Pan Cubano – Cuban Bread

Ingredients

1 tablespoon Red Star® Active Dry Yeast
2 teaspoons C&H® Granulated Sugar
1 1/4 cups warm water
2 cups King Arthur® Bread Flour
2 cups King Arthur® All-Purpose Flour
2 teaspoons Diamond Crystal® Kosher Salt
1/4 cup lard
2 tablespoons warm water (to brush on loaves before baking)
Grease a large bowl, and set aside.

Directions

Take a small bowl and dissolve the yeast and sugar in 1/4 cup of warm (110 ℉) water. Place the bowl in a warm place and let it stand until it starts to foam and double in volume, about 10 minutes. Should be foamy and bubbly.

Meanwhile, measure out 1/4 cup of lard and place the lard in a Pyrex measuring cup or other suitable container. Heat in the microwave until melted but not too hot.

Place the water/yeast/sugar mixture in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer. Add the rest of the warm water and the salt. Using a dough hook, mix on low speed until blended.

** Take your measuring cup and dig into the flour bag, scooping out two whole cups of each flour. Now the important part: in a separate bowl, sift together the two flours. Sifted flour has more volume than unsifted flour, so you will use approximately 3 1/4 cups of sifted flour in the following steps.

Gradually add the flour mixture, a little at a time, to the wet ingredients in your mixer – mixing constantly. At the same time you are adding flour, gradually pour in the melted lard. Keep adding a little flour and a little lard until all of the lard is added.

Continue adding more flour – A LITTLE AT A TIME – until you make a smooth and pliable dough. Try to add just enough flour to make the dough elastic – just as much as necessary so that the dough hook barely cleans the sides of the bowl. Too much flour and your bread will be too dense! You will use approximately 3 1/4 cups of sifted flour to bring the dough to this point. Save any leftover flour mixture for rolling out the dough.

Now let the machine and the dough hook go to work kneading the dough. Set the mixer on a low speed and knead for about 3 to 4 minutes, no more! Your dough will be fairly sticky at this point.

Shape the dough into a ball and place it into a greased bowl. Flip the dough ball a few times to grease it up on all sides. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and place in a warm place. Let the dough rise until it doubles in size – about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board, using the leftover flour you have in the bowl. Sprinkle some flour on the dough and use a rolling pin to roll it out. We like to make a large loaf, shaped to fit our longest baking sheet diagonally – about 20 inches long. So we try to roll out a 12 x 20-inch rectangle. Sprinkle more flour on the dough and turn it over a few times as you roll it out, to keep it from sticking to the rolling pin. The added flour at this rolling stage should take care of most of the stickiness of the dough.

Roll the dough up into a tightly rolled long cylinder, with a slight taper at both ends. Wet your fingers and pinch the loose flap of the rolled dough into the loaf, making a tight seam.

Put some cornmeal on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Place the loaf diagonally onto the baking sheet, seam side down. Dust the top with a little extra flour and cover very loosely with plastic wrap. (You don't want the rising dough to dry out or stick to the plastic wrap.)

Place in a warm spot and allow the loaf to stand and rise once again until it is about 2 1/2 times its original size, about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Cuban bread is wider than French bread, so expect your loaf to spread out quite a bit as it rises.

Preheat the oven to 450 ℉. Place a pan of water on the lowest rack of the oven.

Use a sharp knife to cut a shallow seam down the middle of the top of the bread, leaving about two inches of uncut top on each end of the loaf.

Brush the top of the loaf with water and place in your preheated oven on the middle shelf. After about 5 minutes of baking, brush some more water on top of the bread.

Bake the loaf until it is light brown and crusty – about 12 to 18 minutes total baking time.

I DO NOT get any compensation, free stuff or acknowledgment for mentioning, using or linking to any specific products mentioned. They are for my reference only. Any product or ingredient in the recipe can be substituted with what you have available, a regional favorite or what you find delicious.

Credits
- By Three Guys From Miami
- Original URL: https://icuban.com/food/pan_cubano2.html