Bread-making phobic

I have a confession.  Give me a recipe of any cake to bake and I'll do it without hesitation but a recipe with yeast and flour, is a totally different story.  For some reason, it really brings out a lot of my baking insecurities.  98% of my attempts are total failures and I'm still haunted by them. Haha. The 2% success rate are for my breads which I made using a bread maker and (take note) bread mix and for a pizza crust which was at least edible.  


So with this success rate, I stayed away from baking anything that resembles breads for the longest time and just resigned to the fact that I'm a total bread-making failure and needs to enroll in a bread-making course.  Well, that was until this year. A friend commented that she made this http://www.yummy.ph/recipe/stuffed-brioche and it really looked good.  So armed with a bit of courage, I made half the recipe and took a picture.  What this picture didn't show though, was that it was heavy.  Was a brioche supposed to be this way?? Anyway, some did look good on pics but I think only Pirate, my dog appreciated it. Haha.


After that, it was pizza 2.  Failed. Pizza 3, somewhat better. I'm convinced, I need help.  Looked at several schools but the days didn't fit my sched.  So anyway, finally found a friend who was willing to give some pandesal-making lessons using a recipe she got from a bread baking class which she never tried making by herself after.  So on a Saturday, armed with the recipe and what she remembered from that class, we tried following the recipe and it turned out close to perfect!  Actually, she did most of the work but at least I did some weighing and I did put it inside the oven.  I'm happy.  The jinx has been lifted.  Look at all these beauties!

After a few days, with a bit more confidence but still with some apprehension, I tried making half a recipe again all by myself (well, I did pM my friend over FB while I was doing this).  I added 3 times the sugar since I wanted it sweet. This was actually how it looked like before it went into the oven:

After 2 1/2 hours, with the whole house wafting with fresh bread aromas, finally this was how it looked.  So glad it turned out soft and sweet but I think I need more salt next time to balance the flavors but the texture, oooohhhh so perfect.  Next time though, I'm going to scale it to 30 g of dough.  These ones grew twice its size in the oven and they were huge!  

Pan de sal

Heny Sison with some adjustments

500 g bread flour

20 g active dry yeast

312 g water

100 g brown sugar

6 g salt

50 g margarine

1/4 c cooking oil

bread crumbs for coating

1. Warm some of the water, it should be around 45-50 degrees C.  Add the yeast and some of the sugar (about a teaspoon), stir and let it sit until frothy.

2. Pour the yeast mixture into the mixing bowl then add all the other ingredients except for the cooking oil and bread crumbs.

3. Using the dough hook attachment of your Kitchen Aide, mix the dough at speed 2 until the dough is smooth and elastic.

4. Coat a separate bowl and transfer the kneaded dough.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until double in size (about 30 mins)

5. Punch the air out.  Cover it again and let it rise until double in size (another 30 mins). Do not punch out the air.

6. Preheat oven at 350 deg F. Spread some breadcrumbs on the workbench.  Carefully transfer the dough and form a long baton.

7. Using a wooden dough scraper, cut into about 30 g pieces.

8. Transfer to a jelly roll pan or cookie sheet with  a silicone mat and let it rise again until double in size.  Leave about an inch between the dough pieces to give it space to rise.

9. Bake for about 20 mins.  Enjoy!