Spanish Bread Bars (Barras de pan) by Iban Yarza

[Poolish.]

Spanish Bread Bars (Barras de pan) by Iban Yarza

Category: Yeast bread

Kitchen: spanish

Ingredients
Poolish
premium wheat flour (10-12% protein)	160 g
water	160 g
fresh pressed yeast	1 g
Dough
Poolish
premium wheat flour (10-12% protein)	640 g
water	350 g
salt	16 g
fresh pressed yeast	2 g

Cooking method

• Poolish.

• Eight hours before kneading the bread, make a poolish dough. Dissolve yeast in warm water, add flour and mix everything well. Cover the stew and let the mixture ferment for 8 hours at room temperature. Depending on the ambient temperature, fermentation may take a little more or a little less time, the finished dough should approximately triple and be filled with bubbles.

  Dough.

• When the pulish dough is ready, pour it into a large bowl and add flour, water and yeast. Mix with a scraper or spatula until all ingredients are evenly combined, the resulting mass of dough is quite sticky. Leave the mixture on for 10-15 minutes. Then add salt and mix with the dough.

  Transfer the resulting sticky ball of dough to your work surface and start kneading using the French method:

• .
• The dough at the beginning of work is quite sticky, but during work it should get stronger without adding excess flour, however, if necessary, adjust the amount in accordance with your dough. During kneading, you can leave the dough to rest, covering it with a napkin or film, kneading for 5-10 minutes and 10 minutes of rest. At the end of kneading, when the dough is already smooth enough and does not stick to your hands and the work surface, do the "Stretch and Fold" (preview from 0:00 to 0:35):
• ,
• cover with a napkin and let the dough sit for 10 minutes.

  Round the dough and leave it, in a bowl oiled with a little olive oil, to ferment for 3 hours or until it doubles in size. It was not mentioned about kneading the dough during fermentation, I cooked without kneading and with 1 kneading in the middle of fermentation. The difference is not too big, but noticeable, so during proofing, the dough with a wrinkle holds its shape better than the dough obtained without a wrinkle.

  Ready dough weight ~ 1270 g.

  Gently transfer the finished dough to the work surface and divide into 6 equal parts. Next, the author suggests the usual molding of baguette dough, but I was interested in the other two options from the Spanish bakers. You can choose the molding option as you wish. For convenient work, do not dust the entire work surface with flour, but sift a little flour a little away from the area where you will form the dough piece, that is, a clean work surface without flour is right in front of you, and the flour is slightly higher and to your right or left. Take the TK with two hands, place it with a light touch on the flour and immediately transfer it to the work surface without flour, while slightly stretching the TK to the sides.

  Do not put the stretched sides on the table (I had to do this in order to photograph the moment) and immediately connect them in the center, that is, from the moment you took the TK in your hands, you only now, after sealing in the center, release the TK from your hands. Next, wrap the upper open edge of the TK towards you and connect it with the lower open edge of the TK. Gently seal the seam by pressing with the pads of your fingers or the base of your palm and gently roll the TK slightly lengthening and smoothing the seam. Repeat all steps for the remaining TK.

  Cover the TK with a film or linen napkin and leave the dough for 15 minutes.In the photo, 4 out of 6 TK were prepared in this way, the two remaining TK were simply rounded off for the second molding option.

  Further, the prepared TK is very easy to crush, making it a little thinner and wrap the upper part, sealing it in the center. We unfold the TK with the fold towards ourselves and seal the rest of the TK by connecting the open edge and the fold. When working, the left hand holds and raises the upper part of the TK, the thumb is in the middle of the TK, and the right hand wraps around the thumb of the left hand and seals the dough. Movement from right to left, respectively, vice versa for left-handers. Seal the TK seam with the base of your palm.

  For second molding option carefully and slightly stretch the prepared round-shaped TK into a round cake. Next, fold the TK in half before reaching the edge by about 1.5 cm. Again, fold the TK in half before reaching the edge by 1.5 cm. Repeat it again, but already connecting the fold and the open edge of the TK. When working, both palms are placed horizontally on two sides on top of the TK, the movements should be light, since it is necessary to avoid excessive tension of the TK when folding, but there should not be any voids, you should get a neat spindle-shaped roll. Seal the TK seam with the base of your palm.

  Further, regardless of the method of forming the dough you choose, the obtained TK must be rolled into bars about 40 cm long.Adjust the length of the TK in accordance with the size of the baking sheet or baking stone you use, I got the TK about 35 cm.Place the TK with the fold up on the working surface, put both palms on the TK and roll out the dough so that it stretches into a long bar, if you like bars with pointed ends, then complete the molding by strengthening the pressure with your palms at the ends. Place the TK on a well-floured linen cloth, forming sides high enough to separate the TK from each other. This way, they will grow upward during proofing and retain their shape. If the sides are high enough, you can simply connect them using paper clips, if the height of the fabric is not enough, then cover the TK with an additional linen napkin and leave for proofing for an hour and a half or until they increase slightly less than twice (the dough should be soft and lightly when pressed with your finger), so the cuts will open better when baking.

  Preheat oven to 250C with an extra baking tray for the initial steam.

• Transfer the TK to a sheet or baking shovel. To do this, gently grab a linen cloth and slightly lift the TK with it while substituting a shovel. If you do not have a baking spatula, then proceed in the same way, gently lift the fabric forcing the TK to start turning, grab it with both hands and quickly transfer it to the sheet, it is important not to take the TK right away with your hands, since its lower part is slightly damp and the final shape may be spoiled when carry over from a napkin. Both shaping options shown above allow you to do without a baker's shovel, are quite stable and even with dough wrinkles they easily restore their shape during baking.

