Why this recipe works Portuguese sweet bread is a mildly sweet enriched bread with a moderately compact yet delicate crumb and a thin, tender, mahogany-colored crust. It is eggy, yeasty, and buttery like brioche but less rich, and is delicious on its own, dunked into coffee, slathered with jam, or made into French toast. The bread is well known throughout coastal New England and Hawaii, where it is made in bakeries founded by Portuguese immigrant families. While it is baked for holidays (hard-cooked eggs are baked inside for Easter), it is also a daily bread. Portuguese sweet bread comes in many shapes. We liked a large round baked in a cake pan best; it was simple to shape and easy to cut into slices or wedges, and its mushroom top was beautiful to behold. We tested egg amounts and found that three whole eggs plus one yolk gave us a tender, moist crumb; fewer gave us an unappealingly dense texture, and more gave us too much egg flavor. We added just the right amount of sugar to make our bread pleasingly sweet but mild enough to enjoy regularly. A moderate amount of butter (rather than lard) gave us the slight richness we were after, and a touch of vanilla extract added subtle warm tones. In our testing, we had noticed that our loaf was tearing on the sides. This bread experiences a lot of oven spring (the rapid rising of bread after it’s placed in a hot oven), so we let the loaf proof 1¾ inches above the lip of the pan to ensure that its oven rise wouldn’t be so dramatic. Slashing the loaf around its circumference was another way to eliminate tears by helping the loaf expand before its crust set. We do not recommend mixing this dough by hand.
MAKES: 1 loaf
RISING TIME: 4½ to 5½ hours
BAKING TIME: 30 minutes
TOTAL TIME: 6 to 7 hours, plus 3 hours cooling time
KEY EQUIPMENT: stand mixer, 9-inch round cake pan, pastry brush, instant-read thermometer
INGREDIENTS:
- 4 cups (20 ounces) all-purpose flour
- 2¼ teaspoons instant or rapid-rise yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup (6 ounces) water, room temperature
- 3 large eggs plus 1 large yolk, room temperature
- ½ cup (3½ ounces) plus 1 tablespoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 tablespoons (2 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon water and pinch salt
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Whisk flour, yeast, and salt together in the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Whisk water, eggs and yolk, sugar, and vanilla in a 4-cup liquid measuring cup until the sugar has dissolved.
- Using the dough hook on low speed, slowly add the water mixture to the flour mixture and mix until a cohesive dough starts to form and no dry flour remains, about 2 minutes, scraping down the bowl as needed.
- Increase the speed to medium-low and knead until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl but sticks to the bottom, about 5 minutes.
- With the mixer running, add butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, and knead until the butter is fully incorporated, about 2 minutes.
- Continue to knead until the dough is elastic and slightly sticky, about 3 minutes.
- Transfer the dough to a lightly floured counter and knead by hand to form a smooth, round ball, about 30 seconds.
- Place the dough seam side down in a lightly greased large bowl or container, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let it rise until doubled in size, for 2 to 2½ hours.
- Generously grease a 9-inch round cake pan.
- Press down on the dough to deflate it.
- Turn the dough out onto a clean counter with the side that was against the bowl now facing up, and press it into a 10-inch round.
- Working around the circumference of the dough, fold the edges toward the center until a ball forms.
- Flip the dough ball seam side down and, using your cupped hands, drag in small circles on the counter until the dough feels taut and round and all seams are secured on the underside of the loaf.
- Place the loaf seam side down in the prepared pan.
- Cover loosely with greased plastic and let it rise until the loaf reaches 1¾ inches above the lip of the pan and the dough springs back minimally when poked gently with your knuckle, for 2½ to 3 hours.
- Adjust the oven rack to the lower-middle position and preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Using a sharp paring knife or a single-edge razor blade, make one ¼-inch-deep slash with a swift, fluid motion around the circumference of the loaf, level with the lip of the pan.
- Lightly brush the loaf with the egg mixture and bake until deep golden brown and the loaf registers 190 to 195 degrees Fahrenheit, for 30 to 35 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking.
- Let the loaf cool in the pan for 15 minutes.
- Remove the loaf from the pan and let it cool completely on a wire rack, for about 3 hours, before serving.
