Pao De Mel Portuguese Honey Bread Food

PãO DE MEL (BRAZILIAN HONEY CAKES)

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350º F (180º C). Grease and coat with cocoa powder or flour a mini or standard-size muffin tin. Reserve!
• In a small saucepan over medium heat, stir the milk, spices, and honey and let come to a quick boil. Remove from the heat, cover, and let sit for 10-20 minutes.
• When the milk mixture is warm, pour into a blender and blend with eggs and yolk, brown sugar, vanilla, and oil just until homogeneous, about 15-20 seconds.
• Mix sifted cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and flour in a large bowl. Pour blended liquid mixture into the bowl and whisk just until homogeneous.
• Spoon batter evenly into the muffin tin (halfway full) and bake on the middle rack for about 10-12 minutes (mini ) or 18-20 minutes (standard) - or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Slide a knife around the edges to loosen the bread loaves and invert them onto a large flat platter or a clean baking sheet while they are still hot. Make sure their puffy tops are upside down.
• Place another baking sheet on top of all of them and then something heavy, such as a cast-iron skillet. This simple technique will help to flatten their puffy tops. It works best while they are still hot.
• Let them sit for about 5-10 minutes. Then cut each in half horizontally.
• Spread or pipe dulce de leche onto one of the halves and sandwich them like whoopie pies.
• Place chocolate in a large bowl and melt in the microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring after each interval, until melted (about 1 ½-2 minutes). Stir until smooth. If needed, stir in 1 tbsp of oil to prevent melted chocolate from hardening quickly.
• Place each pão de mel on a fork and bathe in the melted chocolate. Smooth top and sides. Place on a rack with a baking sheet underneath or on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Let excess chocolate drain off of each cake. Let the chocolate set in the fridge for about 3-5 minutes.
• Using a paring knife, trim excess hardened chocolate from the bottom edges. Either serve as is or decorate each pão de mel as desired. I drizzled mine with melted white chocolate and topped them with sprinkles.

PAO DE MEL (PORTUGUESE HONEY BREAD)

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Spray one large loaf pan with the cooking spray and set aside.
• In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, cloves and baking powder.
• Add eggs, honey, milk and butter; combine well.
• Pour mixture into prepared pan.
• Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Let cool, then drizzle melted chocolate over the top.