Camote (Sweet Potato) Pandesal and Pandelimon

Several days ago, I got an email from sassysweets inviting me to join a contest to come up with recipes using sweet potatoes, for anything easy and quick enough to be a part of everyday family meal. The contest is hosted by NC Sweet Potatoes and there is unlimited number of entries. I don't know exactly how I got invited, but I welcome the opportunity to explore cooking and baking with potatoes. You can read more about the contest in the sweetbytes blog. This post will be the first in my camote series. You will see more in the following days on camote, but I will also post about other things in between.

Because of this contest, I thought I would experiment more on the use of sweet potatoes. While we Filipinos are used to incorporating sweet potatoes (camote) in our dishes, we never really explored its potential in baking until recently, in an attempt to lessen the use of wheat in flour and beat the high price of yeast breads/rolls.

I first made pandesal and pandelimon, two of the mostly consumed yeast rolls in the Philippines. Although I have posted in the past about pandesal using just regular flour, I will feature it here with the use of sweet potato. Pandesal is a Filipino breakfast staple, eaten plain or with fillings such as jams, cheese, butter/margarine, peanut butter, or even meats (corned beef and liver spread being the most popular), along with a cup of coffee or a mug of milk. I already have a post here on my favorite pandesal recipes using the bread machine. Now I have made the dough using sweet camote, still with the use of the bread machine, to come up with super soft pandesal and pandelimon. Bread machine has been a friend of mine as it helps making yeast rolls a breeze even for a working mother like me. Pandelimon, when made larger, is excellent for burger buns, but I love eating the small one plainly served during dinner. It can rival, if it's not better than, the rolls served in one of the major family restaurants here in our town. The only difference in the two is the bread crumbs used to coat pandesal, and their shape. I love the pleasant yellowish color the sweet potato imparts, as this creates the impression that extra egg yolks were added.

Even if I end up not winning the first prize for the said contest, I will be just as happy to be able to come up with recipes here using camote/sweet potatoes that Philippine-based readers of my blog could make use of as a resource for a potential business in that country. Camote is very cheap in the Philippines compared to flour, and the soft yellowish rolls they create will probably boost up sales and profit.

Ingredients:

1 / 2 cup milk
1 / 4 cup water
1 / 2 cup boiled and mashed sweet potato
1 / 4 cup butter or margarine
1 large egg
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
3 cups bread flour + 2-3 tbsp while kneading
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp Fleischmann's bread machine yeast

Instructions:


Mix the milk, water and mashed sweet potatoes and heat in the microwave for around 1-1/2 minutes. Add the butter and egg, beat to mix then check temperature. It should be between 70-80 deg F (room temp). Pour into the bread machine pan. Add the dry ingredients. Set at dough cycle. after about 10 minutes, start adding flour gradually so that the dough is not too sticky (try to poke from time to time with fingers). It should appear relatively smooth and moist, not wet or flaky. The kneading ends on the 30th minute, then it rises for 1 hr.

Transfer the dough on a lightly floured surface (it will shrink). Make a log out of the dough, cut some to form into smooth balls (sprinkle with some flour again as you get a new ball. Shaping this takes practice. The surface should not be too floury or you won't shape effectively, but must not have too little flour so that it becomes sticky and the surface of ball appears very rough). Arrange balls on greased baking sheet as shown in the slide. Cover with damp flour sack in a draft-free place until doubled in size, about 45 minutes. For the remaining log of dough, cut at intervals of 1 to 1-1/2 inch for pandesal. Roll in bread crumbs and arrange on greased baking pan. Let rise for 30 minutes. I like placing them inside the oven, then turn on the oven for a minute and turned off to create that warm draft-free environment.

The video below is one I made for the whole wheat pandesal post and basically has the same procedure. I placed the video here for you to better visualize how I make pandesal.

Bake at 375oF for 12-15 minutes or until done, first the pandesal followed by the pandelimon. Remove from pan and serve hot; cool on wire rack completely then place in ziploc after about 30 minutes those you will not consume right away. To enjoy hot the next days, use oven toaster and bake at 350 deg F for 3 minutes.

My next post will be on the sinfully delicious almond sans rival, which I will also post as a series, interspersed with camote series.

Comments

  1. Great, Manang. Finally, I was able to see this recipe. Thanks for sharing. I don't have a bread machine so I will make it the traditional way, by kneading manually, and will use rapid rise yeast instead of active dry. I've been using active dry yeast, it's about time I tried with the rapid rise yeast.
    You're great!

    ReplyDelete
  2. hi manang,ask ko lang,wala akong BM,so if i make pandesal pareho pa rin ba ang kneading and rising time?

    ReplyDelete
  3. hi,great to read your article about sweet potato, do you think its safe to say that we can replace wheat flour and use sweet potato instead esp in baking pandesal?
    more economical?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sorry to the first two commenters that I was not able to reply to you. The answer to second Anonymous' question was yes.

    To Anonymous #3,
    I do NOT think you can completely replace wheat flour in baking pandesal, and I am not sure if this question is a genuine one that is looking for my opinion, or just testing what I know and understand about baking. The glutenin in wheat flour gives kneaded dough its elasticity, allows leavening and contributes chewiness to baked products like bagels. - Wikipedia.org

    You might as well bake sweet potatoes and sell them as baked sweet potatoes if you are going to replace wheat flour with it. I am sure it is a totally different outcome than the sweet pan de sal made with flour and some sweet potatoes.

