In 2020 I embarked on a quest to learn how to bake Filipino bread. I was motivated because the cost of pandesal in Singapore is very expensive. I once bought SG$2 pandesal (per piece!) at Lucky Plaza. That's almost 80 pesos (depending on the exchange rate)! Baking Filipino bread never crossed my mind before because it's readily available when you're home.
Oh boy, baking bread is hard. It requires a lot of patience since you have to wait for the dough to rise. For the dough to rise you have to prepare the yeast correctly. I failed a couple of times, but eventually got it. I tried baking Spanish bread and ensaymada and I didn't get it right. It tasted like it, but it looked hideous hahaha. Maybe I'll try again, but there's a bakery just a few meters away from our new home so we'll see.
I finally baked again yesterday! I've been wanting to for a few months now, but I had to wait for my body to be ready. My daily activities are limited, so when it rained I knew it was the perfect time to bake. It meant I didn't have to water the plants, so I used the energy to do something else. I just baked some cheese cupcakes (recipe here). It was the best way also for me to get to know my new oven. We had been using it more to heat food since we got it. Baking cupcakes was a good way to break it in since we could easily monitor the progress.
I sent half of what I baked to friends and just kept a few for us. Sweetie said we always had a hard time finishing the cupcakes when we were in Singapore. Told him it won't be a problem here since we have a lot of friends we can send baked goods to. I'll probably make peanut butter cookies next. For bread, I'll dig up the list I made of what else I want to learn. Maybe I'll focus on non-Filipino bread for now since I can just easily buy them now. What would you suggest I try to learn?
Oh, today is my Kuya's birthday! Happy birthday Kuya! Here's a cute photo of you and me when I was a baby.
#BeKind #StayHome #VoteWisely
