Pan de Puño de Gran Canaria

Pan de puño is Gran Canaria's firm country loaf, made from a plain wheat dough worked against the table with the knuckles and closed fist. That amasado a puño, fist-kneading, gives the bread its name and its character: a close, even crumb beneath a sturdy brown crust. It isn't meant to billow like soft sandwich bread. It is bread for cutting thick, carrying food, and keeping several days.

The fist-work decides it. This is a dry dough, so ordinary kneading leaves rough seams and pockets that later bake into a heavy crumb. Fold it, drive the fist through it, turn it, and repeat until the surface changes from coarse to smooth and faintly satin-like. The work develops enough strength to hold the slow fermentation without turning the loaf airy or fragile. If your wrists tire, cover the dough for five minutes, then carry on. Don't soften it with extra water merely because it argues back.

Harina de fuerza, strong wheat flour, is the proper flour. Unbleached bread flour works wherever you're standing; if yours has more than 13 percent protein, replace 75g with plain flour or the crumb will be tougher. Fresh baker's yeast gives a steady rise, but 2g instant yeast does the same job and may finish a little sooner. My Margin beside this loaf says, "The dough decides when you're finished, not your arms." Siempre sale, si lo sigues, it turns out if you follow it.