I had always thought that pan de sal means “bread of the morning,” but it actually means “salted bread.” This is interesting because these rolls are anything but salty. They’re sweet, covered in breadcrumbs, and are really yummy for breakfast, lunch, snack, or as a corned beef sandwich.
Usually, my mom will either make me some of her pan de sal or she and my dad will go by a Filipino bakery and pick up a brown paper bag full of hot pan de sal just for us. There are also other goodies that they will pick up for us, but that is probably a whole other blog post!
My mom is out of town for the next few months though which means no pan de sal unless I go by the bakery myself. I barely have a chance to go grocery shopping, so my next option is to try making pan de sal myself.
I used my mom’s recipe, which starts the dough out in a bread machine. I was so glad for that. I didn’t have much motivation to make bread by hand yesterday.
This is our monster bread machine. It takes up a ton of space but only makes a 1.5 pound loaf. Eventually, I want to get a bread machine that makes a 2 pound loaf.
The dough was very sticky when it came out of the bread machine after the dough cycle was done. I should have added more flour to the dough before I tried to cut it into pieces. I didn’t realize that I didn’t place them on the pans the right way.
The rolls are supposed to look like they have been cut off of a dough log, so their tops should be flat.
The rolls after 30 minutes of rising time. They probably could have used a little bit more rising time, 15 – 30 minutes longer.
My 2-year-old daughter was helping me make the pan de sal. She made more of a mess than helping me, but that was okay. I was glad that she wanted to hang out with me. This is her little bit of pan de sal dough that she got to help me make.
My Mom’s Pan De Sal
Ingredients
- 3 ½ cup bread flour
- ½ cup sugar
- 4 tbsp butter
- 1 ½ cup warm water
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 envelopes yeast or 4 ½ tsp active dry yeast
Instructions
- Place ingredients in bread machine in the order specified by manufacturer. Use the dough cycle. The dough cycle on my machine is about 1 hour and 50 minutes.
- Transfer the dough on a lightly greased and floured surface. Stretch and form into a log. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs.
- Slice every 1-1½ inch intervals. Coat each slice with breadcrumbs.
- Lay on sliced side on baking pan, 1 to 2 fingers apart. Let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Bake rolls for 25 minutes until golden brown.
The rolls weren’t as puffy as I would have liked them, but as usual, my kids didn’t care. They love homemade bread in any form, good or not so good. You don’t want these rolls to get too dark, a light crust is best.
Hot pan de sal is yummy with butter, or cheese, or anything else you can think of to put on it. Eat them right out of the oven!
I decided to try some homemade Meyer lemon curd on the pan de sal. Delicious! Probably my favorite way to eat pan de sal though is toasted with a slice of cheese inside, until the cheese is melty.
I will probably be trying this recipe again soon. Especially since I have now made it for my kids and they know I can make it. I get requests from them all the time to make something. Just today, Matthias was asking me if I could make macarons again! I should have told him, “You don’t know what you are asking of me, my child!”
-Lynn