Monday, August 16, 2010

Bread Baking Babes - Sweet Portuguese Bread


I'm back in the bread making saddle again. We had a rainy cooler day here so I was able to get into the kitchen to make this months bread - Sweet Portuguese Bread from Tanna at My Kitchen in Half Cups. This is a bread that Tanna came up with for her neighbor whose Mother used to make this bread when she was young.
What a rich bread, with eggs, butter and brown sugar. Oh, and some ground flax added for health. :)
This was a great bread to play with. The dough was lovely and fragrant from the sugar and lemon. Tanna suggested we customize the sweetness of our bread - from 30 to 100 grams of sugar. Tanna preferred 30. I went with 70 which was very nice; when I made it again I might try a little more.

The only problem I had was with the shaping. I guess I didn't press in hard enough with my rolling pin. After the final rise you could hardly see the lines. Scott wanted me to slash them in with a knife but I didn't (and I should have), so the loaves came out basically smooth on top. To disguise that I brushed them with butter and sprinkled with more sugar.





This is truly a delicious bread! Delicious toast and even more wonderful French Toast. Yum yum. Yes, I think I'll be making this again, scorching temperatures or not.

***Edited to add***

I did make the bread again, I wanted to see if I could do a better job with the design. Although the dough got off to a great start, it hardly rose in the oven, leaving us with 2 loaves of bread barely a couple of inches high. I went with less sugar the second time, as I wanted to use them as "multi purpose" loaves of bread. Oddly in addition to the shortness of the bread, they were also very dry. Strange, considering I baked them less time than the recipe calls for.

The design came out a little more pronounced though. No pictures, cause I'm bummed about the height.

If you'd like to be a Buddy, make the bread, and send your post to Tanna by August 29.

Recipe here, at Tannas.