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Hearty yeast breads are a labor of love

Yeast breads take a fair amount of time and effort, but there are few foods that are more satisfying to make. Just the aroma of baking bread makes one wax poetic. L.G. DuPont's recipe for Portuguese Sweet Bread or Massa Sovada makes two 9-inch-round loaves. If the bread is shaped into snaillike loaves, it is called "caracois." Braid the dough and add dried currants and it becomes "tranca a tricana."

Sheila Goodbrand shares her Sweet and Sour Salad Dressing recipe with Jean Gilmore. Combine wine vinegar and oil with white and brown sugar, then season with dry mustard and garlic powder. If you have a recipe for creamy sweet and sour dressing, please share it with us.

Joan Ginter of New Port Richey writes that she finds her favorite Old Dutch Sweet and Sour Dressing at Publix and has also found it at other grocery stores. A bonus is that it is oil-free, fat-free and cholesterol-free.

Rugelach is a classic sweet. Roll out rounds of pastry into circles. Spread the circles with jam and sprinkle with nuts.

Cut into wedges, roll up and bake until golden brown.

For: Ruth Dunning of St. Petersburg.

From: L.G. DuPont of Ocala.

Recipe: Portuguese Sweet Bread from a Time-Life cookbook.

Portuguese Sweet Bread (Massa Sovada)

• 2 packages or cakes of active dry or compressed yeast
• A pinch plus 1 cup sugar, divided
• 1/4 cup lukewarm water (110 to 115 degrees)
• 5 to 6 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup lukewarm milk (110 to 115 degrees)
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small bits
• 2 tablespoons softened butter
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast and a pinch of sugar over the lukewarm water. Let the mixture stand for 2 or 3 minutes, then stir to dissolve the yeast completely. Set the bowl in a warm, draft-free place, such as an unlighted oven, for 5 to 8 minutes, or until the mixture doubles in volume.

In a deep mixing bowl, combine the 1 cup of sugar, 4 cups of the flour and the salt. Make a well in the center, pour in the yeast and milk, and drop in the eggs. Gently stir together with a large spoon, then beat vigorously until the ingredients are well-combined. Beat in 1/4 pound of butter, then add up to 2 cups more flour, beating it in 1/4 cup at a time, and using as much as necessary to form a dough that can be gathered into a soft ball. If the dough becomes difficult to stir, work in the flour with your fingers.

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface, and knead it, pressing down and pushing it forward several times with the heel of your hand. Fold it back on itself and repeat for about 15 minutes until it is smooth and elastic.

Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a large, lightly buttered bowl. Dust the top with flour, drape with a towel and set aside in the warm, draft-free place for 45 minutes to an hour until the dough doubles in bulk.

With a pastry brush, coat the bottom and sides of two 9-inch pie plates with 2 tablespoons of softened butter. Punch the dough down with a single blow of your fist, then transfer it to a lightly floured surface and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Divide the dough in two and pat the halves into flattened round loaves about 8 inches across. Place them in the pie plates and let them rise in a warm place for about 40 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. With a pastry brush, coat the top of both loaves with beaten egg. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 1 hour, or until the loaves are golden brown and crusty.

Cool on cake racks. Makes two 9-inch round loaves.

Note: The same dough is often shaped into snail-like loaves (caracois) or braids (tranca a tricana). To make the caracois, divide the dough into two equal parts and roll each part into a long rope about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. One at a time, loop a rope in ever-smaller concentric circles inside a 9-inch-round pie plate to fill the pan completely.

Let the loaves rise for 40 minutes, brush with beaten egg and set a few raisins in the center before baking.

For the tranca a tricana, gently incorporate 1/4 cup of dried currants into the dough after the first kneading. Let the dough rise for an hour. Then punch it down, let it rest 10 minutes and divide the dough in two. Roll each half into three 14-inch-long ropes. Lay three ropes side by side and gently interweave them into a thick braid, turning the ends under slightly to smooth and seal them. Make the second braid similarly, then carefully place the loaves on buttered baking sheets and let them rise for 40 minutes.

Brush the braids with beaten egg and sprinkle them with 1/2 cup of sugar (preferably coarsely granulated decorating sugar) before baking them.

For: Jean Gilmore of Inverness.

From: Sheila Goodbrand of Largo.

Recipe: Sweet and Sour Dressing.

Sweet and Sour Dressing

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup (4 ounces) red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Pepper to taste
• Garlic powder to taste

Mix all the ingredients well. Store in a jar in the refrigerator. Makes 12 ounces.

For: Virginia Smith of Brooksville.

From: Bea Hessler of Homosassa Springs.

Recipe: Melt in Your Mouth Rugelach.

Melt in Your Mouth Rugelach

Pastry:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
• 1 8-ounce package cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups all-purpose flour

Filling:

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup raspberry jam
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts

For pastry, beat butter, cream cheese and sugar in bowl until smooth and creamy, 2 minutes. Stir in yolks, vanilla and salt. Stir in flour until smooth dough forms. Divide into four pieces; shape into disks. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

For filling, mix sugar and cinnamon together; set aside.

Roll out one disk into an 8-inch round; spread with 1/4 of the jam and sprinkle with 1/4 of the nuts. Cut disk into 8 wedges and roll up, starting at the wide end. Sprinkle with 1/4 of the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Repeat with the other three disks. Place on two cookie sheets that have been lined with foil and greased. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes until golden brown.

Recipe requests

Frances Novello of Largo loves cookies, but needs a recipe for reduced-carbohydrates cookies. If each cookie has less than 9 grams of carbohydrates and is made with light margarine or butter and with Splenda sweetener, that is the recipe Frances would be delighted to have.

Marilyn Sherman of Palm Harbor made meatloaf from a recipe that appeared on the Quaker Oats round box. Through the years and many moves, the recipe disappeared. Unfortunately, it is no longer on the box.

Do you have it in your files?

About 50 years ago, Mae Caldwell of St. Pete Beach found a recipe for Uncle Tom's Fish Bake on a package of frozen fish fillets. The fish fillets were layered on top of frozen broccoli.

There were other ingredients that have been forgotten. Mae made the dish for many, many years, but the recipe has been lost. Now that she lives on the Suncoast where there is an abundance of delicious fresh fish, Mae would be grateful for the recipe.

-- You Asked for It is a reader mail column. If you have a cooking question or the answer to someone else's question, write to: You Asked for It, the Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731. Be sure to include your full name, city and phone number with your letter. Letters without this information will be discarded. Requests cannot be answered by phone or mail.

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