There’s nothing more comforting than hot pandesal on a Saturday morning. Pandesal is a Filipino dinner roll that you would eat for breakfast or an afternoon snack. When I was a kid, my parents would bring home bags of Valerio’s from the location in Berryessa (shouts out to all my San Jose people!). AND I WOULD GO SO HAM! I would eat it toasted with a generous spread of butter and sprinkling of sugar. Other times, I would dip it in hot chocolate or have two slices of pandesal filled with corned beef for lunch. The possibilities are endless!
My friend Josh sent me this video of one of my favorite Youtubers EmmyMadeinJapan, and I knew I had to make this recipe for fluffy pandesal! I like that this recipe divides the dough in half into a traditional pandesal and an ube cheese flavor. All over Instagram, you can watch beautiful cheese pulls and cross sections of a variety of pandesal. And you’d be surprised at how easy it is to make pandesal at home! You don’t need a stand mixer, but a lil elbow grease goes a long way.
Emmy is so wholesome and I highly recommend all her YouTube videos! She fills the void that B*n App*t*t has left in my heart. I dedicate this recipe to my Ading Camille who made a special request for a good ube cheese pandesal recipe. This recipe is it! I love having the other half of the pandesal to fill with whatever you want too. Pandesal is a quintessential Filipino bread, and nothing beats the smell of freshly baked bread permeating your kitchen. 🙂
Fluffy Pandesal
Ingredients
- 1 cup warm milk
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 3¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup bread crumbs
- 1 tablespoon ube extract I use the Butterfly brand.
- 1 block Velveeta cheese, cut into 9 cubes (you might have leftover cheese and that's okay!)
- vegetable oil for coating the bowls
Instructions
- Mix warm milk (heated to about 110 degrees Fahrenheit), active dry yeast & 1 teaspoon of sugar. Let sit a few minutes until it looks foamy and forms bubbles.
- In a large bowl, combine the milk mixture, melted butter & 1 large egg. Add in remaining sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt.
- Whisk in flour until it forms a shaggy dough.
- Cover bowl in plastic wrap and let it rest for 20 minutes, so that the dough has time to absorb the flour.
- Divide dough in half.
- Starting with one half, knead for 7 minutes until nice, smooth & elastic. Form into a ball.
- Oil medium large bowl and place dough ball there, cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel.
- For the second half, add 1 tablespoon of ube extract. Kneading into the dough with gloved hands (optional to use gloves, but your hands might be a bit purple from the extract!). Use a little bit of extra flour since the dough is a little wet. Then, form into a ball.
- Oil another medium large bowl and place dough ball there, cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel.
- Let both halves of dough rest and rise until they double in size, about 1 hour.
- Divide and shape the dough into rolls (9 balls from one half), tucking the ends down and then rubbing them to seal. Roll them on the countertop to make smooth spheres.
- Dip each ball of dough into bowl of bread crumbs.
- For the ube cheese pandesal, take each piece of dough, stretch and place piece of Velveeta cheese inside. Pinch to seal, twist together, roll and dip in bowl of bread crumbs.
- Place all balls onto a 12 x 18 inch baking sheet. Cover the sheet with plastic wrap or kitchen towel and let them have a second rise which takes 30-45 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit while the dough is rising.
- After the dough's second rise, place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 18-20 minutes.
