Brazilian Honey Spice Bread Recipes

PãO DE MEL (BRAZILIAN HONEY CAKES)

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350º F (180º C). Grease and coat with cocoa powder or flour a mini or standard-size muffin tin. Reserve!
• In a small saucepan over medium heat, stir the milk, spices, and honey and let come to a quick boil. Remove from the heat, cover, and let sit for 10-20 minutes.
• When the milk mixture is warm, pour into a blender and blend with eggs and yolk, brown sugar, vanilla, and oil just until homogeneous, about 15-20 seconds.
• Mix sifted cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and flour in a large bowl. Pour blended liquid mixture into the bowl and whisk just until homogeneous.
• Spoon batter evenly into the muffin tin (halfway full) and bake on the middle rack for about 10-12 minutes (mini ) or 18-20 minutes (standard) - or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Slide a knife around the edges to loosen the bread loaves and invert them onto a large flat platter or a clean baking sheet while they are still hot. Make sure their puffy tops are upside down.
• Place another baking sheet on top of all of them and then something heavy, such as a cast-iron skillet. This simple technique will help to flatten their puffy tops. It works best while they are still hot.
• Let them sit for about 5-10 minutes. Then cut each in half horizontally.
• Spread or pipe dulce de leche onto one of the halves and sandwich them like whoopie pies.
• Place chocolate in a large bowl and melt in the microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring after each interval, until melted (about 1 ½-2 minutes). Stir until smooth. If needed, stir in 1 tbsp of oil to prevent melted chocolate from hardening quickly.
• Place each pão de mel on a fork and bathe in the melted chocolate. Smooth top and sides. Place on a rack with a baking sheet underneath or on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Let excess chocolate drain off of each cake. Let the chocolate set in the fridge for about 3-5 minutes.
• Using a paring knife, trim excess hardened chocolate from the bottom edges. Either serve as is or decorate each pão de mel as desired. I drizzled mine with melted white chocolate and topped them with sprinkles.

BRAZILIAN HONEY-SPICE BREAD

Steps:

• In a medium saucepan, combine the milk and brown sugar.
• Cook and stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved.
• In a bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.
• Gradually blend in the milk mixture, honey, eggs and vegetable oil.
• Turn the batter into a greased 8" x 4" loaf pan.
• Bake at 350 degrees F for 55 to 60 minutes or until done, covering with foil the last 15 minutes.
• Cool in the pan 10 minutes.
• Remove from the pan and cool thoroughly.
• If desired, combine icing sugar and enough milk to make a glaze of spreading consistency; frost the cooled loaf.
• Decorate with candied fruit.

HONEY SPICE BREAD

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a small (8 x 4-inch or smaller) bread pan and dust lightly with flour. Line with parchment if desired. Alternatively, use buttered and floured mini-muffin molds or silicone mini muffin molds.
• Place the honey and sugar in a small saucepan, insert a thermometer and heat to 158 degrees while stirring with a rubber spatula.
• Sift together the whole wheat flour, rye flour, baking powder, spices and salt and transfer them to the bowl of your mixer.
• In a small bowl whisk together the milk and whole eggs. Turn the mixer on low and slowly add the milk and egg mixture. Stop the mixer and, using a rubber spatula or a plastic bowl scraper, scrape up any flour sticking to the bottom of the bowl. Add the warm honey mixture and mix on medium speed until incorporated. Scrape into the bread pan or spoon about 1 to 2 teaspoons into each mini-mold, filling them 3/4 full.
• Bake mini-cakes for 15 to 20 minutes, loaves for 40 to 45 minutes, until deep brown and a tester comes out clean. Remove from the heat, unmold and cool on a rack. If making a loaf, for best results, once cool wrap tightly in plastic and allow the cake to rest for a day.

QUICK HONEY-SPICE BREAD

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Spray a 9x5 loaf pan with cooking spray.
• In a large bowl combine first 7 ingredients (and sugar if using) and mix well.
• In a small bowl whisk together milk, honey and egg.
• Add milk mixture to flour mixture, stir together.
• Spoon batter into prepared pan.
• Bake until a toothpick comes out clean in the center, about 50 minutes in my oven.
• Place pan on wire rack to cool for 10 minutes, then turn loaf out onto rack to cool completely.
• To make a glaze for the bread use 3 tablespoons honey, 2 tablespoons margarine and 2 teaspoons packed brown sugar. Microwave on HIGH until melted, then spoon over warm bread.

TWISTED SPICED BREAD WITH HONEY & TAHINI BUTTER

Steps:

• Warm 120ml milk and the butter in a small saucepan until melted. Leave to cool to lukewarm.
• Combine the flour, sugar, salt and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer. Make a well in the centre and pour in the egg and warmed milk, then mix until just combined. If it seems a little dry, add an extra 20ml milk. Knead the mixture on a gentle speed using a dough hook for 5-8 mins, or until the dough is smooth and springs back when pressed. If you don't have a stand mixer, combine everything in a bowl, then knead on a lightly floured surface for 8-10 mins. Shape the dough into a ball and leave to prove in a large, lightly oiled bowl covered with a tea towel for 1 hr-1 hr 30 mins, or until doubled in size.
• To make the filling, combine the ingredients and set aside.
• Line a large baking sheet with baking parchment. Roll the proved dough out on a lightly floured surface to a 40cm square. Spread the filling evenly over the dough using a palette knife, leaving a 2cm border around the edge. Roll the dough up into a tight log, starting with the end furthest from you - it should measure roughly 40cm in length. Cut the dough log in half lengthways down the middle so you have two long pieces laying beside each other, horizontally, cut-side up. Pinch together at both ends, then pick up the ends and twist the pieces around each other, as though you're making a rope.
• Transfer the loaf to the prepared sheet. Loosely cover and let it prove in a warm place until doubled in size again, about 45 mins-1 hr. Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4.
• Put the sheet in the centre of the oven and bake for 35-40 mins, covering loosely with foil if it starts to become too dark during baking. When ready, the loaf should be golden and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Leave to cool slightly for 15 mins if you're serving it warm, or leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
• To make the tahini butter, mix the ingredients with a pinch of salt using a wooden spoon until combined. To make the icing, mix the sugar with 1 tbsp warm water until smooth, adding more if it's too thick. Drizzle over the loaf and sprinkle with the sesame seeds, if using. Slice the loaf and serve with the honey & tahini butter. Best eaten the day it's made.

HONEY SPICE BREAD

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325°. In a small saucepan, combine brown sugar and milk. Cook and stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat., In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. In another bowl, whisk eggs, honey, oil and brown sugar mixture until blended. Add to flour mixture; stir just until moistened., Transfer the batter to a greased 8x4-in. loaf pan. Bake 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (cover top loosely with foil if needed to prevent overbrowning)., Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. In a small bowl, stir glaze ingredients until smooth; drizzle over bread. Freeze option: Securely wrap cooled loaf in foil and then freeze. To use, thaw at room temperature. Glaze as directed.