Portuguese Sweet Bread is a mainstay among Portuguese bread lovers, often at Christmas and Easter when it includes a boiled egg. Traditionally it is served plain or with butter but it is delicious on its own. I plan to make French toast with it this week. I have read that this bread would make excellent bread pudding too. Since the holidays are upon us I thought this would be a perfect recipe to update and make. There are more pictures and detail in this updated version and of course the addition of flour that I forgot to include in my first recipe!
I am munching on the heal of the bread as I work on this post and it is one of the tastiest breads I have ever made. This will probably be the last post of the year for me. PicMonkey has changed their format for pictures and WordPress is making some changes I think as well. So, I will be trying to adjust…
Have you ever left out an important ingredient, like the amount of flour in one of your posts? Well I did with this recipe that I first posted a few years ago. After a little research and a phone call with King Arthur Baking (formerly KAF) we agreed 2 cups of all purpose flour would be the right amount, based on the liquid in the recipe. This power horse of a bread machine is still available and is given great reviews and I definitely agree. By the way Zo stands for Zojirushi.
A fellow blogger brought this omission to my attention and apparently KAB no longer has the recipe on its site so a guess was made as to the amount of flour – and we were right! A beautiful loaf of sweet bread that not only smelled good baking but you could smell the slight lemon oil addition and the taste was wonderful.
If you are not into bread baking get yourself a bread machine – bread is easy to make and the results are amazing. I use to have the 2 lb. Mini Zo but gave it to a niece – this one pounder is perfect for 1 or 2 people.
Here is the link to KAB’s Portuguese sweet bread recipe not using a bread machine https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/portuguese-sweet-bread-massa-sovada-recipe
Portuguese Sweet Bread in the Mini Zo Bread Machine, Updated
- 2/3 cup evaporated milk
- 2 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into cubes, room temperature
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1/4 tsp. lemon oil (see Note 1)
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 tsp. kosher salt
- 1-1/2 tsp. SAF Gold instant yeast preferred (see Note 2)
Place all ingredients into the pan in the order they are given making sure the yeast is in the center on top of the flour and does not touch any wet ingredients.
Program the machine for Basic White Bread (firm or regular) and press start. It will take about 3 hours from beginning to end to have a beautiful loaf of bread. For this recipe I went with firm.
Note 1: There are 3 possibilities for adding lemon to this recipe and they all would work in this recipe.. Zest from a fresh lemon, lemon extract or lemon oil. They are all excellent choices for adding lemony flavor without an overwhelming sourness. Lemon oil has a stronger and cleaner lemony flavor than the extract. Use the extract if you want to provide a subtle flavor to the bread, but you will need more to get the same effect as the oil. Lemon oil is perfect when you want to hero the lemon. So, use according to your taste and be careful of the amount you use.
Note 2: SAF Gold instant yeast is a strain of instant yeast specifically developed for high-sugar and high-acid (sour) doughs. It is formulated to last longer and to hold up better than regular instant yeast in high-sugar or high-acid situations.
Recipe by cookingwithauntjuju.com
Made French toast with this tasty sweet bread!
I confess, my bread machine is underutilized. Note to self: Make more bread in 2021. 🍞🥐🥖
Note to myself: – don’t make so much bread so I can lose weight 🙂
I. Love. Bread. 🌿🍃🌱
This bread looks incredible. Great texture and crust.
I’ve never worked with bread machines, as enjoy the process of working with yeast dough too much. I think I can adapt the recipe to regular baking. On my list to try! 🙂
It was really, really good Ronit. I like making all kinds of bread, especially sourdough. The bread machine is easy – just add your ingredients and push a couple of buttons. It kneads, allows time to rest, rise and then of course bake. I provided a link above to King Arthur Baking’s regular recipe for this sweet bread. I am still deciding on whether to make French toast or a bread pudding… 🙂 It is definitely worth making!
Thanks, I guess I missed the link to the regular recipe. I’ll check it out soon. As for the bread machine, it sounds great, but I’m still old fashioned when it comes to yeast dough. Love to work with it… 🙂
I agree! I especially like to work with my sourdough starter and yeast – turns out wonderful recipes and not just bread. 🙂
Exactly! 🙂
My Mini Zo is just another way and a convenient one to bake bread!
I had no idea there’s so many types of them! 🙂
Yes, I got mine (both sizes) from KAB and I have had them a long time. There are cookbooks that convert recipes depending on the bread machine you have. 🙂
I’ve used a lot of Boyajian orange oil, but never lemon, and never in a bread. This is very intriguing! It’s beautiful, and would definitely make lovely French toast! Happy New Year!
The lemon oil provided the perfect citrus flavor in this sweet bread. I could smell it as it went through the 3 hour process and of course even better to taste it. Happy 2021!
What a delicious way to start out the new year…the only thing I would add would be a sprinkling of powdered sugar. Wishing you all the best in this New Year.
Most definitely Karen – my DIL doesn’t like syrup so she always adds powdered sugar and some fresh berries. Happy New Year to you and I know 2021 will be a better year 🙂
I actually made this French toast December 31st and just posted a picture on January 4th!