a video. I know you are wanting BREAD, but the roll recipe I mentioned is the same just reshaped. You'll see. He hooked me up a year or so ago for my father in law who used to be stationed in Rhode Island back in his Navy days. He loves it. Just type it in the search box above left.

                                                                   Audra

p.s. Mark has lots of other cool videos too. His bakery is opened now so you will just have to search out his recipes through here, his website doesn't offer them anymore.

was it shaped like a small football and did it have flour or bread crumbs on the top?

It's been awhile since I had it, but in my memory it was a oblong, so I supppose like a football, but there were no breadcrumbs, and I don't think any flour.

Also I remember the bread being very airy on the inside sometimes with big holes in it.

I really don't think it's the same as the sweet bread.  This wasn't sweet.  We used it for sandwiches and toast.

http://www.portuguesefood.com/acatalog/Azores_.html 

Is this what you are thinking of? It tastes very much like a hard roll/Italian bread. I'm sure it is a basic flour/water/yeast/salt dough and that the shaping makes it unique. Very common in southern New England.

Betty

Hi Becca,

The recipes you are looking for are either Portuguese Cornbread or Broa.  It is made with a white fine cornmeal.  When it is baking the baker is spraying water into the oven or they have a bowl of ice cubes to create steam and give that crusty, chewy crust.

It is the best bread.  You may have to try a few recipes to get the right one, but you will find it.  Try this website, I haven't used the recipe but it sounds good.

http://littlecomptonmornings.blogspot.com/2007/05/ri-white-cap-flint-cornmeal-jonnycakes.html

http://www.recipezaar.com/Pao-De-Milho-Portuguese-Cornbread-114144

The first site describes the spraying.  Hope you enjoy!!

S

Hi--I've been looking for the same thing with no luck.  I got the recipe in Philadelphia in the mid-90s and made it for years...and then lost it.  It is NOT corn bread.  The ingredients include unbleached white flour, kosher salt, water, and active dry yeast, maybe some semolina flour for dusting the baking tray/platform but that's it.  No eggs, sugar, etc., but you do spray the interior of the oven.  It's very simple and produces an easy to make perfect bread with a minimum of ingredients...and I can't remember the proportions.  Will post them when I find more...

Good luck!

Yes!  That's the kind of bread I'm thinking of. 

Hi,

Sorry for reccomending the  Portuguese cornbread, but the description was a crusty exterior and a moist dense interior like rye.  Well that is cornbread.  Portuguese cornbread is not like American cornbread.  It is white, moist and dense with a thick crusty exterior.

If it is not that we also make buns and other loafs of white bread that are light and airy usually with pockest of air on the inside.  These are called Papo Seco, I cannot find a recipe on line except for in Portuguese.  I translated it but I didn't think it would be beneficial to copy it here.  This is the post if you want to try it:

http://translate.google.ca/translate?hl=en&sl=pt&u=http://cybercook.terra.com.br/receita-de-papo-seco-alguem-forum.html%3Fcodigo%3D28118&ei=tCnBSYjhNIvSNJ2F3KgN&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=3&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dpapo%2Bseco%2Brecipe%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN%26start%3D10

You could also invest in a cookbook that might have the recipe...Portuguese Homestyle Cooking by Ana Ortins might have the recipe.  I'm not positive.

Good luck.

I think what you might be talking about are the Papo Secos they are a Portuguese roll that are very popular in the Portuguese bakeries (at least in California they are), also when we spent a summer in Terceira, Azores, Portugal we had them delivered fresh at our door every morning!

You can try these links -

http://fullbellies.blogspot.com/2007/04/portuguese-bread-rolls-papo-secos.html

http://www.recipezaar.com/Crusty-Buns-60191

I also have Ana Patuleia Ortins book - Portuguese Homestyle Cooking that has the recipe -

http://www.portuguesecooking.com/home

I believe what you're looking for is called Portuguese Water Bread around the San Francisco Bay Area.  Sweet bread is what most people associate with Portuguese bread.

The following is a recipe that matches what you have described.  It's a simple bread that goes by the name, "Portuguese Farm Bread":

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Portuguese-Farm-Bread-232275

+Wild-Yeast

P.S. I've seen this bread made using plastic bin boxes.  It's stetch-folded every 45 minutes three consecutive times (very wet dough is where the "water bread" part comes from).  Wonder if this is where the no-knead bread came from?

I found this website after seeking a recipe to make water bread.  I was from Winnipeg, Manitoba, (home of Winnipeg Rye Bread yum!) where I had the pleasure of tasting many culturally diverse authentic foods!  One of which was water bread from a little Portuguese bakery.  I would serve it with Boullibaise.

I decided to make some no-knead bread yesterday, as mentioned by Wild Yeast above, as it looked similar to Water Bread...The chef called it "City Bread" and it turned out great and did its song when I took it out of the oven...a nice surprise!  It was easy peasy!   You bake it in a covered pot for partial baking time to control the oven moisture.  It was a nice round rustic looking loaf with a crusty and chewy texture.  I posted the link and hope the owner of "The Fresh Loaf" site does not mind.

http://www.foodtv.ca/recipes/recipedetails.aspx?dishid=9530

What an amazing site you have!  I have learned so much from reading your blogs, as well!  I am now in British Columbia on Vancouver Island and will pay attention to your humidity advisements for baking.  Cheers :-)

Crusty on the outside, with holes inside, not sweet - almost moist and elastic inside. I used to live in the Algarve and it's sold everywhere there- I can't work out what it's called though! Papos Secos (literally 'dried stomachs'!) are something entirely different - small bread rolls which also can be bought everywhere in Portugal.

I think there might be something in the water idea. It's finding the right recipe though - have you had any joy Becca?

Hilary

Hi--With the help of the fine folks at the Cookbook Stall at Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia I think I've finally found the Portuguese bread recipe we've been looking for.  A very similar recipe appears in a 2005 book called Flavors of Portugal by Tania Gomes (pp. 66-68, San Diego, CA: Thunder Bay Press).  It calls for the following:

4.5  cups all purpose flour

2 tsp dry yeast

pinch of salt

1/5 cups of water, or more if necessary.

In short, mix the dry ingredients together, form a well in the center and add the water slowly "until it forms a dough". Mix and knead well (but it doesn't say for how long) until the dough becomes smooth and elastic.  Form into a ball and leave it to prove until it has doubled in size.  Then shape it the way you want, put it on a baking sheet and bake it in a preheated oven at 400F until it becomes golden.  That's it.  I think I remember a second rise in my original recipe but this doesn't call for one and the pictures look just like what I made.

S.A. did this recipe work?

Hilary

Hi--

Sorry--Yes, that was a typographical error.  Here are the ingredients again:

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp dry yeast

Pinch of salt (more or less to taste)

1 1/2 cups water, or more if necessary

The directions are as stated above in my original post.  I have not, however, tried it out yet.  Let me know how it goes if someone else gives it a shot--

--S.A.