Portuguese Sweet Bread

I've come to discover that one of the best activities for when world affairs weigh heavily on my mind, when family politics become strange and complicated, when too many things crowd my head, that baking, specifically bread baking is good therapy.

I decided to bake a couple of loaves of bread today and although the weather (in my opinion) was a bit too humid for baking, I went ahead and baked anyway. It was just the thing I needed, to be creative with my hands yet allowing me to free my mind enough to sort out my thoughts and think about a whole bunch of stuff as my life begins to take new and interesting paths.

I opted to channel the spirit of James Beard for this project, mainly because I find his writing and teaching techniques comforting, and comforting was just what I needed today. I find it funny to think that only last year I was intimidated by his books and felt too inexperienced as a cook to try his recipes. I've sure come a long way baby! I was originally going to bake a Challah bread, I could use some dough braiding practice and since it is Rosh Hashanah, Challah seemed like a good project, but I changed my mind when I came across Beard's recipe for Portuguese Sweet Bread from his Beard On Bread cookbook. It sounded just like what I was in the mood for, something sweet and yeasty to go with tea, and the recipe looked simple enough even for me. As a bonus and much to my great pleasure I had everything on hand, saving myself a run to the market too. Yay me!

Still channeling Beard, he instructed me to combine 2 packages of active dry yeast with 1 teaspoon of sugar and 1/2 cup of water in a large bowl and allow it to proof. Now, he didn't say how long this process would take and not wanting to mess up before I even got started I "guesstimated" a time somewhere between 5 and ten minutes for the yeast, sugar and water to react with each other and start bubbling up. I was pleased to find that after about 7 minutes the mixture was indeed doing its thang! To this mixture, I added another mixture that consisted of 1/2 cup of warm milk, 1 stick of softened unsalted butter, and 1 cup of granulated sugar that I had pre- blended with my handy mini whisk, not beating the mixture to death mind you, but just enough to incorporate everything and dissolve the sugar. To the yeast, sugar, milk, butter, and water mixture, I then added 3 eggs that had been lightly beaten and 1 tablespoon of salt, I mixed well, then moved on to adding 4 cups of all purpose flour, one cup at a time. Now, here's where things got a little strange. Beard's recipe calls for 4 to 4-1/2 cups of flour but doesn't say how to measure the flour. I've read that it's best to weigh flour for the best accuracy in recipes but I don't have a kitchen scale… well, I don’t have one that works correctly is a better way to say it. I know you're never supposed to dip your measuring cup in and just scoop out flour so I've always used the scoop and tap method. Beard suggests mixing the dough by hand as you add each cup of flour until you make a soft dough, but I found that after adding each cup and mixing well before each addtion of the next cup of flour, the dough was still frighteningly wet. Even after 4 cups of flour I had a very wet dough, so I added another 1/2 cup of flour which made the dough manageable enough to turn out onto my floured board but was still way too wet to knead without making a big mess and needing to use a dough scraper to handle the dough. I didn't panic though, the way I saw it, I had taken on the baking project to help me get my thoughts in order and now the baking project needed me to be more focused and tune out all the other stuff. I was ready for the challenge! Very slowly and carefully I added more flour to the dough in small handfuls, kneading with the dough scraper until all was incorporated before adding additional flour. This was beginning to work at making the dough a lot less wet and easier to handle and I wondered more than a few times if perhaps my scooping and tapping method might be too off, that perhaps it's not the best way to go about measuring flour. *shrug* All told, the dough took an additional 1/3 cup more flour than Beard suggested, but the end result was a good manageable dough that didn't stick and was a pleasure to handle. I was surprised that my growing belly didn't seem to get in the way when I was kneading, at 24 weeks I'm sticking out big time, but not enough to hinder kneading yet woohoo. I like kneading dough by hand; I may have mentioned that here a few times before, so forgive me if I sound like a broken record. I find the repetition of kneading relaxing, I like how a crude mass of mainly flour and some liquid can be transformed into a smooth supple elastic mass after only 10-15 minutes of vigorous pounding, like I mentioned earlier, baking is good therapy. SO! Once the dough came back from the brink of disaster I formed it into a ball and placed it into a buttered bowl, tossing it around a few times to coat the mass and then covered it with cling wrap (have I ever mentioned that I really hate cling wrap) and set it in a warm dark place to double in size. "Uncle" James didn't say how long this would take so I guessed 2 hours would be a good amount of time to wait. Well, it ended up being more like 3 hours because Tom wanted to go check out some sale stuff at Macy's, and who am I to deprive the hubby (and myself) of some good quality time browsing and dreaming over kitchen gadgets and appliances?

Home again, I took the now doubled dough and punched it down (love that step), then divided it into half and reshaped the 2 halves into balls placing 1 half in a buttered loaf pan and the other in a buttered round cast iron pan. Beard says to use 2 round pans but it's ok if you don't have 2 round pans, loaf pans are just fine too. I covered the 2 loaves with kitchen towels and placed them in a cold oven leaving the oven light on to create a little warmth, and let the dough double in bulk yet again. At this point I tied a pillowcase around my neck, placed a pot upside down on my head, grabbed a wooden spoon and proceeded to play the "drums" on the bottom of an overturned pot to pass the time. NO, NO NO! I cleaned up a little and then sat calmly, with my hands folded on my lap in a very ladylike manner until it was time to come back and finish the recipe. no really, I did.

After preheating my oven to 350 degrees I brushed the top of each loaf with an egg that I had vigorously beaten and then popped the loaves into the oven for 30 minutes to bake. Beard states that the end results should be;

a rich, dark, shining color and sounds hollow when rapped on top and bottom.

As you can see from the pic above, I think I may have achieved just what Beard had ordered, if not, it doesn't matter because I was pleased with the results anyway. The taste was fantastic, just a hint of sweetness with a fine textured crumb, a good bread to have with a cup of tea and some apricot preserves.

Written by Deb on September 27, 2003 09:30 PM