Thanks Ray!

Yes, this recipe has a lot of things going on…

– the preparation of the poolish and maturing it properly before mixing is very important for the flavour to really shine.

– the preparation of the wholemeal flour – and this depends on the type of flour available to you. For us here in Singapore, the wholemeal flour that is readily available is the bran and wheat germ that was separated from the endosperm during the milling process. So, to incorporate it back into the mix, I have to test the proportion and prepare it to soften it before mixing.

– the creaming of the butter, sugar and salt and the timing when to incorporate this into the dough

– then, there’s the potato and semolina

But once you’ve got them right, you’ll be amazed at the flavour and texture of this pandesal.

It is one of our best seller!😉👍

Thanks for the tip Ray 👍

Yes, I agree… setting the oven environment for perfect results needs a lot of testing. There are a lot of variables to consider.

I have changed ovens several times since I started baking and every time I have to test and adjust the oven settings to find the perfect environment for baking bread.

But the rewards are great once you’ve mastered it. 😉

I found that baking without the fan-assist helps keep the bread stay moist and fluffy for days. I just rotate and exchange location of the two trays midway through baking.

For even browning of the buns, I did turn on the the fan at the last 5 mins of baking.

Also, I used steam at the first half of the baking, with the aid of a pre-heated metal tray on which I poured a cup of boiling water. I then removed the steam halfway through the baking when I rotated the tray.

Yes, I fussed around a lot because this recipe is like that of an artisan bread, so I figured I might as well go through the whole nine yards. It makes munching on the perfect savoury, sweet and buttery brown buns feel like victory whenever I get the bread done right.

I made this whole wheat bread (without the semolina flour) over eight times, but I only came up once with a product that I like. The buns are soft and fluffy, with buttery taste, and the sweetness from the dark brown sugar (demerara sugar) is really different from using white granulated sugar.

To avoid hard grits of bran, I separated the bran from the whole wheat flour using a sieve, added 50 grams of boiling water to the bran and let it sit overnight, while the poolish is fermenting.

Because I live in a temperate country (room temp is 20 to 22 C), I didn’t refrigerate the poolish, but I used very little amount of yeast (about 1/16 teaspoon) for this preferment. The poolish was bubbly and aromatic after 12 to 16 hours.

I couldn’t get ahold of semolina flour yet, but because I wanted to make healthy bread, I used 3 tablespoons (24 g) or flaxseed meal instead.

Sometimes, because my of schedule, I did an 8-hour cold proof of the dough at it’s first proving. It’s not advisable because the sweetness from the dark sugar was gone. Also, using a stand mixer is way better for this recipe as it is more efficient in mixing and kneading the ingredients than a bread maker.

I have friends who prefer healthier breads, hence I hope to nail this recipe soon.

Thanks Carmelle! We’re glad your family loved them. 😁

Yes, the baking time depends on various factors – temperature, the “total mass” of the goodies you’re baking, how well risen the dough is, humidity inside the oven, whether you have a fan-assisted oven, etc.

Thanks for highlighting that.

The baking time in the recipe is based on 1 tray with12 buns on it and I’ve enabled the fan-assist with both bottom & top heating elements.

For the size of the buns, @50-60 gm each, I try to bake them as fast as I can to prevent them from “drying” completely. This way, the baked pandesal stays “fresh” longer. 👍