Restaurant Recipes
Bahama Breeze Roasted Cuban Bread
Cuban bread is a cross between French and Italian bread in texture. Bahama Breeze presses it in a hot press that looks like what dry cleaners use for pressing clothes. I've used a waffle maker to get a similar effect.
Ingredients
- 6 cups bread flour (or slightly more to bring dough to proper consistency)
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup lard
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 2 tablespoons wheat gluten
- 2 tablespoons yeast
- 2 cups warm water
Instructions
- Grease a large bowl, and set aside.
- Dissolve the yeast in warm (90 degree F) water. Add the salt and sugar. Stir well. Mix the flour and wheat gluten. Add lard then add the flour/gluten mixture, one cup at a time, beating it in using a wooden spoon (or using the dough hook on an electric mixer) to make a fairly stiff dough. Shape dough into a small ball. Place dough in the Pyrex bowl, turn over so both sides are greased, cover with a moist cloth and place in a warm place. Let rise about 20 minutes or until the dough doubles in size.
- Grease two more bowls. Remove the dough from the bowl and punch it down. Cut dough in half to form two balls. Place each ball in a separate bowl. Cover each with a moist cloth and let rise about 30 minutes or until the dough doubles in size.
- Lightly grease a cookie sheet and sprinkle with cornmeal. Do NOT preheat the oven. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board. Shape into long, Cuban bread-style loaves. Place the loaves on the baking sheet. Allow to stand and rise for five minutes.
- Brush the loaves with water. Place in middle shelf of the COLD oven. Place a pan of boiling water on the bottom of the oven. Set the temperature to 400 degrees F.
- Bake the breads until they are crusty and done - about 45 minutes.