Recipe request, Madeiran potato bread, has anyone got any ideas, please!

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trudy on 15 Jul 2008 at 00:00
Hi everyone, me again, bit disappointed as no one has responded to my recent request, can anyone suggest any place I can find this type of bread recipe, please. Its a flatbread, with potato or cassava flour, especially typical of the Madeiran island, known also in Portugal and Brazil. Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks again T xx
well done thanks, the picture is just like I remember them, but no mention of potato or cassava flour!! bizarre but will be trying these this weekend, and I will post the outcome, you guys are real stars, thanks again, T xx
I didn't look at the picture the first time around.  They look almost like an English Muffin.
I remember the texture as being similiar too, these are thicker than the ones I remember, but I am so looking forward to trying them out, thnx again, T xx
There's a recipe on that forum that has a recipe that includes potatoes.  You may have to scale the recipe back.

http://www.gastronomias.com/receitas/   divided by location, but the one for Madeira doesn't say much.

Portuguese website, use www.freetranslation.com  or someother website to translate.

Basically, Madeiran bread is sourdough, grilled on a flat surface, then rolled so the edges brown, too.  I use sweet potato.  The recipe in a local book says to let it ferment 3 days, but that's not how it's done downtown during festas. 

It is formed into balls, left to rise, then flattened before grilling.  Looks rather like an overgrown English muffin with some whole wheat flour, but the specks may just come from the sweet potato.

I live on Madeira, and it is served all over, but few people know how to make it.  I have watched at the festas (fiestas/fairs) but I have never seen them use sweet potato in it.  It is slathered with butter that contains "salsa" which is flat-leafed parsley and fresh garlic bits.

There is a sidewalk spot by São Martinho at the rotunda (roundabout).  I will go up there and watch to see how it's done and get back to you.

They make a dessert bread that I like, too, which is a kind of Spudnut dough using potato flakes, rolled flat, a hole torn in the middle so it will go down into the fat completly, held with a wooden dowel, deep fat fried like Navajo frybread, then rolled in cinnamon sugar.

 

Is this bread similiar to the bolo levado served in the Azores? Love that bread, but of course when I spent six weeks in the Azores visiting family, I don't think I had a bread I didn't love. We had fresh Papo Secos delivered at our door of the house we rented every morning :)

Have you found the recipe you were looking for? I have a large cookbook from Portugal - it has 2 versions one in Portuguese and one in English. In English this book is called - Traditional Portuguese Cooking by Maria de Lourdes Modesto. It is seperated by regions in Portugal and also includes the islands of the Azores and of Madeira. In the Madeira section there are recipes for 1. Pão de Casa or Pão de Family (Household bread) - uses sweet potatos; and 2. Bolo do Caco - is a flat bread. Let me know if you need either of these recipes.