Pan de Agua Recipe (Dominican Breakfast Bread Rolls)

Pan de Agua Recipe (Dominican Breakfast Bread Rolls) can be found on the Dominican breakfast table almost every morning. It has a similar texture and taste to that of the French bread.

Course Breakfast

Cuisine Dominican, Latino

Keyword dominican bread, how to make pan de agua, pan de agua recipe

Prep Time 1 hour 45 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 2 hours 15 minutes

Servings rolls

Calories 157kcal

Author Clara Gonzalez

Ingredients

2 cup pre-sifted bread flour plus extra to dust surface
1 teaspoon instant dry yeast ,
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup lukewarm water
⅓ cup cornmeal

Instructions

Whisk bread flour, yeast and salt together. Place in the mixer bowl and attach the dough hook.
Start mixer at low speed (speed 2 of 12 in mine).
Add the water and run mixer for 10 minutes. The resulting dough will be shaggy and quite wet.
Pour the dough on a clean surface covered with flour.
Divide the dough into 6. Make into balls. Sprinkle extra flour if necessary to work with it, but don't overdo it or the bread will be dry and hard.
Place on a baking tray (see suggestions in notes) sprinkled with cornmeal. Let it rise covered in a dark, warm place until the balls double in size (1 ½ hrs, aprox.)
Heat oven to 500 ºF (260 ºC). If your oven doesn't reach that temperature, go as high as it goes (results may vary).
Place an empty tray on the topmost rack in the oven, one on the bottom. Fill both with boiling water. The oven should be very steamy when you put the bread in the oven.
Place the tray with the bread in the center of the oven, between the trays with boiling water. Close the oven fast so the steam doesn't escape.
Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the trays with the water (be very careful), and bake the bread some more until they have a golden brown crust (7 - 10 mins aprox).
Remove from the oven, serve hot.

Notes

Results will vary depending on the oven you have. There are no two ways about that.

You could try to knead this by hand, but I can't see how the dough is very shaggy and sticky.

If you want to make the traditional elongated roll you will need a special tray, like these ones (Amazon affiliate link), fits 6 rolls.

Rolls tend to get a bit flatter on a regular tray, to get taller round rolls I use this tray (Amazon affiliate link).

You need bread flour. Yes, you do.

If you are not sure that your yeast is alive, make a test by mixing a teaspoon of sugar, a teaspoon of yeast and dissolving in a ¼ cup of lukewarm water. Cover and let it rest in a warm, dark place. In 10 minutes the top should be foamy, if not you need fresh yeast. Notice these ingredients are not listed as part of the recipe.

Nutrition