Portuguese Sweet Bread

This week: another one of those delicious, egg-and-butter rich loaves of questionable health value. Because after last week's loaf I just want something tasty.

Start out by proofing 5 teaspoons of yeast and 1 teaspoon of sugar in 1/2 a cup of warm water. After a few minutes, add 1/2 a cup of warm milk, 1 stick of softened butter, 3 lightly beaten eggs, 1 tablespoon of salt, and 1 cup of sugar. Which seems like a lot, but I guess they don't call it "sweet bread" for nothing!

Anyway, one cup at a time stir in about 4 cups of all-purpose flour. The recipe suggests this will be all that is needed, and to add extra flour only until the dough loses its stickiness. My experience was somewhat different, as after 4 cups all that was in front of me was a very thick, sludge-like liquid. Anyway, I added maybe another 2 or 2 1/2 cups of flour just to get a dough I could knead, and even then the dough was extremely soft and loose. Actually, the dough was vaguely reminiscent of oobleck, now that I think of it!

First Rising (2 hours)
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Reasons why I should like the summer: Well, first and foremost I suppose, would be how much less stressful the days are. No exams to prepare for, no problem set deadlines pressing down upon you, just a steady flow of work. It's funny, but even though I'm putting in almost identical hours (albeit minus the teaching workload) it just feels like much less work.
Second, the pace of the day is much friendlier. The knowledge that I could sleep in if I wanted to, or take an extra 15 preparing a nice breakfast instead of a quick bowl of cereal, makes the start of the day so much nicer, even if, in fact, I almost never do either of those things.
As I mentioned last week, now that the summer has started and there are so many fewer students on campus, I feel like I'm starting to recognize faces on my walks to and from work. Kind of a nice, if fake, small town feel.
And, I must admit, not having to walk past lines of squiffy undergrads outside of bars (or, closer to the weekends, rather more thoroughly drunk ones) has been a welcome change. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Punch the dough down and cut it in half with a butter knife. Which will actually be trickier than it sounds...the dough at this point will have a sort of quicksand-ish quality, and will try to yank the knife away and drag it down to the depths. Anyway, shape each half into a loaf, and put one in a buttered 9x5 bread pan. For some variety, though, why not go for a circular loaf and put the other half in one of those medium-sized frying pans. Cover, set aside, and let rise again until doubled in bulk.

Second Rising (2 hours)
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Reason why the summer is actually my least favorite season: the heat. The mind-melting, soul-sapping, draining, awful oppressive heat. The sort of heat that makes it impossible to think, that discourages you from wanting to cook anything interesting to eat. Temperatures that make you forget your distaste for water (and inability to swim) and suddenly long for a swimming pool. Weather in general that makes you feel like nothing so much as a gelatinous blob of cooked spaghetti (or, perhaps more aptly, a string of wet sponges). Now, I know, I know... I just need to build some character and get over it. But I am not a fan.
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Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. While it is warming up, thoroughly beat one egg. Liberally brush the beaten egg on the loaves, and then bake for 32 minutes.

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Tasting verdict: As the astute reader has perhaps figured out by now, I rather like the whole genre of egg and butter loaded loaves. And this one is no exception. I think I managed to slightly under-cook it (just by a hair), so there is definitely some room for improvement in this loaf. The fact that an entire cup of sugar went into the bread is awfully apparent, and as a result this bread is just teetering on the brink of being overly sweet. But, all in all, I really quite like it...definitely in the top 50% (maybe even the top third) of the loaves I've made so far.