Posted by GayleL 8:45:48pm 9/25/03

Source: Posted by larry lopez - February 2001, at 12:51 pm

Cuban bread can be bought in some Hispanic stores or from latingrocer.com. It's 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. icuban.com had some ideas on how to "press" bread.

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

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.