I am an equal opportunity lover of bread–crusty baguettes, hearty levain, flaky biscuits, golden brioche, pillowy milk bread, chewy bagels. I’ll happily bake them all…usually in rotation. One week I’ll bake a nice crusty loaf of sourdough rye–hands down the best bread to use for avocado toast. The next week it’ll be bagels with “everything” seasoning.

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That said, I do have a soft spot (pun intended) for the fluffy stuff. No, I don’t mean Wonder bread–although I admittedly consumed my fair share of squishy sliced white bread as a kid. True story, way back when in the 70’s, on picnics my family would regularly “sandwich” pieces of roast duck in slices of Kilpatrick (the other brand) white bread instead of steamed buns, which I assumed were harder to come by.

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Now, I want fluffy with substance and flavor–like buttery,, satisfyingly eggy brioche, rich milk bread or shokupan, soft wholemeal loaf, pandesal rolls, and “pineapple” buns.

Since I bake a variety of “bread” every week, I’m always fiddling with even “tried and true” recipes, tweaking ingredients, discovering new short cuts. Recently, my friend Rosie and former neighbor asked me to ship a batch of her favorite pandesal to Colorado. I’ve only really made pandesal, the quintessential soft Filipino bread roll, a handful of times–usually at Rosie’s request. There was definitely room for improvement. I wanted to make her rolls that were not only soft and fluffy, but would sustained the 3-day shipping without sacrificing too much of its integrity. The previous recipe I followed used a combination of bread and all-purpose flour, butter and oil, which yielded tender rolls with a fine crumb. In pursuit of a fluffier roll, I opted for 100% all-purpose flour and butter, leaving out the bread flour and oil. The result was incomparably soft, fat pillowy rolls, garnering two enthusiastic thumbs up from Rosie.

The lower protein content of all-purpose flour played an important role in achieving that soft, airy texture in the pandesal, and in pineapple buns. Tweaking my go-to pineapple bun recipe (adapted from Bake From Scratch), I decided to substitute about a third of the bread flour with all-purpose. I also switched up the process to streamline production, which came in handy when baking multiple batches for last weekend’s bake sale. Instead of making the milk roux, then separately melting the butter and cooling it down, and warming up the rest of the milk, I simply melted the butter in the hot milk roux, then whisked in the room temperature milk, egg, sugar, instant yeast, and extracts.

For gorgeously green pandan buns, I added a combination of pandan water, pandan paste, and vanilla extract. To make dramatically royal purple Ube Pineapple Buns, I used ube, coconut, and vanilla extracts.

For both the pandesal and the pineapple buns, I employed my favorite piece of kitchen equipment for mixing dough–the food processor. It can be a little tricky if you don’t have a food processor with a large enough bowl, as the doughs can get a bit sticky, which is an issue I have with mine. I add the liquids gradually as I pulse and allow the shaggy mass to rest for at least 10 mins. before I continue pulsing and mixing to allow the flour time to hydrate. I’ve found that even when I’m using a stand mixer, it’s a good idea to let really soft doughs to rest for 10-15 mins. after the initial mixing because it makes the dough easier to mix without adding too much flour, which would yield a dryer end product.

Another shortcut I came up with for creating the pineapple bun topping was to utilize my tortilla press–I swear I’ve yet to use it to actually make tortillas–to flatten out perfectly even disks instead of painstakingly rolling each out by hand. I laid out the disks onto a sheet pan lined with greased plastic wrap and let them chill out while I formed the dough balls. This method allowed me to cover the dough balls at one go so that all the dough would proof evenly at about the same time. To maintain the vibrant color of the topping I brushed the tops with beaten egg white rather than egg wash, which gave the baked buns a shiny coating with no browning.

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After a 15 min. bake at 350F degrees and voila…fluffy perfection!

The texture and flavor is so lovely you can eat them plain. Or you can fill them with a lusciously silky coconut custard creme as with my pandan pineapple buns.

The possibilities are endless!

