Pan de Agua

Ingredients

• 500 g strong white flour
• 7 g dried yeast
• 2 tsp sugar
• 340 ml lukewarm water
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp lard

Method

1. Wake the yeast in the water

   Whisk the yeast and sugar into the lukewarm water and let it go cloudy and foamy before it meets the flour, then stir in the flour to a shaggy mass. If the water is hot enough to feel warm on your wrist rather than neutral, you have already killed part of the yeast and the loaf will bake dense and squat.

   10 min

2. Add salt and lard, then knead

   Work in the salt and the lard and knead for ten minutes until the dough is smooth and passes a windowpane. Keep the fat to that single spoonful: pan de agua is a lean dough on purpose, and every extra gram of fat tenderises the crust into something soft, which is the one thing this bread must not be.

   10 min

3. First rise

   Cover and prove until doubled, about an hour and a half in a warm kitchen. Rush this and the crumb comes out tight and bready instead of open and light.

   1 h 30 min

4. Shape the batons

   Knock the dough back, divide it into six, and roll each piece into a tight torpedo about 20 cm long, sealing the seam firmly and setting it seam-side down. A loose seam unzips in the oven and the loaf splits sideways instead of blooming along the slash.

5. Second rise and slash

   Prove the shaped loaves for forty minutes until puffy but still springy, then cut one confident lengthways slash about 1 cm deep in each. Slash a loaf that has over-proved and it deflates on the spot — there is no gluten tension left to hold the cut open.

   40 min

6. Bake with steam

   Slide the loaves into a 230°C oven with a tray of boiling water on the floor, spritz the walls, and bake twenty-five minutes until deep gold and hollow-sounding. The steam is the entire point: it keeps the surface elastic long enough for the loaf to spring, then sets into that thin crackling shell — bake it dry and you get a dull, thick, matte crust.

   25 min

7. Cool on a rack

   Move the loaves straight onto a rack and let them cool uncovered. Left on the tray, the underside sits in its own steam and the crust you just built goes soft within minutes.