Portuguese Honey Bread Recipes

PAO DE MEL (PORTUGUESE HONEY BREAD)

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Spray one large loaf pan with the cooking spray and set aside.
• In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, cloves and baking powder.
• Add eggs, honey, milk and butter; combine well.
• Pour mixture into prepared pan.
• Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Let cool, then drizzle melted chocolate over the top.

PORTUGUESE HONEY, SPICE AND ALL THINGS NICE, FRUIT BREAD.

Steps:

• Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 325°F (160 C).
• Butter 6 (6 by 3 1/4 by 2 inch) metal loaf pans. (2 to 2 1/4 cup capacity)
• Put cranberries, candied fruit, and Port together in a small saucepan and heat until it simmers. Remove from heat, cover and set aside.
• Coarsely chop walnuts using a food processor then add the flour, salt, baking soda and spices and pulse just enough to combine.
• Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, and then add the eggs 1 at a time, beating each in well.
• Stir together yeast and warm water in a small bowl and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. If your mixture doesn't foam, discard it and start over with new yeast.
• Starting with one and a half cups of flour mixture added to butter mixture and mixing with an electric beater at low speed . add each of the following and combine after each addition : molasses, then another one and a half cups of flour mixture, then the yeast mixture, the final one and a half cups of flour mixture. Then hand stir in the candied fruit mixture.
• Divide batter among pans, smooth the tops. You don't need to let the batter rise.
• Bake for about 50 to 60 minutes or until a wooden pick or skewer inserted in centers of loaves comes out clean.
• Cool in the loaf pans on a rack for about 10 minutes, then remove loaves from pans and cool completely on rack.

PORTUGUESE HONEY BREAD

Steps:

• Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 325°F. Butter loaf pans.
• Bring cranberries, candied fruit, and Port to a simmer in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and set aside, covered.
• Pulse walnuts in a food processor until just coarsely chopped. Add flour, salt, baking soda, and spices and pulse to combine.
• Beat together butter (2 1/2 sticks) and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes in a stand mixer or 6 with a handheld. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
• Stir together yeast and warm water in a small bowl and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (If mixture doesn't foam, discard and start over with new yeast.)
• Add one third of flour mixture to butter mixture and mix at low speed until combined, then add molasses and mix until incorporated. Add half of remaining flour mixture and mix until combined, then add honey and mix until incorporated. Add yeast mixture and remaining flour mixture and mix until combined, then stir in candied-fruit mixture.
• Divide batter among pans, smoothing tops. (Do not let batter rise.) Bake until a wooden pick or skewer inserted in centers of loaves comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes. Cool in pans on a rack 10 minutes, then remove loaves from pans and cool completely on rack.

PORTUGUESE SWEET BREAD - PAO DOCE

Steps:

• Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large bowl.
• Stir in milk, 3/4 cup sugar, 3 eggs, salt, margarine or butter, and 3 cups of flour.
• Beat until smooth.
• Stir in enough of the remaining flour to make the dough easy to handle.
• Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic - about 5 minutes.
• Place in a greased bowl and let rise in a warm place until it is double in size - about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
• Punch down dough and divide in half.
• Shape each half into a round slightly flat loaf.
• Place each loaf into a well greased round 9" x 1 1/2" pan.
• Cover and let rise until double (a/b an hour).
• Heat oven to 350°F.
• Beat 1 egg and brush over tops of loaves.
• Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of sugar.
• Bake until loaves are golden brown, about 35-45 minutes.

PORTUGUESE SWEET BREAD

Steps:

• To make the sponge, stir together flour, sugar, and yeast in a small bowl. Add the water and stir until all ingredients are hydrated and make a smooth batter. Cover with plastic wrap and ferment at room temperature for 60-90 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, which is what I use). 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) and mix in the sponge and flour (I wait to change out the attachments until most of the ingredients are mixed, as it seems I have a problem getting the dough to grab onto the hook if I switch too early). Add the water, as needed, to make a very soft dough (more than likely you will not need the full amount of water, but it can vary due to factors such as the moisture content and protein percentage of your flour). The finished dough should be very supple and soft, easy to knead, and not wet or sticky. To achieve this will take 10-12 minutes with the mixer and close to 15 minutes by hand, as dough with high amounts of fat and sugar usually takes longer to knead because the gluten requires longer to set up. The finished dough should pass the windowpane test (see note below if you are unsure what this is) and register 77F to 81°F Lightly oil a large bowl, put the dough in the bowl, rolling it around to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap.
• Ferment at room temperature until dough doubles in size, around 2 hours.
• Remove dough from bowl, divide in 2 equal pieces, and form each into a boule. Lightly oil two 9-inch pie pans and place a boule, seam side down, in each pan. Mist with spray oil and loosely cover with plastic wrap.
• Proof at room temerature for 2 to 3 hours, or until the dough fills the pans fully, doubling in size. (If you want to bake only 1 of the loaves, you can retard the second in the refrigerator for 1 day, but it will take 4 to 5 hours to proof after it come out of the refrigerator.).
• Very gently brush the loaves with the egg wash. Preheat the oven to 350F with the oven rack on the middle shelf.
• Bake the loaves for 50 to 60 minutes, or until they register 190F in the center. After 30 minutes, check the loaves and rotate 180 degrees, if necessary, for even baking. The dough will brown rather quickly (please see intro), long before it is done. When done, the loaves 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.
• *Windowpane Test: Cut off a small piece of dough and gently stretch, pulling and turning it to see if it will hold a paper-thin, translucent membrane. It it falls apart before it make this windowpane, continue to knead for another minute or two and test again.