Putok

Ingredients:
1 (14-oz) can of evaporated milk
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp yellow food coloring (optional)
1 egg yolk
1/3 cup butter
1 (0.25 oz) package active dry yeast
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
4 cups all-purpose flour


Instructions:

• Heat evap milk to 80-100 deg F. Melt butter. Combine sugar, melted butter, yellow food coloring, egg yolk and evap milk in the mixing bowl. Stir in yeast and let proof.

• Meanwhile, measure and put together in a bowl the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and blend well.

• On stir setting of the mixer, gradually add the flour (placed at the sides of the bowl) until all is used up. Stop when dough pulls together and leaves only a small amount of flour at the sides of the bowl. Transfer to a lightly greased and lightly floured surface.

• Knead for about 8-10 minutes. Grease a bowl big enough to accommodate double the dough. Place the dough in the greased bowl, then flip over (this way, all sides of the dough is greased). Cover lightly with cling wrap and let rise for 1 hr. [Take note in the photos above, the dough just before baking has the characteristic monay shape that we know after I let it rise for 1-1/2 hrs...but I should have baked these before the dough looked like so, because when I baked them, the puffing of the dough in the heat made the slit almost disappear...so I edited the time of rising here to be only one hour, and hopefully it will give you and I baked monays that have that slight dip at the middle...]

• After one hour, take out the dough onto a greased and slightly floured surface. Grease your rolling pin. Flatten the dough with the rolling pin, then fold the dough, and repeat the flatten-fold-flatten-fold cycle until the dough is smooth and dense (about 8 minutes). If it becomes too sticky, very lightly flour the surface.

• With dough cutter, cut into 3-oz pieces (if you did not cut the right amount, you can either cut off or add small pieces and press together to make 3-oz piece). Shape into round rolls and place on greased baking sheet (preferably aluminum). If you prefer smaller monays, make them 2-oz each. I am cutting here based on how I remember them during those days I was helping in my Tatay's bakery in shaping them to round rolls.

• Before the final rising, using swift smooth motion, make deep slits at the middle of the pieces, leaving only about 1/3 of the bottom dough uncut. You might have to do this twice, since the first cutting motion gives you only good cut at one side of the pieces, so that you will have to turn the pan around and make second cuts along the same line to achieve uniformly deep slits. If the cut portions tend to stick together, gently separate them with the blade. Cover lightly with greased cling wrap. Let rise for 40-60 minutes. [Don't wait for the unbaked pieces to look more like the monay you are used to, because if you do, you will end up with overpuffed middle like I did. I should have baked these earlier (my total final rising time was 1-1/2 hours; maybe 1 hr would be enough). The middle of the pieces should still look a tad lower than the baked monay you are used to seeing. The oven heat will puff up the middle some more. Monay characteristically has a bit low dip at the middle (the slit) of the two cheeks. Well, you know what the connotation of "monay" is among Filipinos when they do not refer to these rolls.]

• For putok, cut dough pieces about 1.5 to 2 oz each and shape into round rolls. Snip in a cross manner at the top to give you a crown. After the rising period (I suggest only 30 minutes because puto is characteristically very very dense and hard), brush the crown part with milk and sprinkle with sugar crystals.

• Bake at 350 deg F for 15 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Enjoy with ice cream filling while hot. Cool on wire rack. Place in ziploc bag as soon as cool enough to do so without sweating inside.