 hour
- Put the dough back to the flat surface and divide into 4 equal parts using a dough slicer
- Roll each part until it forms a cylindrical shape
- Slice the cylindrical dough diagonally (These slices will be the individual pieces of the pandesal)
- Roll the sliced dough over the breadcrumbs and place in a baking tray with wax paper (makes sure to provide gaps between dough as this will rise later on)
- Leave the sliced dough with breadcrumbs in the tray for another 10 to 15 minutes to rise
- Pre-heat the oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes
- Put the tray with dough in the oven and bake for 15 minutes
- Turn off the oven and remove the freshly baked pandesal.
- Serve hot. Share and enjoy!
Nutrition Information
Watch how to make Pandesal
carmela says
Hello I am in Australia and use metric, is your tablespoon measure = to 20ml ?
and I cup of flour is 125 gram?
I made some yesterday and my mix was too runny and I had to adjust but still turned out Yum.
Thanks
Edgardo Mejia says
Thanks to Panlasang Pinoy I can now cook Pinoy food in touch of a keyboard, very proud and confident to share it with my Family and Friends.
Edgardo Mejia says
im using my breadmaker to prepare the dough to avoid the hassle i hope this help.
TONI, GEORGIA says
f you are in USA u can get the bread flour in walmart or publix.Thanks
Panlasang Pinoy says
Hi ikabod, I covered it with cheese cloth to maintain the temperature. No need to spray the bowl with oil, just follow everything in the recipe and video and you are good to go. Hope this helps.
kelly says
please i need to know how to make a cheese cupcake..(chewy)thanks…
eleanor says
hi. i just wanted to tell you how much i loved ur pandesal recipe. i just made them and it is now 11:32pm and i’m having freshly baked pandesal. YUM! thanx a bunch. my next attempt will be the siopao recipe =)
jcldehart says
the best pandesal ever.
jcldehart says
Hi, Panlasang Pinoy thank you so very much for all the recipe. its 10:08 p.m here in Washington State Im making Pandesal its really really good I alread ate two. Thank you.
Panlasang Pinoy says
Mariden, you can use all-purpose flour if you can’t find bread flour.
Jules says
Hi kuya. Just wanted to thank you for this recipe. I made this the yesterday at 5 am in the morning and it came out really good! The only difference was I just used all purpose flour 4 cups. Thank you kuya for this awesome recipe. I love your site and I really enjoy cooking food so the recipes help me a great deal.
ALINE says
I do like very much panlasangpinoy.com please continue.
thank you!!
Aline, from France.
alan says
Bread Flour is not available here, but what I see in the shelf is “Pastry Flour”, can we use this as a substitute to Bread Flour?
Edgardo Mejia says
you can use strong white flour as what i use here in u.k. thanks from Edgar
Panlasang Pinoy says
You may use active dry yeast April though it does not react right away compared to the other. Bubbles might be produced a little longer when added to warm milk. Make sure that the mixture is bubbly enough before moving on.
mike says
how many pieces does this make? when you cut in diagonal how thik should each one be?
thanks
Panlasang Pinoy says
chie, what the breadmaker does is mix and knead the dough so that you wont do it manually. Use the bread maker for steps 2, 3 and 4 only. Please note that step 1 needs to be done as it is since we are trying to activate the yeast. Hope this helps.
Panlasang Pinoy says
Well said vanie. Glad to have some hand here.
Panlasang Pinoy says
Jho, bread flour is a special type of flour best used in making bread (as the name connotes). You may always use all-purpose flour though may mapapansin kalang na small difference sa texture but its tolerable.
bread lover says
kua is it okay kung i will not use bread crumbs…
mia says
I was wondering about the sugar. it’s say 1/2 cup. But in the recipe it says to add sugar with the yeast and another step says to add sugar with the dry ingredients. How much sugar do we use? I’m confused. thanks.
Panlasang Pinoy says
In step 1 (combine yeast and sugar etc), you need to scoop about a tablespoon of sugar (this will come from the 1/2 cup of sugar that was stated in the ingredient list) and combine it to the yeast and milk .
In step 2, you need to add the remaining sugar ( this is still the same sugar less a tablespoon since you already used it in the first step).
To summarize, you just need 1/2 cup sugar for both steps. Hope this helps.
Panlasang Pinoy says
Mary, the unit of measure that I’m using is Fahrenheit. I’m not sure if your oven is in Celsius. If that’s the case then you just need to set it to 190 degrees Celsius.