yrs ago, when I was 5th -6th grade, my family went to a Portuguese festival of some kind. Sorry, I do not recall what it was cellibrating, and there was sweet bread there that melted in your mouth.
Does anyone have a recipe?
Thanks, Dale
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Portuguese Sweet Bread Recipe courtesy of Peter Reinhart's THE BREAD BAKER'S APPRENTICE (10 Speed Press, 2002)
Recipe Summary Yield: Makes 2 1-pound loaves Sponge:
1/2 cup unbleached bread flour
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
1/2 water, at room temperature Dough:
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup powdered milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1 teaspoon orange extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups unbleached bread flour About 6 tablespoons water, at room temperature
To make the sponge, stir together the flour, sugar, and yeast in a small bowl. Add the water and stir until all the ingredients are hydrated and make a smooth batter. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and ferment at room temperature for 60 to 90 minutes, or until the sponge gets foamy and seems on the verge of collapse. To make the dough, combine the sugar, salt, powdered milk, butter, and shortening in a 4-quart mixing bowl (or the bowl of an electric mixer). Cream together with a sturdy spoon (or the paddle attachment) until smooth, then mix in the eggs and the extracts. Knead by hand (or switch to the dough hook attachment) and mix in the sponge and the flour. Add the water, as needed, to make a very soft dough. The finished dough should be very supple and soft, easy to knead, and not wet or sticky. It will take 10 to 12 minutes with the electric mixer and close to 15 minutes by hand to achieve this consistency. (Dough with high amounts of fat and sugar usually take longer to knead because the gluten requires more time to set up.) The finished dough should pass the windowpane test (see NOTE below) and register 77 to 88 degrees F. Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
Ferment at room temperature for approximately 2 hours, or until the dough doubles in size.
Remove the dough from the bowl and divide it into two equal pieces. Form each of the pieces into a boule. Lightly oil two 9-inch pie pans and place 1 boule, seam side down, in each pan. Mist the dough with spray oil and loosely cover the pans with plastic wrap.
Proof at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours, or until the dough fills the pans fully, doubling in size and overlapping the edges slightly. (If you only want to bake one loaf, you may retard the second in the fridge for 1 day, although it will take 4 to 5 hours to proof after it comes out of the refrigerator.)
Very gently brush the loaves with egg wash. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F with the oven rack on the middle shelf.
Bake the loaves for 50 to 60 minutes, or until they register 190 F in the center. After 30 minutes, check the loaves and rotate 180 degrees, if necessary, for even baking. Because of the high amount of sugar, the dough will brown very quickly, but don't be fooled into thinking it is done. It will get darker as the center gradually catches up with the outside, but it will not burn. The final color will be a rich mahogany brown.
Remove the bread from the pie pans and place on a rack to cool. The bread will soften as it cools, resulting in a very soft, squishy loaf. Allow the bread to cool for at least
90 minutes before slicing or serving.
Here is another one that I make and my kids love!
-Jerie
Portuguese Sweet Bread
2 loaves
2 pkgs yeast
¼ C warm water (105-115 degrees)
1 C lukewarm milk (scalded then cooled – I add the butter to it to cool it!)
¾ C sugar
1 teas salt
3 eggs
½ C margarine or butter, softened
5 ½ to 6 cups all-purpose flour
1 egg
1 teas sugar
Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large bowl. Stir in milk, ¾ C sugar, salt, 3 eggs, margarine / butter and 3 C flour
Beat with wooden spoon until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle.
Turn dough onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Place in a greased bowl; turn greased side up. Cover; place in a warm draft free place until double, about 1 ½ to 2 hours.
Punch dough down; divide into halves. Shape each half into a round, slightly flat loaf. Place each loaf into a greased round layer pan (9” x 1 ½”). Cover; let rise until double, about 1 hour. Heat oven to 350. Beat 1 egg slightly; brush over loaves, sprinkle with 1 teas sugar. Bake until golden brown, 35-45 minutes. Cool slightly, then remove from pan and cool on rack.
Sounds like you went to the "Portugese Celebration". My hometown had these every year and the food was wonderful. They made a soup (I can say it, but can't spell it) with cabbage in it and they had these wonderful "Flava" (I think) beans that were in salty water and you ate them cold.
The sweet bread we always bought in our local grocery store. I think they have some now called Haiwain Bread that is very similiar.
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We live on Cape Cod which has a large Portuguese population. For years I tried every recipe that I could find and never came close to what was in the bakery or for that matter in the grocery stores.
Finally I developed my own recipe for my bread machine through trial and error. It may not be quite as "fluffy" as the commercial type but they use dough enhancers that aren't available to the home cook. If you are interested, email me and I'll forward the recipe to you.
PS, makes the best French Toast and Bread Pudding you ever had, if you ever have any left-overs, which doesn't usually happen now but in the R&D stages there was plenty!
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