Portuguese Sweet Bread
After several years of thinking about making a loaf of Portuguese Sweet Bread, I finally did so today. The recipe came from Bread Illustrated (produced by the folks at America's Test Kitchen) and is very simple.
All-purpose flour, instant dry yeast, and salt are placed in the bowl of a stand mixer. Separately some water, eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract are combined in a container that can be used for pouring and mixed until the sugar is dissolved. On low speed with a dough hook the fluid is slowly poured into the mixing bowl until there is no longer any dry flour. The speed is upped to medium-low until the dough begins to pull away from the sides, at which point some butter is added in small pieces. When the butter is fully incorporated and the dough is elastic and sticky, the dough is dumped onto the counter, formed into a ball, placed in a lightly oiled bowl, and covered.
The recipe estimates that two to two-and-a-half hours will elapse while the dough roughly doubles, but my 78F kitchen saw a billowing dough mass after an hour and forty-five minutes. The dough is then deflated, shaped into a boule, placed into a greased 9" cake pan, given a light spray of cooking oil, and lightly covered with plastic wrap.
When the dough is 1.75" above the lip of the cake pan, it is ready for the oven. In my case that occurred after about an hour and a half. Using a paring knife, I scored the dough around the circumference at the lip level of the pan (to create uniform oven spring) and then brushed the top with a wash of egg, water, and a pinch of salt.
The dough went into a 350F oven and stayed in for forty minutes (longer than the estimated 30-35 minutes in the recipe), but I wanted to hit the 190-195F range stated in the recipe and avoid an undercooked center. Apparently this was fine based on the results.
Here is another view of the crust.
And here is the crumb.
What a soft crumb this bread has! The thin mahogany crust is nice too. If you are looking for a change of pace from your usual sourdough breads, consider this one. I omitted details on the amounts so as to give a general overview of the bread, but if anyone wants the full recipe just let me know.
Happy baking.
Ted
Comments
That looks great Ted, I love the yellow crumb and the thin crust. Looks like a bread pillow.
Benny
Hah, yes it does look like a bread pillow. The crumb could probably be one. The yellow crumb is likely from the eggs, and the crust is incredibly thin.
how to egg-wash.
And ATK is going on my bargain-hunt list.
I see Bread Illustrated is available used, "very good" condition, for $12.50, including shipping.
The egg wash is very simple. Use a pastry brush to coat the surface with the fluid mixture.
The people at Cook's Illustrated have a huge number of books that always seem to be on sale for $19.95. Bread Illustrated is an excellent book for beginners. but also contains numerous recipes that make the book useful for experienced bakers too.
I would like to nominate that 2nd photo for being featured on the front page.
Thanks for the nomination. I think that Floyd usually wants a full recipe to accompany any bread that he puts on the front page.
Nice to see something so different from the norm. Is it sweet to the taste?
-Jon
Thanks for the compliment. Yes, this bread was a change for me too.
The recipe includes sugar, but an amount that creates a sweet flavor without being overwhelming. I think that the recipe's authors achieved a nice balance of ingredients.
Happy baking.
Ted
I've never made Portuguese bread but that sure looks wonderful . I bet it would respond very well to being made with YW as enriched doughs usually do. Your photos are lovely. c
Thanks very much for your comments. You should consider making Portuguese bread as a change of pace.
Looks nice and soft, and the yellow crumb is a real contrast to the crust! Sounds like it was sweet but not too much so. How was the keeping quality? Did it stay soft or firm up after a couple days?
Today is two days after the bake, and I am having a slice right now. The crumb has firmed up a bit since the bake, but not badly (and less than I expected given this is a purely instant dry yeast bread). I toasted the slice and it is perfectly fine. The bread has been kept in a paper bag in a bread box, so perhaps that helped.
I bet your bread is much better than the sweet roll I got
. It was dry and firm and tasted like at least three-day-old bread. Generally speaking, the food in tourist areas is disappointing.
Yippee
Yippee, my bread was indeed moist and soft. Too bad that you did not find what you were hoping for in the Portuguese bakery. While you were in Cambridge, did you have a chance to visit Clear Flour Bread? That bakery is in Brookline, and when my wife and I were in Cambridge earlier this month we took the Green Line on the T over there and had some spectacular bread.
but my view of their bread is quite different from yours. I think there's much room for improvement in flavor and crust. You may not be able to tell by looking at the pictures, but their bread lacked the shatter-in-your-mouth crispness that one would expect from a croissant and baguette. The crust of the sourdough roll was as tough as a rubber sole, and I had to tear it by force.
No, I have not been to Iggy's. but my wife and I did like the bread at Desfina, and we got an extra basket of it when we ate there. Too bad that you did not like the bread at Clear Flour, but I understand your comments.
It's in Cambridge. Unfortunately, we were unable to visit the bakery this time.
Yippee
I'm working on this loaf now and I'm shocked at the stickiness of the dough. I followed the recipe from the book to the letter and then added the maximum 1/4 cup additional flour they suggested elsewhere in the book and it still almost impossible to handle. I've got it in the pan and it may yet make a good loaf but wow!
I wondered if my large eggs might be excessively large but I weighed the one I'm using for the egg wash at 54 grams which is what I would expect.
Was yours crazy sticky?
It turned out about 4.5 inches tall which seems shorter than yours. I had to bake it for 50 minutes to get to 190 inside. It looks good. I'll have to wait for it to cool to see inside. The long bake and the stickiness make me think my hydration was high but I measured everything as in the recipe.
That’s beautiful Gary, well done.
Benny
I needed a dough scraper to get the dough out of the bowl of the stand mixer, and when I plopped the mass onto the floured countertop I needed to toss a little more flour down at one point because the dough was that sticky. After that it wasn't difficult to handle (out of the oiled bowl and into the greased cake pan), but yes it was sticky initially.
Your result looks fine. Not sure mine was any taller.
Happy baking.
Ted
In ink I made something similar many years ago. I’m sure this one makes great Frenchtoast!
One suggestion of the recipe book is to make French toast, and this bread has surprising strength despite being so soft. I dunked a slice in some Hawaiian coffee, and the slice didn't crumble or fall apart. Also, the bake was on Tuesday, and today (Saturday -- four days later) I toasted a slice and again was happy with the flavor and softness.
Ted