Pan de Sal might just be the most-loved bread of the Philippines. I had to give mine a sourdough spin and the results? Light, fluffy and flavorful rolls.
Day 1: Mix the dough. In a bowl, add the milk, salt, butter, egg, sugar and starter. Stir until the egg has been incorporated and the starter is no longer a lump. Add the flour and stir until you have a shaggy dough with no dry flour spots. You can lightly oil the sides of your bowl if you like but this is optional. Cover your bowl with a lid or plastic wrap and let sit for thirty minutes.
Stretch and Fold. Perform four stretch and fold sessions every thirty minutes, by gently pulling one portion of the dough and folding it over itself, giving the dough a quarter turn and folding a portion over itself until you've gone all around. Cover and let sit.
Bulk Fermentation: After the fourth stretch and fold session let the dough sit until it's grown 50-80% in size. You don't want it to fully ferment (double) because the dough will need to rise for a second time after shaping. Tip: Check your dough temperature periodically. If it's warmer, 78ºF and above, lean towards the lower percentage growth in rise. It took several hours for my dough to rise with an average dough temperature of 76ºF.
Overnight Cold Retard: At the end of bulk fermentation you can store your dough in the refrigerator overnight.
Day 2: Divide and Shape. Divide the dough in 18 pieces (to get roughly 50 gram rolls). Take corners of your chunk of dough and pinch together and roll into a ball between the palms of your hands or on the counter. Roll each ball in a bowl of bread crumbs and arrange on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Final Proof. Cover the divided and shaped dough with a towel and leave to rise until doubled (or nearly doubled). Again, with a cooler dough temperature, my final proof was roughly two hours. It could be shorter or longer for you depending on your dough temperature.
Bake: Preheat your oven to 350ºF. Steam helps to improve oven spring so if you have a pan of lava rocks, preheat with the oven and add about one cup of hot water when time to bake. Otherwise, you can just add hot water to a pan when it's time to bake. When your oven's reached temperature, bake your rolls uncovered in the baking sheet you proofed them on. Remove the lava rocks or pan with water after 10 minutes. Continue baking until your pan de sal are lightly golden. Check for doneness at around the 15-20 minute mark because the total bake time will depend on the size of your rolls and also your oven. If one side is browning more quickly than the other, rotate your pan. Enjoy warm with butter or cheese. Leftover rolls can be refrigerated or frozen and warmed in the oven to refresh.
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