Sourdough Pandesal

Sourdough Pandesal is a naturally-leavened take on a classic Filipino bread. It's plush and pillowy on the inside and crusty and coated in breadcrumbs on the outside. Pandesal is slightly sweet and is usually served at breakfast with both sweet and savory fillings.

What is Pandesal?

Pandesal is the most famous bread from the Philippines. It’s a soft yeasted bread roll, coated in breadcrumbs.

When I lived in the Philippines, I distinctly remember the smell of freshly baked bread wafting through the air and a brown paper bag filled with soft, airy pandesal on our table for breakfast every morning. What makes pandesal unique from any other bread roll is its breadcrumb coating. In addition to preventing the rolls from getting stuck on the baking surface, it also imparts a delicious textural contrast, between the plush pillowy crumb and crunchy crust. Plus it ensures that even old bread doesn't go to waste. Filipino bakeries are masters at upcycling stale bread!

Love Filipino breads? Try my recipes for Sourdough Pan de Coco and Sourdough Ensaymada. 

Filipino Bread Culture

Bread was introduced to the Philippines during the colonial period. For hundreds of years since, we've adapted them to suit our personal tastes and it has become an integral part of Filipino food culture. Most Filipino breads are made from enriched dough, which makes them slightly sweet, soft and pillowy.

I remember eating bread every day at least twice a day, once in the morning, when we usually ate Pandesal and again in the afternoon during merienda, or snack time. The smell of bread from local bakeries was intoxicating and one of the memories I truly treasure from my childhood.

There are a lot of bakeries in the Philippines, so most Filipinos don't bake bread at home. However, we were still spoiled with fresh bread because these bakeries would bake a batch twice a day. This is one of the things I missed most about the Philippines when we moved to the United States. My favorite thing about learning how to make bread is being able to bake my favorites in my own kitchen.

Putting a Sourdough Twist on Filipino Bread

Although Filipino breads are traditionally made with commercial yeast. I wanted to put a sourdough twist on my favorites, so each month I'll be sharing a new Filipino bread recipe here on the blog. Sourdough will impart a slightly tangy flavor, but if your starter is healthy and not overly acidic then the bread shouldn't taste overly sour or have a fermented flavor.

What to eat with Sourdough Pandesal

Pandesal is usually served for breakfast in the Philippines and it goes well with both savory and sweet fillings. Breakfast always consisted of a large spread of meats, eggs, salted butter, and a variety of spreads, like coconut jam, peanut butter or strawberry jelly. My favorite way to eat it is still with spam and over-easy eggs. It can be served as the centerpiece of a large breakfast spread or by itself dipped in coffee or hot chocolate.

Sourdough Pandesal is delicious with Homemade Blueberry Preserves and Homemade Salted Cultured Butter.  

What You Need

All-purpose flour - I prefer soft, instead of chewy, pandesal, so I like to use a higher percentage of all-purpose flour in my dough, do not substitute another type of flour or you won’t get the desired texture
Bread flour - a little bit imparts a chewy texture to the pandesal, substitute all-purpose if you don’t have any in your pantry
Water - some recipes use milk, however I think it makes pandesal taste too much like brioche, so I prefer water
Sourdough starter - make sure your starter is mature and active before making this recipe or your bread will not rise and your pandesal will be dense and hard
Vegetable oil - use any neutral-flavored oil, I prefer using oil instead of butter in my pandesal because it results in a lighter structure
Egg - I used 1 large egg for this loaf, if you’d like to make this loaf vegan, substitute mashed potatoes or simply add another 50 grams (about ¼ cup) of water
Bread crumbs - this is what sets pandesal apart from a regular roll, use very fine bread crumbs or process toasted panko bread crumbs until fine

Step-by-step Instructions

Sponge

This bread starts with a sponge, a >200% hydration starter. I’ve been experimenting with this method of leavening my bread and I’ve been really liking it! A larger percentage of the dough is pre fermented, so the dough proofs faster even with the enrichments like eggs and oil. The sponge is created the night before, it should look bubbly and active the next day and can be used up to 16 hours after being made.

Proofing

Proofing is the most important part of bread making, it’s when the yeast in your sourdough starter digests the sugar in flour and converts it into carbon dioxide and alcohol, causing the dough to rise, tenderizing the crumb and imparting flavor. Using a sourdough starter slows down this process drastically, it’s important to make sure you have enough time to let your bread rise before attempting to make this recipe. If you don’t have enough time, it’s best not to attempt this recipe as not letting your dough proof for long enough will cause your bread to be tough and dense. Rising could take as much as 4 hours for the first rise and 1 to 2 hours for the second rise. Patience is paramount, if you don’t let your dough rise, you’ll only end up frustrated with lots of wasted ingredients. 

Shaping 

Pandesal sold in bakeries all over the Philippines have characteristic shape. They look like mini hotdog buns with a signature split, called an “eye,” on top of each bun. Bakeries make hundreds of these rolls every day, so shaping the dough into a large log and cutting them into pieces is a really fast way to turn these out. Aside from speed, shaping this way also results in fluffier rolls since the interior of the dough isn’t tightly compacted. 

Some recipes online simply shape these into regular round rolls, which works perfectly fine, but I wanted to shape mine the traditional way. 

Bake

You can bake this bread on the same day or the morning after you make your dough. I personally prefer baking the next day because it  provides some flexibility in the process. It also allows me to bake my sourdough pandesal first thing in the morning and have it on the table for breakfast.

If you want to bake your pandesal on the second day, after shaping, let your dough rest at room temperature for an hour before letting it proof in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. Do not let your dough proof for longer or the gluten in your dough may break down too much and your pandesal will end up gummy. 

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