Portuguese Sweet Bread
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Ask anyone in the northeastern United States what Portugese Sweet Bread is and they will describe a pale yellow, sweet, cake-like bread that is lovely when fresh and delicious when toasted. Travel to the West Coast or further to Hawaii and you will find a different tradition of Portuguese Sweet Bread, but one closely related. There are Portuguese communities in all three places and when the original immigrants came, they used ingredients that were close at hand to make this bread for which they are famous in the New World.
When we were a still a colony of England, Portuguese settlers came to the east coast of what is now southern New England, where they became an important part of the fishing and whaling communities. It is still very much a Portuguese fishing community but whaling, for them, is an industry of the past.
A century and more later, another wave of Portuguese settlers found their way to the San Francisco Bay area of California, where they focused more on farming and dairying than fishing. In the late 19th century, another group went to Hawaii to work in the sugarcane fields.
New Bedford Portuguese Sweet Bread
We'll start with the older, East Coast version. This recipe was collected by King Arthur's premier bread baking and demonstrating team, Michael and Sandy Jubinsky.
The Proofing Sponge
1/2 cup warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons or packets active dry yeast
1/2 cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
The Dough
1 cup milk
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter*
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel OR 1/2 teaspoon lemon oil (optional)
7 1/2 to 8 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
4 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
wash made of 1 egg white beaten with 1 tablespoon water
The Sponge: Pour the water into a large bowl and dissolve in it the sugar and yeast. Stir in the flour and set aside until the mixture is bubbly and expanded. Don't worry about lumps, and feel free to give the mixture a stir after a few minutes to break up and distribute any clumps of yeast.
The Dough: Scald the milk. Remove from the heat and add the butter, sugar, salt and optional lemon peel. Stir to dissolve and then let the mixture cool to lukewarm.
*In these days of fat phobia, you can cut this amount of butter by half or substitute vegetable oil to eliminate some cholesterol and saturated fat. Remember, though, that there is a lot of flavor (as well as Vitamin A) in butter, and that in one slice of bread, you will have only a teaspoon or so.
Beat the eggs and yolk together until frothy. Add them and the milk mixture to the proofing sponge. Stir in 6 to 7 cups of flour, one cup at a time, until the dough comes cleanly away from the sides of the bowl.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board. Scrape the bowl and add the bits of dough. There is no need to wash the bowl at this time; just lightly oil and set it aside. (A Jubinsky technique which avoids taking time to wash out the bowl and demonstrates that there are lots of ways to skin a cat.)
Knead the dough, adding only enough flour to keep the dough from sticking to your hands and the board. When the dough is smooth and satiny (it should be relatively soft rather than stiff), place it in the oiled bowl. Turn to lightly oil the entire surface of the dough. Cover the bowl with greased plastic wrap (to keep the dough from sticking to it) and a clean towel. Let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
Punch the dough down and divide into two equal pieces. Shape into two round loaves and place in two greased 9-inch cake pans.
Cover loosely with plastic wrap (again greased) and cover with a clean towel. Let the loaves rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
Preheat your oven to 375°F for at least 15 minutes. Brush the loaves with the egg white and water mixture.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the loaves sound hollow when tapped on the bottom with a finger. When the bread is done, remove it from the oven and let cool on a wire rack.
Portuguese Sweet Bread, Hawaiian Style
The Hawaiian and San Franciscan version of Portuguese Sweet Bread is frequently made with potatoes and potato water, and almost always with condensed milk. (Condensed milk was developed by Gail Borden in 1856 so it has been around for quite awhile. One can contains the equivalent of 2 1/2 cups of fresh milk plus 1/2 cup of sugar, which functions to preserve it.) This recipe makes slightly smaller, but equally delicious loaves. The Potato Brew
Peel, slice and boil the potato in the water until it's soft. Drain off the water and make sure you have at least 1 1/2 cups. Pour it and the potato into a mixing bowl and mash or beat until the potato is fairly well broken up (or whirl it all in a blender until it's smooth). When the mixture has cooled to lukewarm, stir in the yeast and let it dissolve and work for about 15 minutes. The yeast will tend to clump so don't be afraid to stir it around and mash it up a bit as it dissolves. It may not be entirely dissolved in 15 minutes but it will have softened enough to proceed to the next step.
1 smallish potato (about 4 ounces or 2 inches in diameter)
2 cups water
1 tablespoon active dry yeastThe Sponge
The Sponge: After the yeast is active and bubbling, add the sugar, condensed milk and eggs. Beat this mixture together with an egg beater until well blended and then stir in the flour. Cover and let this sponge work for about 2 hours.
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
3 large eggs
2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
The Dough
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel or 1/4 teaspoon lemon oil (optional)
4 1/2 to 5 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/2 cup butter (1 stick or 8 tablespoons), melted and cooled*
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water
*See note on butter in the New Bedford Portuguese Sweet Bread recipe above.
After the sponge has become bubbly, light and expanded, stir it down and mix in the salt, nutmeg, vanilla, lemon peel or oil and two more cups of flour. Then stir in the melted butter and a further 2 1/2 to 3 cups of flour. Mix this together until it begins to come away from the side of the bowl and turn out onto a kneading surface where you've sprinkled the remainder of the flour.
Knead for 4 or 5 minutes, adding only enough more flour to keep the dough from sticking to you or the board. Give the dough a rest while you wash out and clean your bowl. Knead for a further 4 or 5 minutes until the dough is smooth and satiny. (Don't worry about a few lumps of potato.) You want it to be on the slack rather than stiff side to make a more cake-like texture.
Grease the bowl and place the dough in it, turning it so the top is greased as well. Cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, 1 to 2 hours depending on how warm its resting place is. (If you're in a hurry, you can skip this step and go right on to the next. This rise in the bowl will develop more flavor and a finer grain, but you'll make very tasty loaves without it.)
Knock the dough down, divide it in half and shape it into two round loaves. Place each loaf in a greased 9-inch pie plate, cover and let rise until almost doubled, about an hour.
Preheat your oven to 350°F. Brush the loaves with the egg/water mixture. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the loaves sound hollow when tapped or have reached 190°F on your bread thermometer. If the tops seem to be getting too brown, turn the temperature down to 325°F until the interior is done. You can also tent them with tin foil.
Portuguese Sweet Bread is delicious right out of the oven but, as we mentioned above, it makes wonderful toast, tasty French toast and, if it ever lasts to this point, great bread pudding.
This recipe reprinted from The Baking Sheet Newsletter, Vol. III, No. 4, March-April 1992 issue.
