See Also: Breads · San Benito County Cooks
Portuguese Sweetbread
From Dorothy McNett's Recipe Book at www.dorothymcnett.com as submitted by Leontine Balcaon of Hollister. This is her Grandmother Maria Prader's recipe. Maria came from the Azores in 1895 and settled in San Benito County. This is the original version that was the recipe for her family members. It makes a lot! You can cut everything in half. Mugs can be 8 oz. cups. You may have to adjust the flour during the kneading process to get the consistency right.
15 mugs flour (about a 5 pound bag)
8 eggs well beaten at room temperature
4 cups sugar
8 mugs milk
2 cubes butter
3 teaspoons salt
3 packages dry yeast
1 cup warm water
2 teaspoons sugar
pinch of lemon peel
Dissolve in one cup warm water the yeast with the 2 teaspoons sugar. Set aside. Mix flour, sugar, salt, and lemon peel. Scald milk, put in butter to melt. Let milk become warm. Add eggs and some milk to flour. Add yeast and knead. Add more of the warm milk as needed. Let rise once and punch down again when it rises the second time. Make rolls or loaves. Let rise in pans one more time. Preheat oven 300-325 degrees for rolls and bake 45 m inutes and for loaves bake 1 hour. When light brown lower temperature.
Editor's Version...cut in third. You could use your bread machine for this version if you have a 2 pound capacity. Or at least, use it to do the kneading and then you shape and bake in your oven.
5 cups bread flour
3 medium eggs
1 cup sugar
2 1/2 to 2 3/4 cups milk
1/3 pound soft unsalted butter
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 package instant dry yeast
zest of 1/2 lemon
Mix, knead, bake as above. Or put in bread machine and push the button.
Recipe created 1999-04-15.