    However, I would like to remind you (as stated in my disclaimer), I am NOT a culinary or baking expert of any kind (although some of my readers think I am). I HAVE NO formal training in baking. I have NO education in baking. Having said that, i claim NO authority in answering your question. Everything I have made here is out of trial and error OR made exactly from recipes I found on the net and liked. My exposure to my father's cheapo bakery was an advantage that gave me a headstart and the courage to try baking on my own.

    ReplyDelete
  5. i tried to make pandesal but it turned out so hard ...but the taste is good..how to make it soft tnk you po

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Anonymous,
    I could only think that you probably did not let it rise long enough for it to double in size before you baked. If not the rising time, maybe the conditions for rising (warm, draft-free, moist -- best place is inside a WARM oven, not hot. I warm my oven for 1 minute after placing the pan inside, then turn it off to let the bread rise fast).
    Aside from those, you can check your yeast if it is fresh, and if you used the right kind (not active dry yeast, but machine bread yeast) because each kind has its different way to proof.
    Hope these pointers help! :)

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  7. hi manang! i just have a few questions about pandesal because i tried to make the regular one and when it's not hot my pandesal was not soft anymore..are all regular pandesal like that? or can u suggest what should i do in order for my pandesal to stay soft all the time? thank you and i love your site in fairnesssss...God bless

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Anonymous,
    Regular pandesal is at its softest right out of the oven. Medyo mas firm pag lumamig na, pero dapat nakaplastic (as I advised in my post) para di mag dry up. You can make it malambot like bagong luto pag ininit mo sa oven toaster mga 3 minutes at 350 deg F, or more kugn medyo toasted gusto mo (pwede mo ring lagyan ng sliced cheese bago mo i-toast). After that first reheating, the next reheating will not be as good dahil nakaka-dry din yung oven.
    Pag me sweet potatoes, mas malambot kahit di initin.
    Try mo yung recipe ng pandelimon or eto mismong camote pandesal kung gusto mo talaga malambot na malambot (baka lang di maging crunchy yung labas), gawin mo lang hugis pandesal.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank you so much for this recipe. I'm a very novice baker (just discovered my new interest a month ago) and the success of this pan de sal recipe just made my day! The pan de sal is just the way my friends like it --- very soft! They think I'm a prodigy! Ha, ha! :D

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi jo,
    Thanks for your feedback!
    Maybe next time you can impress them with supersoft or buttery ensaymada..hehe..

    ReplyDelete
  11. hi manang! i made pan de sal last night and let it rise overnight. i put it in a room temperature storage and covered it with plastic wrap. the next day my pan de sal gotten bigger but they were flat and wide. when i baked it they were salty. i checked my yeast and they are still good. so i am making another batch. what do you think it is manang???

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  12. Hi Anonymous,
    They should not be left to rise overnight especially in room temp...that is too long. The dough will over-rise since the yeast will over-multiply (the only limiting factor is the sugar content since yeast feeds on sugar) and will create lots of gas. It would have been better if you immediately placed the un-risen dough in fridge after covering with plastic. I am not sure why it turned salty, as they usually turn sour when over-risen.

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  13. Hi manang, I made the camote pandelimon tonight--and they turned out AWESOME!! Love the color and the texture! Thumbs up from my hubby, who is my biggest critic(in a good way, of course!)Thank you! I also did try making your ensaymada-supersoft and bread machine. My face is looking like an ensaymada! Ha ha! Both were good, but husband wanted one that was more like a croissant textured dough that he seemed to remember. Any thoughts? Yours seemed more like a sweet roll rather than croissant-ish. Did I not let it rise long enough maybe?

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  14. Hi Ann,
    I think you probably will be able to convert that to a croissant like ensaymada if you incorporate butter into the dough.

    See this video to get the idea:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpIx0th5tgg

    ReplyDelete
  15. I never thought that you can make lots of bread out of Camote. More power to this blog I learn new things today.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Salamat po manang! My ensaymada although it's shape was not the best; tastes superb! Salamat sa recipe nyo...the pandesal can wait till the weekend as my husband is very satisfied with the ensaymada. Yeye

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hi Manang,

    I'm new to your blog site and I'm very happy that I found you! While reading your pandesal and super soft enseymada recipe, I found out that the secret to make it softer is you have to use mashed potatoes. Can I use the instant mashed potatoes that you can buy at Walmart, the one in the Sache pack?

    Also, can I use your super soft enseymada recipe for my bread machine? If not, do you have a enseymada recipe using a bread machine? Maninigas din po be un the following day or Hindi? Sorry if marami po akong tanong, my mother in law gave me a bread machine and was very happy kaya ive been searching online for bread machine recipe (Filipino bread). Thank you in advance and happy new year!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi MJ, you can use the pandelimon recipe, just add 2 yolks and enough flour to make it easy enough to handle. http://kusinanimanang.blogspot.com/2006/10/pandelimon-de-patatas.html

      Delete
  18. Hi where can i buy camote flour?

    ReplyDelete
  19. hi,great to read your article about sweet potato, do you think its safe to say that we can replace wheat flour and use sweet potato instead esp in baking pandesal?
    more economical?

    ReplyDelete
  20. hello who will benefit po sa kamote pandesal? for research lang po thank you

    ReplyDelete

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