Portuguese sweet bread ( Portuguese: ''pão doce'' "sweet bread" or ''massa sovada'' "kneaded dough") is a

bread Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour (usually wheat) and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made f ...

made with

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digest solid food. Immune factors and immune-modulat ...

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or do ...

, eggs, yeast, flour and sometimes

lemon The lemon (''Citrus limon'') is a species of small evergreen trees in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, native to Asia, primarily Northeast India (Assam), Northern Myanmar or China. The tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit is used for culin ...

peel to produce a subtly

sweet Sweetness is a basic taste most commonly perceived when eating foods rich in sugars. Sweet tastes are generally regarded as pleasurable. In addition to sugars like sucrose, many other chemical compounds are sweet, including aldehydes, ketone ...

lightly textured

loaf A loaf ( : loaves) is a (usually) rounded or oblong mass of food, typically and originally of bread. It is common to bake bread in a rectangular bread pan, also called a loaf pan, because some kinds of bread dough tend to collapse and spread o ...

or rolls. A slightly different recipe is made during

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samue ...

that is known as '' folar'' and often contains a hard-boiled egg. The bread was brought to

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

by Portuguese immigrants from Madeira and the Azores. Under the name Hawaiian rolls, Portuguese sweet bread is now considered a quintessential dish in Hawaiian cuisine and is widely consumed throughout the United States. Portuguese sweet bread is traditionally made in Madeira and the Azores around

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

, and the Easter version is made around Easter, but it is also available year-round on the islands. It is uncommon to find this type of bread in mainland Portugal. It is traditionally baked in a stone oven known as a ''forno''. The bread is usually served simply with

butter Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 80% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread, melted as a condim ...

and is sometimes served with a

rice pudding Rice pudding is a dish made from rice mixed with water or milk and other ingredients such as cinnamon, vanilla and raisins. Variants are used for either desserts or dinners. When used as a dessert, it is commonly combined with a sweetener such ...

known as ''arroz doce''. Portuguese sweet bread is common in areas with large populations of

Portuguese Americans Portuguese Americans ( pt, português-americanos), also known as Luso-Americans (''luso-americanos''), are citizens and residents of the United States who are connected to the country of Portugal by birth, ancestry, or citizenship. Americans and ...

and Portuguese Canadians, such as

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

, northern

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...

, southern

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, and

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

especially

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

, and it is prominent in Hawaiian and New England cuisines. At one time, Hawaii featured numerous ''fornos'' for baking Portuguese breads constructed by Portuguese immigrants. Like most baked goods, Portuguese sweet bread in its traditional form goes stale very quickly. In Hawaii, it was frequently called "stone bread" because of its habit of turning hard as a rock within one day of baking. Robert Taira's

King's Hawaiian King's Hawaiian is a Los Angeles-based family-owned and operated bakery, known chiefly for its Hawaiian bread. It was founded by Robert Taira in Hilo, Hawaii, in 1950. History Robert Taira founded the company, then called Robert's Bakery, in ...

was the first bakery to turn "Hawaiian bread" into a mass-produced shelf-stable consumer product, after Taira cleverly tweaked the recipe to extend its shelf life while maintaining flavor and texture.

References

* Sweet breads Hawaiian desserts New England cuisine Portuguese cuisine Easter bread Christmas food {{portugal-cuisine-stub

See also

References