Portuguese Sweet Bread

Carolyn Belknap of Shady Shores, Texas shared this wonderful sweet bread with me. Carolyn says, "This Portuguese Bread is very festive looking. I love it for the holidays. Great for turkey sandwiches, and in the rare event any is left over, it makes a great French toast."

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Portuguese Sweet Bread

1/2 cup peeled and diced uncooked potato (approximately 1/2 medium potato)
1 cup boiling water
2 eggs
3 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon shredded lemon peel
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 1/3 cups bread flour
3 teaspoons Instant Active Dry Yeast
3/4 to 1 cup raisins
Cornmeal (optional for dusting pan)
1 beaten egg for glaze

In a small saucepan over low heat, cook diced potato in the boiling water approximately 10 to 15 minutes or until tender when pierced with a fork. Remove from heat and drain, reserving potato liquid. Add enough water to potato liquid, if necessary, to equal 3/4 cup of liquid. Mash potato with fork.

Place mashed potato, 3/4 cup potato liquid, eggs, butter, lemon peel, sugar, salt, bread flour and yeast in bread pan of your bread machine. Select dough setting and press start. NOTE: Don't be afraid to open the lid and check the dough. It should form a nice elastic ball. Halfway through dough cycle, add raisins. If you think the dough is too moist, add additional flour (a tablespoon at a time). The same is true if the dough is looking dry and gnarly. Add warm water (a tablespoon at a time).

When dough cycle has finished, remove dough from pan and turn out onto a lightly oiled surface. (I use a nonstick cooking spray). Form dough into an oval, cover with a plastic wrap and let rest for 10 minutes.

Shape dough either into a large baguette loaf or two small round and place on large baking sheet dusted with cornmeal (I use the silpads instead of cornmeal). Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm spot to rise, approximately 20 minutes. NOTE: I use my oven for the rising. Turn the oven on for a minute or so, then turn it off again. This will warm the oven and make it a great environment for rising bread. If you can't comfortably press your hand against the inside of the oven door, the oven is too hot. Let it stand open to cool a bit.

Preheat oven to 350° F. After rising, slash the bread with a bread razor or a very sharp knife making three 1/2-inch deep diagonal slashes on loaf shape or a cross on rounds. Brush top of loaves with beaten egg and bake for 30 to 35 minutes. After 15 minutes, cover loaves with aluminum foil to prevent over browning. A good check is to use an instant digital thermometer to test your bread. The temperature should be between 200 and 210 degrees. Remove from oven and place the bread on a wire rack to cool. Let baked loaf cool for 30 minutes before cutting (this is because the bread is still cooking while it is cooling).

TIPS: Dried cranberries and apricots can be either substituted for the raisins for added along with the raisins for a colorful and tasty bread.

Makes 1 large baguette loaf or 2 small round loaves