Bolo do Caco

Name: Bolo do Caco
Yield: 8
Cuisine: Portuguese
Ingredients: 225g sweet potato, peeled and diced (8oz); 1 tablespoon salt flakes, crushed; 7g dry yeast (¼oz/1¾ tsps); ⅓ cup warm water (80ml); 300g plain (all-purpose) flour, plus extra for dusting (10½oz/2 cups)

Bolo do caco, simple rolls that look a bit like English muffins, are flatbreads from the Portuguese island of Madeira. Bolo means cake in Portuguese and caco is the stone hotplate on which they’re traditionally cooked. On Madeira bolo do caco are typically served with lashings of garlic and parsley butter and also popular filled with octopus, grilled meat or for the classic prego steak sandwiches. They’re also great for dunking into soups, stews and dishes like clams cooked in white wine. You can make the dough for these Madeiran flatbreads a day ahead, divide it into balls, dust with flour and refrigerate overnight in zip-lock bags (it freezes well too). Then remove the dough from the bags to a flour-dusted plate, cover and set aside for 30 minutes or so to come to room temperature before cooking. As this is a bread dough, it’s best to be precise about the amount of sweet potato used, so cut off any excess and reserve it for another dish. Each potato and batch of flour is slightly different, so some doughs will be stickier than others, dust your work surface and the balls of dough with just enough extra flour to stop them sticking.

Makes 8 pieces

Ingredients

225g orange sweet potato, peeled and diced (8oz)
1 tablespoon salt flakes, crushed
7g dry yeast (¼oz/1¾ tsps)
⅓ cup warm water (80ml)
300g plain (all-purpose) flour, plus extra for dusting (10½oz/2 cups)

Method

Place sweet potato and salt in a saucepan and cover well with cold water. Bring to the boil, reduce heat a little and cook for 10–15 minutes, until tender.
Meanwhile, combine yeast and water in a mixing bowl and set aside.
Tip cooked potato into a colander to drain.
Add flour to the mixing bowl, then pass potato through a ricer into the bowl (or mash then add to the bowl) and mix with your hands to form a rough dough.
Tip onto a clean work surface (lightly dusted with flour if need be) and knead for a few minutes, until smooth.
Place in a flour-dusted bowl, cover and set aside in a warm place for an hour or so until doubled in size.
Divide into 8 equal pieces. Take one piece and repeatedly fold the dough underneath itself to form a tight, neat ball (dusting with a little flour if the dough is sticky); pinch any loose bits together on the base and place on a flour-dusted plate. Repeat with remaining pieces, spacing them evenly on the plate to allow room for expansion.
Sprinkle lightly with flour, cover with a clean, dry cloth and set aside in a warm place for a further hour or so, until doubled in size again; alternatively dust balls with flour, place in separate zip-lock bags and refrigerate overnight then return to room temperature before cooking.
Heat a well-seasoned stone griddle or cast-iron frying pan over medium heat.
Flatten the balls into thick discs and cook them for about 10 minutes turning regularly, until well-coloured all over.
Bolo do caco are best served warm, so reheat any leftovers in the oven for a few minutes.