Portuguese Egg Bread

byZula's Note:

I got this recipe from our local Bermudian newspaper 'The Royal Gazette' in the late 90's. It's really a very good recipe (tasty) and makes a nice solid loaf of bread. Great for sandwiches! I love egg bread! This recipe makes 5 loaves of bread. Since I never feel like going through the math and cutting down the recipe; I only use it when there's room in my freezer for the extra loaves. Sad, I know.

• Total Time: 3 hrs
• Prep Time: 2 hrs
• Cook Time: 1 hrs

Ingredients:

Yield: 5 loaves

• 5 lbs flour
• 4 cups sugar
• 4 compressed yeast cakes (pkgs.)
• 2 tablespoons salt
• ½ lb margarine (2 sticks)
• ½ lb Crisco (1 cup)
• 9 eggs
• 1 quart milk (4 cups)
• 1 quart water (4 cups)

Directions:

1. In a small bowl put yeast and 1/2 teaspoons sugar in warm water. Mix together the flour, sugar, salt, crisco and margarine in a separate bowl by hand. Beat eggs well(separate bowl). Warm milk and water but do not boil. Add the milk, water, yeast mixture and eggs to dry ingredients.
2. knead the dough, cover and let rise to twice the original amount. Loaf the bread in greased baking pans and let rise again to twice the size. just before putting in the oven; brush tops of loaves lightly with cream.
3. Bake at 300 degrees until golden brown; about 1 hour.