Portuguese Sweet Bread

This is a buttery Portuguese holiday bread known as Pão Doce, a descendant of the traditional festival bread native to mainland Portugal and the Azores known as Folar da Páscoa. The large Portuguese population in New England has brought so much fame to this ethnic bread, though, that Portuguese sweet bread is now almost synonymous with New England. Often the loaf has a whole colored egg, a symbol of the Resurrection, set into its top, covered with a cross of dough. The bread h