Pineapple Buns 2.0 (adapted from Bake from Scratch)

Yield: 11 buns

Dough:

• 1 c. whole milk, divided
• 1 c. + 2 T. all-purpose flour
• 2 c. bread flour
• 4 T. unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 large egg, room temp.
• 6 T. sugar, divided
• 2 1/4 t. instant yeast
• 1 t. kosher or sea salt
• 1/2 t. vanilla extract
• 1/2 t. coconut extract
• 1 t. ube extract or pandan paste, optional

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1. Whisk together 1/3 c. milk and 2 T. ap flour in a small saucepan until smooth. Stir constantly over medium heat until mixture becomes a very thick paste. Turn off the heat and stir in the butter to melt.
2. Whisk in the remaining milk, 2 T. sugar, egg, then yeast. Transfer everything into a liquid measuring cup and whisk in flavorings.
3. Combine flours, salt, and remaining sugar in the bowl of food processor, then pulse a few times to blend. Gradually pour in liquids while pulsing intermittently to form a shaggy dough. Let the dough rest for about 10 mins.
4. Continue pulsing until dough is smooth and elastic, adding in a tablespoon more of ap flour at a time as needed. Be careful not to add too much flour! Dough should be tacky to the touch but not sticky. *Save the processor bowl to make topping.
5. Transfer the smooth dough ball into a greased bowl, flipping it around to coat all sides. Cover with a plastic wrap or a dish towel and let dough rise until doubled in size in a warm space.

Topping:

• 4 T. unsalted butter, room temp.
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1 c. cake flour
• 2 T. nonfat dry milk powder
• 1/2 t. baking powder
• 1 large yolk (reserved white for later)
• 1 T. whole milk
• 1/4 t. vanilla extract
• 1/2 t. ube extract or pandan paste, optional

1. Combine butter and dry ingredients in the processor bowl and pulse at 5 second intervals to a fine crumb texture.
2. Whisk together the remaining ingredients and add to the dry mixture. Pulse at 5 second intervals to form a smooth dough. Transfer the dough onto plastic wrap and flatten into a thick disk. Chill for at least 30 mins.
3. Once firm, divide the dough into 11 equal portions and roll into balls. Flatten and roll each ball into a 3.5″ disk, transferring each one onto a sheet pan lined with greased plastic wrap. *Alternately, flatten each ball between 2 sheets of greased plastic cut from ziplock bag in a tortilla press. Chill the disks while you portion and form the bun dough.
4. Portion out bun dough into 11 pieces, about 78 grams each. Roll each piece into a smooth taut ball, then arrange on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper.
5. Drape and wrap each ball with a disk of topping. Using a sharp knife score a cross-hatch pattern on top of each round, 4 x 4 rows. Set the sheet pan in a warm space and let the dough balls double in size.
6. Brush the surfaces with slightly beaten reserved egg white, then bake on the middle shelf in a preheated 350F degree oven for about 15 mins. or until internal temperature registers 190F degrees.
7. Cool buns on rack.

Pandesal 2.0

Yield: 18 rolls

• 1 c. whole milk
• 4 T. unsalted butter
• 1 large egg, room temp.
• 2 t. instant yeast
• 3 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 t. kosher or sea salt
• 1/2 c. bread crumbs

1. Combine milk and butter in a saucepan. Under medium low heat gently warm to melt the butter. Set aside to cool to lukewarm.
2. Whisk in yeast, then egg.
3. Combine the remaining ingredients in a food processor, pulsing to blend.
4. Gradually add in the liquids while pulsing to form a shaggy dough. Let the dough rest for about 20 mins., then continue pulsing at 5 second intervals until dough is smooth and elastic, sprinkling in a little flour as needed. Dough should be tacky but not sticky.
5. Transfer the smooth dough ball into well-oiled bowl, flipping it over a few times to fully coat. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or dish towel and let the dough rise until doubled in size in a warm space.
6. Gentle deflate the dough and divide into 18 equal portions. Roll each piece into a smooth taut ball then coat the top with bread crumbs. Arrange the balls (6 x 3) on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Lightly drape a sheet of greased plastic wrap over the top and let the dough rise in a warm space until doubled.
7. Bake in a preheated 350F degree oven for 16-18 mins. or until and internal temperature registers 190F degrees. Cool on a rack.