  Make 3 or 4 diagonal cuts on the TZ with a sharp blade, starting each cut a few centimeters above the end of the previous one.

  Transfer the TK to a preheated baking sheet, add about a glass of hot water to an additional baking sheet, which should be located below the baking sheet with the TK, to create steam and also spray cold water from a spray bottle over the TK. Bake the first 15 minutes at 250 C, then open the oven for 5 seconds to remove any remaining moisture and a baking sheet with water, lower the temperature to 200 C and bake the bars for another 15 minutes or until you see that they are already well browned and completely cooked ... Adjust the time and temperature to suit your particular oven. When the bars are ready, remove them from the oven and chill them completely on the rack.

  Bars with a crispy crust, porous crumb and a delicious bread flavor. Recommended for use within 6-8 hours.

The dish is designed for

6 pcs.

Note

The bread bars are prepared according to the recipe of Ibán Yarza. Thanks to the author!
Iban Yarza is a journalist, translator, writer, promoter of homemade bread, creator of a bread blog and a forum for bread lovers. Translated books “The handmade loaf” by Dan Lepard and “Bread” by Jeffrey Hamelman into Spanish. He is the author of the book "Pan Casero".
Barras de pan is a typical Spanish homemade bread made every week. Usually, a lot of bread is baked at once and then frozen to always have bread for a week. With all the external similarity to a French baguette, they are still different not only in structure and taste, but also in the variability in size and the number of cuts on the loaf, so if you like a crust in bread - you make loaves thin, if you prefer crumb - choose a larger size when molding, remembering to adjust the baking time. Barras de pan has a common characteristic with a baguette - it is a short time to sell, only 6-8 hours without changing the taste of the bread.

[Ilona]

I didn't even read the recipe. I'll do it later.
Ilona, such handsome men. Picture)

[Angela]

Angela, Thanks for the kind words!

I didn't even read the recipe. I'll do it later.

Yes, there is a lot of text, the form is easier to show than to explain in words.

[Ilona]

Ilona, agree. Sometimes it's easier to show. You always have everything in detail and clearly. It is a pleasure to read such recipes without water, digressions and prefaces. All on the case)

[Angela]

Angela, thanks, dear, reassured. In fact, molding takes very little time.

Pretty girls! Bookmarks…. Thank you.

[Anastasia]

Anastasia, to your health! And thanks for your attention to the recipe.

[Ilona]

Ilona, could not pass by, very pretty bars! My people love this ... I don't even know if I will dare to repeat it, but they look great!
And the holes in the cut

[Daria]

Daria, thanks for the kind words and interest in the recipe! It's not as complicated as it seems. If the method of French bakers for kneading dough does not suit you, then as an option, add some of the techniques from the Chinese method of work to your usual method of kneading dough (view from 2:40 to 2:53):

this is exactly this movement of stretching and folding into a roll, after the end of folding, continue kneading the dough with your usual hand movements. At the beginning of kneading, the dough will stratify due to the uneven distribution of the pool dough and salt, but there should not be any particular difficulties, since the hydration of the dough is not great, rather it is common for bread dough. Or use any technique available for kneading, such as a planetary mixer or bread maker.

[Corsica]

Corsica, Ilona, ​​very beautiful!
I can hardly repeat this, even if I admire it!

[Ilona]

Ilona, I really love your recipes! Thank you for a new regular beauty. Showed your loaves to the Spaniards .. they said, learn to cook such! I confirm that in Spain these are exactly what they eat and they cost an average of 1.30 euros.

[Trishka]

Trishka, zvezdaThank you for your interest in the recipe!

Showed your loaves to the Spaniards ..

This is a test for all tests, it's good that I didn't know, otherwise I would definitely be very worried.

I confirm that in Spain they eat exactly like this

Thank you!

[Ilona]

Ilona, thanks for the bars !!! could not resist your beauty ... and decided to do it, though with jambs, but nothing ... next time there will be something to work on ...

I also want such jambs !! How beautiful, and the holes!
And the crust is ruddy!

I also want such jambs !! How beautiful, and the holes!
And the crust is ruddy!

there was no pressed yeast ... I took dry ... yes, I like the holes too, I couldn't do it before ...

[Helen]

Helen, the beauty! Thanks for your feedback! I do not see "jambs" (c), as I admire the chic structure and ruddy crust of the bars. Probably the flour was 12% protein or just a very good brand?

[Ilona]

Probably the flour was 12% protein or just a very good brand?

Ilona, Shugurovskaya, 14% !!! I just bought it yesterday, started poolish on Makve, and then Shugurovskaya ..

[Elena]

Elena, and where is this flour sold?

[Elena]

Elena, and where is this flour sold?

I went to metro Kantemirovskaya, very close to the metro, I took the highest one, whole grain and rye, 5 kg each. with cart ...

Very tasty spray cans turned out. I will bake regularly. Thanks for the recipe.

[Elena]

Shugurovskaya, 14% !!!

Clear. Thanks for the information ! Elena, and the amount of water for kneading the dough had to be adjusted?
tatyana5417, Tatyana, to your health and thanks for the tip!

Did you have to adjust the amount of water for kneading the dough?

I didn't regulate anything, maybe I should have added a little water ... but I didn't ...