Beautifully Soft Cuban Bread | How to Make Pan Cubano

how's it going everyone i hope you're having a great day welcome to the channel i'm the chain baker and in today's video we'll make cuban bread and a cuban sandwich which apparently does not originate in cuba but still is delicious so let's go to the kitchen and have a closer look since i made my fat comparison video i've been quite curious about using lard and bread making and i think this cuban bread is the perfect introduction to it it may look simple but the use of lard and a preference really makes it shine but most importantly when you make cuban bread you can also make a cuban sandwich filled with mustard swiss cheese smoked ham pulled pork pickles and toasted to perfection so let's not waste any time and see exactly what we need to make this we'll need white bread flour yeast salt sugar water and lard now you can buy a lard in shop but most likely be tasteless and i don't see a point of using a tasteless ingredient in this recipe so what i got here is some smoked bacon lardons which we are going to use to make our own lard as for the equipment we'll need a tray with some non-stick paper a bowl scales a dough scraper a temperature probe and something to score the dough with i'm going to use razor blade but you can also use a sharp knife you could even skip the scoring in fact right so let's get to it first things first let's make some lard get your lardons in a pan and place the pan on the stove on medium to high heat cook the lardons for 15 minutes stirring them occasionally to prevent them from burning to the bottom of the pot this recipe requires 25 grams of lard which is about 0.9 ounces now i got that out of 100 grams of lardons which is 3.5 ounces how much lard you get will depend on how fatty your lardons are i would suggest making more than what you need just be safe especially because after you've strained it you can keep it in the fridge for several days you can use it for other projects like tortillas the second thing that makes this bread special is the use of a pre-ferment fermenting a portion of the total flour ahead of time will greatly enhance the flavor of this bread it will give it a more sturdy texture making the briefmen is extremely simple we'll take some of the water tiny pinch of yeast and some of the flour we'll combine them in a bowl mix them until there's no dry flour left and then leave it to ferment they'll take around 10 to 14 hours so you can make this in the evening and have it ready by the morning or you can make it before you go to work and be ready by the time you come back if you want to learn more about brief men's check out my video on them in the principles of baking playlist and the breads would briefly playlist is full of dozens of recipes using this method right so it's the next day the briefment has risen beautifully it's full of air now we can make the dough i'm going to use cold water because i'm kneading this dough by hand it's going to warm up a lot and you will find the temperature control video also in the principles of baking playlists in fact if you want to learn more about anything related to bread making head over there after this video okay so grab a large bowl and combine the remaining water the yeast the salt and sugar give it all a good mix to dissolve the salt and hydrate yeast now at the lard the amount of lard used in this recipe is only 10 so it is safe to add it from the get go now we can follow that with the briefment and finally add the remaining flour now you want to grab your dough scraper and mix this together mix it in the bowl until there's no more dry flour left before tipping it out on table to avoid making a mess by the way if you don't eat pork you can use different fats in this recipe like butter or oil it's not going to be the same though because lard is what makes this bread special when it comes to kneading we'll use the regular method what i like to do is press the dough down and forwards with the heel of my right hand then using the fingers of my left hand i fold the pieces though under the heel of my right hand then turn it and repeat and once you get into a rhythm the motion will become fluent if the dough starts sticking to your table and to your hands just scrape it all up and continue it is safe to say that the dough scraper is one of the most important tools in bread making it's used for mixing scraping cutting shaping i can't imagine making bread without it now this dough should not take more than 6 minutes of mixing and once it's nice and smooth and not too sticky anymore it's ready now we can pop it in a bowl and take its temperature around 25 to 26 degrees celsius just about right for this that's around 77 to 79 fahrenheit if your dough is warmer you'll ferment more rapidly if it's cooler will take longer i'll cover this up and leave it for one hour it should gain some volume during the first hour of fermentation now we need to give it a fold thus your dough is flour because it's a little bit sticky then grab your scraper release it from the bowl and pop it out on the table with a smooth side down then flatten it out and start folding the edge over the middle going around in a circle until reach point where you started then flip it upside down again tighten it against stable and that's the fault done you can see the dough is nice and loose and stretchy by folding it we are building some tension into it it is the lard and the sugar that make the dough like this and by folding it we are making it just a little bit stronger once you are done with the fold place