Portuguese Sweet Bread

My daughter calls this "Sacrament Bread," probably because it is the bread I make whenever I'm asked to bring bread for the sacrament. Whatever you call it, it's delicious and a family favorite. The recipe comes from The Bread Machine cookbook. I've added a few simple directions for handmade bread.

NOTE: You'll need to play around with the amount of flour, depending on your altitude. The recipe calls for just 3 cups flour for a full batch, but that's never enough. Also, this loaf rises quite a bit.

Ingredients

For one large loaf (or one regular loaf and one small loaf):

2 1/2 teaspoons (1 package) yeast

3 1/2 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons butter

2 eggs

1 cup milk

For one regular-size loaf:

1 1/2 teaspoons yeast

2 cups flour (may need more)

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons sugar

1 1/3 tablespoons butter

1 1/3 eggs (? who adds 1/3 of an egg?)

2/3 cup milk

Directions

1. Mix 3 cups of flour (if you are making a full batch) and yeast in a bowl. (NOTE: Don't add all the flour at once.)
2. Heat milk, butter and sugar until butter starts to melt, and milk is almost (but not quite) hot. (A lot of recipes say to scald the milk, or bring it to boiling, but then you need to cool it down so that it doesn't kill the yeast. Whichever you do, make sure that when you add the milk to the yeast mixture, it's warm but doesn't burn your finger when you touch it.)
3. Add milk mixture, eggs and salt to flour and mix thoroughly. Add as much of remaining flour as you need to so that the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and forms a ball that you can kneed.
4. Kneed for 10 minutes (during which time you'll get a passable arm workout and cuss yourself for not buying a Kitchenaid).
5. Cover and let rise until double. Then shape into loaves (or rolls, if you like) and let rise again.
6. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes and then at 350 for another 15 minutes (small loaf) or 18 minutes (regular loaf). (NOTE: You'll have to play around with baking times a bit, depending on your oven and the size of the loaf. Also, if you are making rolls, just bake them at 375 for 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of the rolls.)