Cuban Bread: Making the Cubano from the Film Chef, Part 2

Salut! It's Yoko, your food blogger.

Do you know the Cuban sandwich (also called a Cubano)?

It's a panini-like sandwich: Cuban bread, which looks like a baguette, is spread with butter and mustard, filled with roast mojo pork, ham, pickles and cheese, and then toasted until crisp in a buttered sandwich press. It appears in the movie "Chef."

This time I'll share the recipe for the baguette-like bread you need for this sandwich, Cuban bread.

Cuban Bread Ingredients

Make the starter the day before you bake, then add half of it to the dough the next day.
The rest keeps in the fridge for a few days, so use it the next time you bake bread (you can freeze it too).

How to Make Cuban Bread

Make the starter the day before baking

Make the starter.

Put the warm water in a bowl and stir in the yeast until dissolved. When it thickens, add the bread flour and mix well, then cover with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge.

Combine the starter with the remaining ingredients and bake!

1. In a bowl, dissolve the yeast and sugar in a little of the warm water (taken from the total). When it starts to bubble, add the lard and mix.
   Once it's smooth, add the rest of the water, half of the starter and the salt, and mix well.



By the way, this is lard that floated to the top when I made kakuni (braised pork belly) and that I had frozen. lol

2. Add the bread flour a little at a time while mixing. When it comes together, turn it out onto the counter and knead for about 10 minutes, until the surface of the dough is smooth.



* If kneading is too much of a hassle, just use a bread machine!

3. Put the dough in a bowl lightly coated with oil (any oil is fine as long as it isn't strongly scented) and let it rise for the first time for 45 minutes in a warm place, around 37°C.

It's ready when the dough has about doubled in size.


4. Turn it out onto the counter, punch it lightly to release the gas, and divide it into 4 equal pieces.



5. Time to shape. First roll the dough out into a rectangle with a rolling pin.



Roll the dough up tightly from the near edge, without letting air in, and pinch the seams at the long and short edges firmly shut.




6. Place the shaped dough on parchment paper, cover with a damp cloth, and let it rise a second time for 1 hour in a warm place, around 37°C.



7. When the dough has about doubled in size, lay one thick string along the center.



Instead of the string, you can also make a coupe.
* A coupe is a slash in the dough. You can make one with a special coupe knife (bread lame).


8. Brush with water (not included in the amounts above) and bake in an oven preheated to 180°C for about 30 minutes.

It's done when it has taken on a light color.
Once it has cooled slightly, remove the string. The two loaves on the right have a coupe, and the two on the left had the string laid on.

Tips for Making Cuban Bread

Lard is a must for Cuban bread!

Be sure to use lard. It's no exaggeration to say Cuban bread without lard isn't Cuban bread!!

Lard adds richness to dishes, so it's also good in fried rice and the like.

If you won't eat it right away, freeze it!

Bread dries out and gets less tasty with each passing day.
If you don't plan to make Cuban sandwiches that day or the next, freeze it.
Once the Cuban bread has cooled completely, cut it to whatever size you need, put it in a bag and put it in the freezer.
Just take it out when you want it and warm it up, and you can enjoy a fresh taste any time.

So that was the Cuban bread recipe.
It looks like a baguette but is soft and fluffy, and really delicious.
It works great as an everyday bread besides Cuban sandwiches, so why not give it a try?

See you next time. Au revoir!