Portuguese Sweet Bread

You know those incredible Hawaiian rolls that have been popular since the slider made its appearance on menus everywhere? Well, that's basically what Portuguese sweet bread is. This is bread you want to eat slathered in butter or as the base of a French toast that will have you wondering how you can ever wait for the bread to get stale.

This recipe is from Peter Reihart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice.

Makes 2 loaves

SPONGE
1/2 cup flour1(bread flour is best, but all purpose is fine
1 tbs granulated sugar
2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
1/2 cup water at room temperature

To make the sponge stir together the flour sugar, and yeast in a small bowl. Add the water and stir until all the ingredients are hydrated and make a smooth batter. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and ferment at room temperature for 60 to 90 minutes or until the sponge gets foamy and seems on the verge of collapse.



DOUGH
6 tbs granulated sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup powdered milk
2 tbs unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tbs vegetable shortening
2 large eggs
1 tsp orange extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups flour (bread flour is best, but all purpose is fine)
About 6 tbs water, at room temperature

1 egg + 1 tsp water for egg wash

To make the dough, combine the sugar, salt, powdered milk, butter, and vegetable shortening in a 4 qt mixing bowl (or the bowl of an electric mixer). Cream together with a sturdy spoon or the paddle  attachment until smooth, then mix in the eggs and the extracts. Knead by hand or switch to the dough hook attachment and mix in the sponge and the flour.  Add the water, as needed, to make a very soft dough.  The finished dough should be very supple and soft, easy to knead, and not wet or sticky.  It will take 10 to 12 minutes with the electric mixer and close to 15 minutes by hand to achieve this consistency. The finished dough should pass the windowpane test.

Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it ferment at room temperature for approximately 2 hours, or until the dough doubles in size.


Remove the dough from the bowl and divide it into 2 equal pieces. Form each of the pieces into a boule.  Lightly oil two 9-inch pie pans and place 1 boule, seam side down, in each pan. Mist the dough with spray oil and loosely cover the pans with plastic wrap. Proof at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours or until the dough fills the pans fully, doubling in size

Very gently brush the loaves with an egg wash. .(1 egg whisked with 1 tsp water).

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F with the oven rack on the middle shelf.

Bake the loaves for 50 - 60 minutes or until they register 190 degrees in the center. Remove from the pie pans and place on a rack to cool completely--at least 90 minutes.
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TASTE NOTES
This might have been the longest 90 minutes of my life. Waiting for the loaves to cool so I could sneak a baker's reward was excruciating. That tiny end slice, slathered in Nutella, was incredible. What a delicate crumb! What a lovely melding of flavors! It was hard to freeze one loaf and harder still to save some slices for the weekend. The French toast made with those stale slices was probably the best I've ever eaten. A bit labor intensive, but so worth it.