Greetings!

It's a tradition in our family to go to the Portuguese bakery around Easter
and buy some loaves of Massa Cervada. I always thought that I would like to
try my hand at making it, and this year I got a Portuguese cookbook and set
to it. The recipe was not entirely helpful, but I managed to get something
quite similar to what I'd always had. The only problem was that it was very
hard to get the bread baked all the way through without the outside burning.
I suspect that this was due to the higher sugar content, but what can I do
to avoid this problem? I lowered the temperature (from 350 degrees to
325-300) for the other loaves, but they also got very dark (not quite burnt
this time). I figure that next time I'll make the loaves a little smaller
as well. Any other suggestions?

Escape News wrote:

> Greetings!
>
> It's a tradition in our family to go to the Portuguese bakery around Easter
> and buy some loaves of Massa Cervada. I always thought that I would like to
> try my hand at making it, and this year I got a Portuguese cookbook and set
> to it. The recipe was not entirely helpful, but I managed to get something
> quite similar to what I'd always had. The only problem was that it was very
> hard to get the bread baked all the way through without the outside burning.
> I suspect that this was due to the higher sugar content, but what can I do
> to avoid this problem? I lowered the temperature (from 350 degrees to
> 325-300) for the other loaves, but they also got very dark (not quite burnt
> this time). I figure that next time I'll make the loaves a little smaller
> as well. Any other suggestions?
>
>

Bread that is high in sugar will brown faster, so if you find
the crust gets too dark you can try covering them with foil midway
through the cook. This weekend I did two 1.75 lb loaves of brioche in 9x5
inch pans. They were very big and took almost 55 minutes to cook.
I used the foil method with good results.

--
Reg email: RegForte (at) (that free MS email service) (dot) com

"Escape News" > wrote in message
...
> Greetings!
>
> It's a tradition in our family to go to the Portuguese bakery around
Easter
> and buy some loaves of Massa Cervada. I always thought that I would like
to
> try my hand at making it, and this year I got a Portuguese cookbook and
set
> to it. The recipe was not entirely helpful, but I managed to get
something
> quite similar to what I'd always had. The only problem was that it was
very
> hard to get the bread baked all the way through without the outside
burning.
> I suspect that this was due to the higher sugar content, but what can I do
> to avoid this problem? I lowered the temperature (from 350 degrees to
> 325-300) for the other loaves, but they also got very dark (not quite
burnt
> this time). I figure that next time I'll make the loaves a little smaller
> as well. Any other suggestions?
>


Halfway through baking, or when they start to brown nicely, cover them
loosely with foil for the remaining time in the oven.

-Scott
>

I also make this every Easter.

I use the recipe in the "The King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook"
..Works nice.
For the problem with browning too quickly, make sure you are baking on the
lowest shelf in your oven. The tip on foil works well also.

-TheKidd


Maniack wrote:
> On Tue, 13 Apr 2004 23:50:35 -0500, "Escape News"
> > wrote:
>
>> Greetings!
>>
>> It's a tradition in our family to go to the Portuguese bakery around
>> Easter and buy some loaves of Massa Cervada. I always thought that
>> I would like to try my hand at making it, and this year I got a
>> Portuguese cookbook and set to it. The recipe was not entirely
>> helpful, but I managed to get something quite similar to what I'd
>> always had. The only problem was that it was very hard to get the
>> bread baked all the way through without the outside burning. I
>> suspect that this was due to the higher sugar content, but what can
>> I do to avoid this problem? I lowered the temperature (from 350
>> degrees to 325-300) for the other loaves, but they also got very
>> dark (not quite burnt this time). I figure that next time I'll make
>> the loaves a little smaller as well. Any other suggestions?
>>
> Would you mind posting your recipe?
>
>
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>
> ~~Theodore Roosevelt
>
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