How to Make "Pre-War" Pandesal

The staple of the Filipino breakfast, the pandesal never fails to make its appearance on the table. What exactly it is, is not really clear for one thing, there is no such thing as "salt bread" which is what pandesal translates into and when eaten as bought in the bakeries of the Philippines, its taste can range from neutral to sweet, the color could be white to somewhat yellow resembling brioche and the consistency soft to even crunchy. This varied range of character that describes this bread then leads to the controversy of "pre war" pandesal. 

The Pandesal: theoretically should be
crunchy outside, soft inside.

Unless one did actually live in the years prior to the Japanese invasion of the Philippines and actually ate one of these things, I don't think we can actually gauge what pre war pandesal is all about. But there are several clues on how to unravel this mystery.  

The Pandesal is a roll, usually served during
breakfast, could also serve as a
quick snack with any spread
and coffee.

The first one is based to a joke that goes like this. There was once a person who was charged of murder. Questioned by the police, he was asked, "So you killed him. How did you do it?" 

The man then meekly replied, "It is said in the bible, 'If a man throws you a stone, throw back a piece of bread." 

"But if you threw bread, then how come he is dead?" 

"I don't know. But I threw a piece of bread that came from the jar." 

That joke wasn't a good one. But in Tagalog, the jar here is translated as garapon which is an earthenware jar in which bread is stored. Bread in its real non preservative state and recipe has a tendency to become hard as days go by. Therefore, pandesal is the same way which, as days go by, gets crunchier and hard. Thus, pandesal that is soft and remains soft for the next days has a recipe that is not reminiscent of so called pre war pandesal. 

Secondly, my father who is now almost eighty five said always, "Pandesal these days don't seem to have that crunch. In the olden days, because the ovens were really hot," remembering the time his Father used to bake bread for a living, "the bread would sometimes pop." He referred to this pop as "putok" meaning, to burst in Tagalog. This observation therefore leads to the third point. 

Europeans, of which Spain, Italy and France - all countries well renowned as bedrocks of culinary techniques and art in the Western hemisphere, seem to be fond of breads that have a crunchy crust and a soft inside. Unless specified to be a different type of bread such as the brioche which is the basis of sweet breads such as sweet rolls, cinnamon rolls, ensaymada and sticky buns and are relatively soft, the usual staple bread is white, taste neutral and crunchy on the outside with the soft inside. Case in point, the baguette has this character and so is the sourdough bread or the Italian dinner rolls served by Bertucci's or the ciabatta bread. These breads are white, taste neutral, not sweet. That being the case, it seems that by historical inference, knowing that the Philippines was a former Spanish colony, the pandesal of the "pre-war" and even Spanish era might be the same way. 

Now, theoretically speaking breads are best baked in a very hot oven.  In the olden days, especially when one is looking at the classic cookbooks of the 19th even 18th centuries, oven temperatures were not described in terms of degrees Fahrenheit or Centigrade, rather in terms of "hot" or "very hot" or "moderate" or "slow" oven.  Usually, hot or very hot ovens refer to the hotness that of a clothes iron which is unable to be touched and usually the tester would immediately remove his finger lest he be burned. In terms of temperature, this is about 500 to 600 oF. Because ovens of the olden days are made of stone and brick, one can imagine just how hot this is that according to my Dad, it was so hot that one can see breads pop open because of the instant dough expansion as the crust is made so quickly by the dry heat that the gases will expand tremendously and break the tough crust. Hence, this may be the scientific explanation for the  phenomenon of the "potok". 

Lastly, my Father said before that in order to develop a crunchy crust it helps to spray the bread with a salt solution - nothing more than just salt and water mixed together and sprayed using a regular fine mist sprayer. If one thinks about it, this is how one makes roasted pork skin crispy - the saturated salt crystals would be enough to draw the surface water out hence helping in the dehydration process with the oven's high heat. 

Guava Jelly (and this from the Philippines too!!!)
with cheese - as Homer would say,
"Hmmmmmm."

The sweetness and tartness of the jelly with the flavor
of cheese is just heavenly. (Note the crusty bread.)

In this recipe, we attempt to recreate this bread, the "Pre-War Pandesal" 

"Pre-War" Pandesal 

• 2 cups lukewarm water 
• 1 tablespoon yeast
• 1 tablespoon to 1/4 cup white sugar (more the sweeter) 
• 1 tablespoon to 3 tablespoons salt (more the saltier) 
• 1/2 to 1 cup butter (more, the more resilient) 
• 7 cups flour 

1. Mix sugar, yeast and water together. Leave alone for about fifteen minutes until bubbly.  This means that the yeast has been activated and ready for bread making. 
2. Add salt, mixing for a minute or so until the it is dissolved. 
3. Using a mixer with the paddle or whisk attachment at low speed, add the butter and put slowly two cups of flour to mix well until batter stage.  Leave this for about thirty minutes while the yeast bubbles and creates gas. 
4. Switching to the dough kneading attachment at some time, add slowly, one cup at a time, the remaining cups of flour until a stiff dough is achieved. This may need a total of 6-7 cups of flour. Remove from the mixer and cover with a damp cloth and leave to rise until more than double in bulk - usually this takes about two hours. 
5. Punch in the middle and leave to rise again until double in bulk. 
6. Remove from the bowl and divide the dough four long loaves of about three inches diameter thick. 
7. Spread bread crumbs on the table and roll each loaf on bread crumbs. 
8. Using a knife or your own hands, divide each loaf further into buns of about 2 or 2 inches thick. Line a baking sheet with these pieces of dough cut side up. 
9. Let rise the dough pieces are double in bulk. 
10. Using the highest setting of your oven - usually 450oF in electric ovens and if possible 550oF in gas ovens, bake the bread for about fifteen minutes. (Try higher temperatures if possible.) 
11. Without removing the trays from the oven, spray with a fine mist of salt solution (about 1/4 cup water and 1/4 cup salt). 
12. Bake for about three to five minutes more until brown. Or, broil as necessary.  
13. Remove from oven and serve. 

Tip! I noticed that traditional bread becomes tough as it gets older by the day. With this bread, it seems that reheating it in very hot oven of about 500oF for about ten minutes makes the crust even crunchier on reheating and the inside bread fluffier typical of Italian dinner rolls!