Bake healthy bread Pandesal Verde at home

MANILA, Philippines — You often buy pandesal from your neighborhood bakery, but only regular pandesal is available. Sometimes, you feel like eating healthy and you crave for malunggay pandesal but no one is selling it in your area.

So, why not bake your own? In a recent baking demo conducted by Chef Celina David for Peotraco Foods Inc., she made Pandesal Verde with fresh malunggay leaves kneaded into the dough and made it even healthier by cutting the sugar in half by using Peotraco Sugarlyte (which is a half-and-half blend of sugar and stevia).

Here is the recipe for home bakers to try.

Pandesal Verde

INGREDIENTS:

245 grams water

30 grams fresh malunggay leaves

15 grams instant yeast

625 grams bread flour

12 grams salt

50 grams Peotraco Sugarlyte

45 grams shortening

35 grams unsalted butter

BREADCRUMBS

1.  Combine water and fresh malunggay leaves in a blender and puree.

2.  Transfer puree to a saucepan and heat up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

3.  In a mixer with dough hook attachment, mix bread flour, instant yeast and malunggay puree. Add salt and Sugarlyte. Add in butter and shortening. Knead for 1 minute.

4. Cover bowl and let dough rest in bowl for 8 minutes.

5. Knead dough at medium speed for 10 minutes.

6. The dough should be smooth and pulling away from the sides of the bowl by this time. Cover dough in bowl with plastic wrap, place bowl in a warm area of the kitchen, and let dough rest for 1 hour.

7. Line baking trays with parchment paper or grease with shortening. Set aside.

8. After dough has rested for 1 hour, punch down dough and transfer to a work table. Portion dough into 35-gram balls and roll the balls in breadcrumbs. Arrange on prepared baking trays, giving some allowance between dough balls to allow space for rising. Cover and rest dough for 25 minutes.

9. Bake in a preheated 380 degree Fahrenheit oven (preheating should be at least 15 minutes) for 6 to 8 minutes or until golden brown.

 Yields 27 pieces.

RELATED: A healthy and flavorful dish called ginataang sigarilyas at tinapa