Once upon a time, there was a wee restaurant tucked between two other restaurants. KB son #2 worked there for several years. The breakfast toast and the sandwiches were made using the most wonderful bread / buns - their menu called them "Stone Bread". The source was a mystery that the owners would never reveal. Even trusted staff were not privy to the secret. All they knew was that an old Portuguese man made them in his cellar and delivered them fresh daily.
I was obsessed.
For years, I searched Portuguese bakeries. I’d walk in and look around – nada. I’d ask – “Do you sell any Portuguese buns?” -but what they showed me were just dinner rolls. The mystery remained, and over time my "quest passion" dwindled, until… the day we had burgers at NYC's Zaitzeff and they were served on Portuguese buns/rolls. (See my 2015 blog entry.) The quest was resurrected!
We hunted down more Portuguese bakeries – still no luck. I Googled "Portuguese buns" and reviewed the image results – no luck. I was sharing my story with a chef and in my effort to describe them, pointed out that they were flat, resembling an English Muffin. I heard myself say that word – muffin. I googled Portuguese muffin and tahdah – there they were on display, with links to recipes and the actual name - Bolo Levedo. Apparently they are typical of the Azores, and popular in Cape Cod restaurants.
What followed was hours of reading recipes, all different in what seemed like significant ways. The experimenting began and I have been very pleased with the results.The journey of discovery also resulted in the revelation that, like English muffins, they are not baked in the oven! They are meant to be "cooked" stove top, in a heavy pan or griddle like pancakes. In the end, I found that way too time-consuming and came up with a better way. Read on…
I realize my quest and "great discovery" may be no news to some readers. For me it was fun and rewarding.If you live somewhere where you can buy these – nice.
Getting ready:
ideally, get Bob's Red Mill Artisan Bread Flour
bring butter and eggs to room temperature
line four heavy bake sheets with parchment
measure the dry ingredients into a mixer bowl - you will be using a dough hook attachment
steps are detailed below, but here’s an overview
Step 1 - the butter, milk mixture - cool slightly while doing step 2
Step 2 - activate yeast - will take about 10 minutes
Step 3 - while step 2 is underway beat together eggs and sugar; add milk/butter mixture and yeast mixture
Step 4 - add the above combined wet mixture to the sifted dry ingredients - see details below re mixing/kneading
Step 5 - fist proof of 30-90 minutes; form dough into balls
Step 6 - second proof of 30 + 45 minutes, warm oven to 400 F if you plan to use my “bake method”
Step 7 - bake 18 or so minutes as outlined below
(will take more pictures the next time I make these and add them here)
First proof. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl covered with plastic wrap and allow it to rise until doubled in size. Time estimates on this vary and I have seen recipes advising anywhere between 30 to 90 minutes. (Some recipes also prefer to cover the dough with a cloth during proofing rather than plastic wrap.)
Form into balls. After the first rise/proof, transfer the dough to a lightly oiled work surface. Yes, you read that right - not a floured surface -a lightly oiled surface (use vegetable oil). Shape the dough into a log and divide it into pieces. How many? 16-18 - see Notes below.Now form those pieces into balls. There are two tricks to that - stretching and folding, and then rolling them under a cupped hand. This video demos both steps (though she sprinkles the surface with flour, and we're not doing that).
Second proof. Place them on a tea towel lightly dusted with flour (allowing space for them to rise) and cover lightly with plastic wrap. Proof again. (See Notes below for options.) Here's the technique I adopted from King Arthur Flour. I proofed them for 30 minutes as just described, then I transferred the balls to parchment lined baking sheets (spacing them about 1.5"apart). Then I placed a second piece of parchment over the balls and placed the second baking sheet on top of them, and let them proof for an additional 45 minutes - they'll rise to about 3/4" thick.That sounds crazy right? The website claims this keeps the texture dense as they rise. It also turned out to be a great way to "cook" them.
Cook? Fry? Bake? See Notes below where I explain why I opted for this non-traditional method of "cooking"the muffins - in the oven, not in a skillet. Continuing with the the approach used in the King Arthur Flour recipe, place the bake sheet into an oven preheated to 400 F. By “bake sheet” I mean the one described above - the set up described for the second proof - a bake sheet lined with parchment with the 16 pieces, covered by another sheet of parchment and the second bake sheet on top! This helps keep the muffins flat-ish and begins to nicely brown the top and the bottom - without having to flip them half-way through the bake.Bake for 18-21 minutes. If you feel the tops are not optimally browned after that time, remove the muffins from the oven and use the "cook in a skillet" approach,browning the side(s) for an extra 2 minutes (more or less). Cool on a wire rack. These freeze well.
