Ensaymada madness

I couldn't stop myself, just had to take a pic before everything disappears in 2 minutes... flat!

Almost everyone I know has a bucket list, things they want to do  before they go.  I, too, have a growing foodie bucket list, made up of mostly, what else, food to cook or bake. ;)

Ever since I finally baked a successful pandesal, I couldn't stop thinking of making another go at baking an edible ensaymada.  I've tried it twice, both times it turned hard as rocks and this isn't an exaggeration. Even my dogs wouldn't touch it!

Anyway, I was on a look out for a recipe.  I probably have 5 different  ensaymada recipes from different sources languishing in the recipe box but I wanted to try a new one so I searched yummy.ph and found this: Patty Loanzon's Cheesy Ensaymada http://www.yummy.ph/recipe/Cheesy-Ensaymada . Looks easy enough but yikes! 4 hours wait to proof! This is gonna be a looonnnggg day. 

Since this was a spur-of-the-moment baking, I have to make do with the ingredients on hand.  Everything checked except queso de bola.  Raiding the ref, I found some leftover blue cheese, Pecorino romano, and a pack of cheezy spread.  Though blue cheese might be an interesting choice, it had to be the Pecorino since I needed my family or the dogs to finish this lot in case it doesn't turn out well. Haha.

After resting the dough for 1 1/2 hours and rolling it into a swirl, it's ready for 4 hours of proofing.  Time for some early Christmas shopping!

With everything set, I turned on my trusty Kitchen aide and kneaded it using the dough hook attachment.  I'm sure manually kneading it is possible but after my failed attempts using hand-kneaded ensaymada, I'm not gonna risk this one, so I let the dough hook do its job.

After four hours and a failed shopping trip, all puffed up and almost ready for the oven.

I made some minor revisions to the recipe.  To get a more buttery and a stronger cheese flavor, I used pecorino romano instead of processed cheese in the dough and added an extra 1/2 c of butter to the dough.  Also, I kneaded it an extra 5 minutes since the dough wasn't elastic enough after 5. Lastly, I made a sponge composed of the yeast, a bit of flour, honey and water and allowed this to rise a bit before adding it to the rest of the dough ingredients.

And here they are!   

 Finished Pecorino romano ensaymada.  Buttery and soft just the way I like!  

The pecorino and butter sent heavenly aromas from the oven, beckoning the hungry to try the large buns even while scorchingly hot.  I couldn't stop myself, I had to know if at last I made an edible ensaymada.   Even without the topping, I bit into it.  It yielded.  I was excited.  It was soft, buttery and melt-in-the-mouth. FINALLY, an ensaymada recipe worth keeping.