BBA Challenge #27 – Portuguese Sweet Bread

Just a point of clarification.  This is actually sweet yeast bread.  Not sweetbread. 

Ever since I discovered quite a few years ago that people were not referring to a type of bread when they talked of sweetbread, I’ve been leery of the term and always like to clarify.

So, now that we have that necessary item of business out of the way…

First you mix together the sponge and let it sit for 60 – 90 minutes.

Then the process almost becomes more like mixing a cake or cookie.  First you mix together the sugar, salt, powdered milk, butter and shortening and it looks something like this.

Then you add in the eggs and flavor extracts and it looks like this.

You don’t add in the sponge and flour until the end, which seems a little backwards from most breads that we have made to this point.  Most of the time, we have added the flour and then the water and wet ingredients.  I just find it interesting that this one is done in reverse.

To get a nice round shape, I used pie plates for my baking vessels.

   

A little egg wash just before baking…

 

I tell you what, that is a gorgeous crust on this bread. 

    

And do you know what?  It makes some gooo-oood french toast.

Coat the pieces in the egg & milk then let them sit for a few minutes to really soak it in.

Of course you must butter your griddle.

Side 1…

Side 2…

 

Mmmmmmmmmm……

 

To see my other Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge blog posts and to read about the challenge, go here.