I grew up with these crusty rolls. They were delivered daily before breakfast along with one giant version, our daily bread. Warm. Crusty. This was our bakery white bread. My mom baked everything else but these.
When my daughter started eating table food (pre-teeth and before words), she’d point to the papo secos and say “uhm…uhm…” Then, when she could talk, she’d call them pãozinho, the Portuguese word for “little bread,” and shake all over with excitement.
She still calls them pãozinho and up until last month, we only had them for very special treats from a Portuguese bakery so that we could look forward to the ones baked in the Azores during our yearly visits. Those were so special. They don’t home deliver anymore but you can get them from the bakery still warm almost any time of day.
With the physical isolation craze of baking and numerous social network posts sporting papo secos, plus the ugly chance we may not be able to visit the Azores this year, I also jumped on the homemade papo secos bandwagon. My first attempt was quite successful, but I found the shaping to be somewhat challenging and the crust to be short-lived. When I read this recipe, I just knew that I could get the shaping right.
Although I want to believe it was the wording in the recipe that provided the “click” in my understanding, it’s possible that I had already been somewhat “primed” from previous recipes. This recipe also only had a crusty exterior for about 60 minutes then softened. Although not crispy, the crust was chewy crusty when compared to the interior which was light yet dense with very even crumb. This might have been from using all purpose flour since I neither had access to bread flour or vital wheat gluten to convert my AP flour to bread flour. However, I must say that the combination of this bun with the bifana did take me back to my years when I lived in the Azores and the light yet slightly dense interior was perfect for sopping up the bifana juices! Yum! Nevertheless, this recipe creates a roll that I’m pleased to call pãozinho! 