the dough back into the bowl with the smooth side pointing up now cover it up leave the ferment for another hour now it should really gain some volume and if your dough is not rising as much then just leave it for longer if it's rising too rapidly then cut the fermentation time down but regardless once it's doubled in volume we can shape it once again dust your dough with flour release it from the bowl using a scraper pop it out on the table with a smooth side down now you want to stretch it out gently to a big rectangle shape don't just start yanking it otherwise you may tear it you can press it with your fingertips gently lift it up and stretch it this loaf will make two large portions so only needs to be as long as two sandwiches once you have finished stretching it roll it up and there's nothing special to this method take the bottom third and roll it forwards then once you reach the top seal it up now what's on top will be the bottom of the loaf so flip it smooth side up again this can go into a non-stick paper line tray give the paper a light dusting of flour this will make it easier to manipulate the dough once it's on there because we want to flatten this dough out a little bit more we don't want it to stick to the paper so place the loaf on the paper then press it down try and turn it into a long flat rectangle it doesn't have to be perfect of course it will still taste the same no matter how you shape it now give the top of the law for light dusting of flour we don't want the cling film sticking to it now we can cover it loosely and leave it for the final fermentation the proofing time will depend on the temperature of your kitchen an hour to an hour and a half should do it during the final hour fermentation pre-heat the oven 200 degrees celsius fan off that's 390 fahrenheit look at that loaf it's puffed up beautifully now remove the cling film carefully you don't want to tear it or distort it i should have used a bit more flour to be honest and i am using a little bit more flour here it will make the scoring easier and prevent the razor from sticking to the dough too much to be honest you don't need to score this though so isn't so much that it's not going to burst open at the seam scoring in this case is just for looks not for any technical reasons if you are going to score it then go a little bit more than centimeter deep which is about half an inch and now we can pop this bad boy in the oven it'll take around 20 to 23 minutes once it's golden brown all over it's ready if for any reason the bottom of your loaf is not quite done you can flip it upside down and leave it in the oven for a couple more minutes but this looks just about right for me now leave it to cool down ideally on a rack placing warm bread on a flat surface can make the bottom go wet and soggy if you don't have a rack you can lean the bread against something but here it is all cooled down and beautiful it is unbelievably soft that's because the use of lard and sugar and the preference made the rice quite rapidly as well so it gained a lot of volume just look at that awesome crumb this bread is perfect as it is you can eat it like this it has a beautiful sweetness a little bit of that bacon flavor from the lard but i want to make the cuban sandwich which i had never had before the flavor combination speaks to me though so take half of the loaf slice it open get your ingredients we've got mustard mayonnaise smoked ham swiss cheese and some pickled gherkins start by spreading the mustard mayo generously on both sides then cover each side with a piece of cheese followed by the ham and the gherkins there's just one ingredient left to add the pulled pork of course you could make any sandwich you like out of this fill it with your favorite ingredients and then toast it up but whatever you do make sure it's a decent portion maximize that filling to bread ratio now here's a little extra thing you can do before toasting it ideally you will want some leftover lard for this but if you don't you can of course use butter or oil balad will give you the most flavor brush both sides of the sandwich and in hindsight i should have brushed it before i stacked it up but it's no big deal now place it in a preheated toaster and if you go one like this with a metal lid then you can use your oven glove to really press it down this will ensure it's nice and compressed and even if you don't have a glove use an oven cloth regardless where you use around three to four minutes later it should be ready show a nice golden color and the cheese should be molten and it should have a really crunchy crust now all that's left to do is crack cold beer and cut into this bad boy i can guarantee you that i'll be making this again with all that triple porky goodness cheese and mustard and that super crunchy texture on the outside and the beautifully soft crumb it just makes for the perfect hot sandwich now i just need to go to america and try the real deal so what do you think this cuban bread have you ever tried the cuban sandwich let me know down in the comments to see more videos like this one click over here subscribe to the channel click right here that's all i have for you today thank you so much for watching i'll see you in the next one

Channel: ChainBaker

Views: 38,712

Keywords: bread, baking, artisan, sourdough, leavened, handmade, home baker, amateur baker, bread making, masterclass, master baker, naturally leavened, yeast, baking lessons, how to, chainbaker

Id: 0evQoDvSGrU

Length: 9min 21sec (561 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 09 2022