Sweet Bread (Massa Sovada)

From the time I can remember sweet bread was part of most of our holidays. Weather it was my mother, a family member or  the neighbor next door, we knew it was time to celebrate some religious occasion, like the holy spirit festivities. or Christmas and of course Easter with eggs decorating on top,  these sweet bread recipes are passed down from generation to generation, people take great pride, and keeping their recipes a closely guarded secret.
Here is my simplified recipe, it is a large recipe as I always share with my family and friends, you may want to cut it in half.

 Sweet Bread   (Massa Sovada)

 

Free form sweet breads

                                             

Ingredient's:

 3 Cups milk
 1 Lemon or lime rind
 2 1/2  Sticks of butter
 6 Tsp fresh yeast
 5 Tsp salt
 5 Lb unbleached white flour
 12 Large beaten eggs
 3 Cups sugar
 1/2  Cups warm water  about 115°F
 2 Sticks cinnamon  (Optional)
1/2 Stick of butter to butter the sweet breads after they have baked while hot out of the oven.
1 egg white beat with tbsp of water. (egg wash)

In a Saucepan add milk, lemon peal, and let come to simmer,
 and take off stove add the butter, Let cool.
On a small  bowl add warm water and yeast and let it bloom.
On another large bowl add the  4.1/2lb of flour  if you need the remainder last 1/2 lb you can add it towards the end, make a whole in center and add the beaten eggs with sugar,salt and the infused flavored milk, mix a bit and then add the bloomed yeast and mix everything well. (this will be messy) gather the dough a few
times. Start needing and punching the dough for about 15-30 minutes or so, and make
a nice smooth ball, cover and let it rest and rise double its size it may take anywhere from 2-5 hours. After its risen devide dough in about 5-6 breads and add them to generously buttered pans, or make them free form, and let it rise for 3 to 5 hours. Rising times varies Check see if ready for the oven by poking with your finger on the dough. if an indentation stays. for more then 1 minute  it means its ready to bake if indentation comes
right back to its original state it could wait longer.
Heat oven at 200 degrees, add sweet breads brushed with egg wash and bake for 10 minutes increase  to 300 bake 35-40  minutes more or less according to size of the sweet breads.The size of the sweet bread is up to you I normally get 5-6 large sweet breads or 30 individual small bolos, for the small sweet breads the oven time has to be adjusted to 12-18 minutes at 300 degrees  more or less this all depends on your oven. if your sweet breads are getting too dark cover them with a sheet of foil paper while finishing to bake.