Hi,
Long time after my trip to Lisbon area I am trying to find recipe for Portugese bread like this one: https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A3o_de_Mafra#/media/File:P%C3%A3o_de_mafra_6.jpg
White flour, mostly wheat, soft and very airy interior, rather pale crust
Can anyone help?
What distinguishes the Bread of Mafra?
In the caption, under the photo, the ingredients mentioned are as follows... Wheat Flour, Rye, Water, Yeast and Salt.
So perhaps someone here can construct a recipe from all this info.
If you search there are several receitas online. I don't know what the ethics of copying recipes is, but this one https://www.mundodereceitasbimby.com.pt/massas-levedas-receitas/pao-tipo-mafra/drjge1p6-886f4-268190-cfcd2-7euvp0hr seems like a good starting point. You can put it through Google translate.
There's a stiff starter -- 2:1 flour to water with a little yeast. Once risen you combine that with water, wheat flour, salt, and a little more yeast. Some recipes include a little white rye flour. Hydration in most recipes seems to be 70-75%. Then there's a really short bulk fermentation of an hour, and an even shorter rise of 15 minutes before it goes into the oven.
Like other short-fermentation breads it won't keep well but it should be very nice out of the oven.
recipe right here, just search and you will find many other ones,
Excellent, many thanks
I found some recipes online but most use commercial yeast and I think the traditional version should be made with wild yeast. What do you do differently do convert recipe to wild yeast?
and just preferment a percentage of the flour and water. Depending on how quick or slow you want the bread to take, which will alter from taste and profile of the final loaf, preferment more or less of the flour/water. So there is no one correct way to convert. It'll all depend on what result you're aiming for.
As Lechem says the obvious and easy way is to use commercial yeast but pre-ferment part of the dough, as several of the online recipes do already. If you really want wild yeast (with its bacterial symbionts) ... do you have a levain or sourdough starter going already?
Here's a really interesting page: http://portuguesebreads.blogspot.com/ I don't see Mafra bread there, but the blogger seems committed to naturally-leavened Portuguese breads and might respond to a question.