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Ube & Cheese Pandesal 🍠🧀






The Christmas break has given us plenty of time to perfect our recipes & we're finally sharing one of our favourite bakes of all time ube & cheese pandesal! Ube is a sweet purple yam that's native to the Philippines. Its traditionally used in desserts as it has a distinct flavour and aroma. Ube and cheese is an unconventional pair but trust, it is super tasty - sweet & savoury, what more could you ask for 🤤


Despite how complicated this looks, the ingredients you need are readily available in your cupboard except the ube extract of course! As with any bread, these will need time to proof and rest so you’ll have to be very patient. They are truly worth the wait!


🕒 3-4 hours

👤 8 people (around 16 pandesal)


Ingredients

Yeast Mixture

  • 250ml milk - warm

  • 55g unsalted butter - melted

  • 1 Egg - Room temperature

  • 6g dry yeast / 1 pack of yeast

Dry Ingredients

  • 300g bread flour / strong white flour - sifted

  • 100g cream flour / all purpose flour - sifted

  • 100g caster sugar - granulated works fine too.

  • 1 tsp salt

Others

  • 1.5 tsp ube extract - can be found in asian store of local filipino groceries.

  • Breadcrumbs

  • 100g mild cheddar cheese - cubed




Method
  1. In a large bowl combine warm milk, melted butter, egg and yeast and leave for 5-10 mins

  2. In another large bowl, combine the sifted flour, sugar and salt.

  3. When yeast mixture has bubbled up, combined about 2 cups dry mixture into the wet mixture and mix

  4. Add a cup gradually until all ingredients are combined.

  5. Add ube extract and evenly mix through.

Kneading the dough

  1. We used a stand mixer to knead ours: With the dough hook, knead for 5-6 mins on speed 2 ONLY. Anything beyond speed 2 will break your stand mixer! When using a stand mixer, check every 2 mins to make sure that the dough is not spiralling up the hook.

  2. If kneading by hand, dust flour on a clean and flat surface and knead for 8-10mins until no longer sticky and can be formed into a round ball. Knead by stretching and folding it repeatedly using the heel of

  3. your hand until it gets soft, smooth and elastic dough. ✨ PRO TIP: ✨ A well kneaded though shouldn’t be sticky, it should be malleable enough to stretch without breaking. To check its elasticity, grab a golf ball-size of the dough and stretch it facing the window, if you’re able to nearly see through the stretched dough, the dough Is ready.

  4. Once the dough is finally kneaded, place in an oiled bowl and cover with tea towel and leave to proof for 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

Shaping

  1. Once the dough has doubled in size, punch it down to release the air.

  2. Put the dough back to the flat surface. Divide the dough into 16 pieces or around 45g each.

  3. Flatted each of the round dough into a circle and place a cubed cheese in each. Fold each corner towards the centre until it is round again.

  4. Continue with the rest until all of the dough is filled with cheese and roll each piece in the bread crumbs.

  5. Place on the baking pan lined with parchment paper. (Make sure to evenly space them out as these will continue to rise.)

  6. Cover the round pandesals again with tea towel and let the rolls rise one more time for another 30-45 mins.

  7. Bake in preheated oven at 180°C for 13-15mins or until are golden brown!

  8. Serve these as a snack or for breakfast and enjoy!


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