In light of the skyrocketing prices of bread in the informal Cuban market, Anayad Sánchez published a video on Facebook featuring her homemade recipe, which has garnered over 353,000 views and more than 11,400 likes, becoming a viral phenomenon that reflects the desperation of thousands of families searching for alternatives to the food crisis.
"The step-by-step process of making bread, a homemade recipe that is easy and, believe it or not, much more economical than buying it on the street at such high prices. Plus, you provide your family with bread made with love and quality," Sánchez wrote in the video description.
The recipe, which yields approximately 10 buns, requires four cups of flour, one and a half cups of warm water, two tablespoons of sugar, one teaspoon of salt, two tablespoons of oil, and one tablespoon of yeast.
The process includes three resting periods: 15 minutes to activate the yeast until it forms foam, one to two hours for the dough to double in size, and a final 30 minutes before placing it in the oven.
In the video, Sánchez doesn't hide the daily struggles of cooking in Cuba. While showing the oil he uses, he humorously remarks, "Don't ask me where I got this because with that color they're selling it. Good Lord, what kind of oil is this? But, well, it's what we have."
The economic logic of homemade bread is clear in the current context: in Havana, a bag of eight loaves was sold for 500 Cuban pesos in the informal market in April 2026, while in Cienfuegos, a 200-gram piece reached 150 pesos.
In the Isle of Youth, the released bread was priced at 110 pesos per unit.
When producing 10 rolls from a single recipe, the cost per unit is lower than the purchase price on the street, although the ingredients themselves have also reached high prices: oil is around 1,800 pesos per liter and sugar is 400 pesos per pound in the informal market.
Of course, all these prices change daily and also vary from one province to another.
This type of content falls within a broader trend.
Food prices in Cuba have skyrocketed again in 2026, driven in part by the informal dollar which reached a historic record of 600 pesos per unit this month, making all imported products, including wheat flour, more expensive.
The shortage of this supply is chronic and has paralyzed bakeries across the country. In Holguín, some bakeries returned to using wood-fired ovens in February 2026 to maintain production amid blackouts and fuel shortages.
80.39% of respondents in a recent survey reported that their cooking ability was affected by power outages, making the home oven an additional luxury for many families.
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