My Grandmothers Portuguese Sweet Bread Farmgirl Gourmet Recipes

GRANDMA CARDOZA'S PORTUGUESE SWEET BREAD

Steps:

• Dissolve 1 package of yeast and 2 tbsp. sugar in 1/2 cup warm water. Let stand until frothy and bubbly (about 5-15 minutes).
• In a small saucepan, combine milk and butter and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and let cool a bit.
• Combine flour and salt. My grandma's recipe calls for sifting the flour, so I sift as grandma suggests.
• In a mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar together until mixed well. Next add the milk and butter mixture, the lemon extract, the anise extract, and the yeast mixture to the eggs and sugar.
• Gradually add the 6 cups of flour to the mix.
• Knead the bread until very smooth, which takes about 15 to 20 minutes.
• Cover the dough, place in a warm area, and let rise until the dough doubles in size. This takes approximately 2 hours.
• Punch dough down, divide, and form into rolls, large round loaves, or braided loaves.
• Place the dough on a buttered cookie sheet (I use parchment paper) or in a pie pan, cover, and let rise again for roughly an hour.
• If you are making Folar da Pascoa, make sure the eggs are boiled and tuck them in the loaves before baking.
• Bake at 350 F for 25-30 minutes. When the bread starts to brown, I brush the top with milk, and this helps give a shiny, golden top to the bread. As soon as the bread is ready, I butter the top.
• Enjoy right from the oven, if you choose!

GRANDMA'S PORTUGUESE SWEET BREAD RECIPE

Steps:

• Dissolve yeast in warm water. Mix sugar, hot milk, butter, and salt together in a large bowl, stirring until butter melts. When cooled to lukewarm, beat in eggs and yeast mixture. Gradually beat 5 cups of flour into liquid to make a smooth dough.
• If you have a stand mixer that will handle this amount of dough, you can use that to shorten the process. Simply complete above steps in your mixer bowl and let your dough hook do the kneading for you.
• To knead by hand, heavily flour a board with a portion of the remaining flour. Turn dough out onto board and sprinkle with remaining flour. Knead until very smooth, adding flour to eliminate stickiness as necessary. You should see small "blisters" of air on the surface of the dough. This takes about 15-20 minutes. Consider it your workout for the day.
• Place dough in a large buttered bowl. Cover loosely with a towel and put in a warm place until doubled in size (about two hours).
• Punch down dough (it will collapse). Using buttered hands, form dough into desired loaves. You can divide dough into two large loaves or try them as smaller rolls. Or you can try the pie pan method you see used by the historical society.
• Place your formed loaves on a buttered cookie sheet or in a buttered pie pan. Cover loaves and set in a warm place to rise again for about an hour. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Baking time will vary a bit depending upon loaf size.
• Optional: Use a pastry brush to baste milk over the loaves just as they start to brown. This will give them a beautiful shiny glow.
• Turn dough onto floured surface. Divide dough in two. Form each half loosely into a two-inch log. Cut log into two-inch lengths.
• Roll dough into balls. Place onto a buttered cookie sheet or in a buttered pie pan, not quite touching.
• Cover rolls and set in a warm place to rise again for about an hour.
• Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
• Form each half of the dough into a ball, working to put the "loose" ends on the bottom so that the top is nice and smooth. Place each dough on a cookie sheet and set aside to rise.
• Divide each half of the bread dough into three equal pieces.
• Roll each into a rope, about 1-2 inches in diameter.
• Press the ends of the ropes together and braid. When you reach the end, tuck ends under slightly and place bread on a cookie sheet for the second rise.