Portuguese Honey Spice And All Things Nice Fruit Bread Recipes

MOROCCAN SPICED FRUIT & NUT BREAD

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°. In a small saucepan, combine apricots, dates and orange juice; bring to a boil. Cook, uncovered, 1 minute. Remove from heat; let stand, covered, 10 minutes., In a large bowl, whisk flour, sugars, baking powder, salt and spices. In a another bowl, whisk eggs, milk, melted butter and orange zest until blended. Add to flour mixture; stir just until moistened. Fold in coconut, pecans and apricot mixture., Transfer to a greased 9x5-in. loaf pan. Bake 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool., In a small bowl, beat remaining ingredients until blended. Serve bread with orange butter.

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

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.

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 SWEET BREAD I

Steps:

• Add ingredients in order suggested by your manufacturer.
• Select "sweet bread" setting.

PORTUGUESE FARM BREAD

Steps:

• 1. Combine the yeast, semolina flour, and water by churning 10 seconds in a large heavy-duty food processor fitted with the metal chopping blade. Scrape down the sides of the work bowl, re-cover, and let stand until foamy, about 15 minutes.
• 2. With the machine running, add half the all-purpose flour down the feed tube. It's easier if you pour the flour from a spouted measuring cup into a wide-mouth canning funnel inserted in the feed tube or failing that, a stiff piece of paper rolled into a cone (the opening at the bottom should be at least 1 inch across).
• 3. Using a plastic spatula, scrape the work bowl, and if necessary, redistribute the dough so that it evenly surrounds the blade - take care! Add the salt and remaining flour, distributing evenly over the dough, and churn for 10 seconds. Again scrape the work bowl and redistribute the dough.
• 4. Churn the dough for 20 seconds nonstop, shut the machine off, and let the dough rest in the sealed work bowl for 5 minutes. Now churn for another 20 seconds.
• 5. Leaving the blade in place, carefully redistribute the dough until it's of uniform thinness. Re-cover the work bowl, keeping the pusher in. Note the level of the dough in bulk, estimate what it should be when doubled in bulk, and mark that level on the side of the work bowl.
• 6. Let the dough rise in the sealed work bowl until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. Meanwhile, lightly coat an 8-inch springform pan or 8-inch pie pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
• 7. When the dough has fully doubled, pulse quickly 4 to 5 times to punch down, then churn for 20 seconds nonstop. Let the dough rest in the sealed work bowl for 5 minutes, then churn for another 20 seconds. The dough will roll into a ball and leave the sides of the work bowl reasonably clean.
• 8. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface, shape into a ball, then roll in the flour to dust lightly. Place the loaf in the prepared pan, cover with a clean, dry dish towel, and set in a warm, dry spot until nearly doubled in bulk - this will take about 30 minutes.
• 9. When the dough has risen for 10 minutes, position one rack in the middle of the oven and slide a second rack in the slot just below. Place a large shallow baking pan on the lower rack - I use a 15 1/2 X 10 1/2 X 1-inch jelly roll pan - and half-fill with water. Preheat the over to 500°F.
• 10. Center the risen loaf on the middle rack and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 400°F and continue baking until richly browned and hollow sounding when thumped, 20 to 25 minutes longer.
• 11. Remove the bread from the pan as soon as it comes from the oven, set right-side-up on a wire rack, and cool to room temperature before cutting.

HONEY SPICE BREAD

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325°. In a small saucepan, combine brown sugar and milk. Cook and stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat., In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. In another bowl, whisk eggs, honey, oil and brown sugar mixture until blended. Add to flour mixture; stir just until moistened., Transfer the batter to a greased 8x4-in. loaf pan. Bake 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (cover top loosely with foil if needed to prevent overbrowning)., Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. In a small bowl, stir glaze ingredients until smooth; drizzle over bread. Freeze option: Securely wrap cooled loaf in foil and then freeze. To use, thaw at room temperature. Glaze as directed.

PORTUGUESE SWEET BREAD III

Steps:

• In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
• In a medium bowl, beat 6 eggs and the sugar together until light and fluffy. Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Stir in the dissolved yeast, the egg and sugar mixture and the cooled, melted butter. Slowly add the milk to the flour mixture until the dough is of working consistency. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until the dough is soft and elastic, about 15 minutes. Place into a well oiled bowl, and cover with a damp cloth. Set aside to rise overnight.
• The next morning, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Grease two 10 inch round cake pans. Divide dough in half, shape into round loaves, and place into prepared pans. Brush the tops with beaten egg.
• Bake at 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) for 15 minutes, then lower temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) and bake for another 40 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the loaves sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.