Hi and a huge welcome to Steve's kitchen and
a big thank you to you Marcel for
requesting a Cuban sandwich. Now I'm not
just going to take two slices of bread
and put them together but I'm actually
going to make Cuban bread as well and
I've simplified the recipe so you can
follow it at home. I really think a good
Cuban sandwich has to have Cuban bread
in it. So Cubans around the world I hope
you'll agree with me and I hope I do
this some justice. Please give me the
thumbs up down below if you are enjoying
the show. Let's get on, make the bread and
make the sandwich.
Into a mixing bowl one
and a quarter cups of warm water ,two
teaspoons of white or raw sugar, two
teaspoons of instant dried yeast, that's
the fast reacting yeast.
Give it a little mix through, cover and
set aside in a warm area to let the
yeast bubble and froth.
So after about 20 minutes you're getting
this foam starting to settle on top. Now
we need 500 grams that's about a pound
of strong flour or bread flour. I'm just
going to add that over the top of the
water and then using a fork I'm going to
start drawing the moisture into the
bread flour and at the same time I'm
going to add a couple of teaspoons of
salt. As the flour starts to absorb the
moisture you can then take the fork away
and start using your hands to draw
together the dough and at this point it
should still be a little bit crumbly. Now
what makes Cuban bread really delicious
is the unique addition of lard. We've got
about a quarter of a cup of lard which
I'm just going to soften in the
microwave then I'm going to add this
softened lard into the dough and this is
going to sort of combine the flour
together now and make a beautiful soft
bread flour. Now of course you can do
this with the stand mixer but I love to
do this by hand.
Now with that lard in there you'll see
that the bread dough is starting to pull
away and leave the bowl clean. At this
point I'm going to take it onto a
surface and I'm going to start to knead
this for a good 10 minutes and what
you'll notice as you're kneading it the
dough will get softer and silkier. Now
two comments really about this dough
making, if you're used to making bread
dough you will love the silky texture
of this, it's absolutely delicious and
secondly a lot of people are going to
say to me 'do you need to use lard to
make this bread' yes you do.
If you don't use lard you're not making
Cuban bread
and after 10 minutes you've got this
unique Cuban dough it's so silky so
springy. I'm going to pop that back in
the bowl now but first I'm going to add
a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil
and pop the dough in there and just roll
it around to coat it. So I'm just going
to cover that over now and put it aside
in a warm area for at least an hour
maybe two until it's doubled in volume.
Two hours later my dough has risen
beautifully and doubled in size and look
at the elasticity in that it's
absolutely beautiful.
I'm just going to take that out, pop it
onto a warm surface, a wooden surface
preferred and knock the air out, punch it
down and knock all the air out of the
dough and I'm just going to divide my
dough up into two, sprinkle the surface
with a little flour just to stop the
dough from sticking because I'm going to
push this and roll this out to a square
or an oblong and it's good at this point
to coat the dough in flour and then
start to use a rolling pin and just roll
this out. So with a combination of
rolling and stretching we're pulling our
dough out to a sort of oblong shape like
this and we're going to be making
something very similar to a French
baguette but it won't stay round like
the French baguette it will flatten
slightly. So when you're happy with the
shape I'm just going to turn that dough
over, so we've got the rough side this
side and I'm going to start rolling the
dough into a roll but I'm pinching and
tensioning the surface of the dough as
I go and if you like you can just wet
your fingers down and just turn these
ends over and pull them into a nice sort
of square ends. The next stage is to take
a baking tray sprinkle over some coarse
semolina and then we're just going to
lift our bread onto there. Now with a
traditional Cuban bread they use a palm
frond to make an indentation, a little
line across the bread but I've seen many
people use a shoelace or a piece of cord
like this. So I've soaked this cord in
water and we're just going to lay it
across and just gently push it into the
into the dough. Now I need to set this
aside for 45 minutes to an hour to let
it rise and a great idea is to pop it
inside a plastic bag like this, just
cover it over to keep the dough from
drying out and then just pull the
plastic away so it doesn't stick to the
dough.
Now my Cuban breads have risen
beautifully, it's been about an hour. I'm
just going to brush some water over the
top. Now people are going to ask me what
is the shoelace or what is the piece of
cord for, well the original Cuban breads
they have like a palm leaf going across
them which cracks the surface of
the bread as it bakes and I read that
this is probably the best way if you
can't get hold of palm Leaves,
just to put a damp shoestring across the
top as it bakes. So now my oven has
preheated to 200 degrees Celsius that's
400 degrees Fahrenheit and these are
going to go in for 18 to 20 minutes I
want to keep an eye, I want a beautiful
golden brown surface on them. One other
thing I will be doing five minutes after
they've been in the oven I'm just going
to pull the oven door open and I'm going
to baste them again with a little more
water, it's going to give us a lovely
crisp surface to the bread.
Now the Cuban bread is out of the oven
look at that it smells delicious and see
that beautiful crack that's come down
the middle there, I'm going to leave those on
the rack to cool down and then we're
going to make a Cuban sandwich. So if you
just joined me to learn how to make Cuban
bread well your videos finished now,
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this bread now and you can see this
wonderful bread turned into a fantastic
Cuban sandwich, be good