Famous Bolo do Caco recipe!
If you’ve ever been to Madeira or know anyone from Madeira then surely you’ve tried Bolo do caco! It’s a typically portuguese bread normally made in a fire oven and is served hot with homemade garlic butter.
Warning: Alot of reading!!
I remember eating it in restaurants as an appetiser or in festival served with roasted beef skewers(espetada).
After living in the UK for a few years I missed food from back home, fresh fish and soups even! I never really learned portuguese cooking so decided to start slowly with basic stuff. When we moved to West Midlands my friend’s mum knew how to make this famous recipe and taught me how. It’s my favourite recipe and love making it because I feel like I’m back home and everything is fine with the world.
So let’s lay out the ingredient list. I had to make a batch last night to write down the measurements because it’s not really a recipe that you do by measuring, you gotta feel the dough and if it needs more flour or water. So I hope I got it right. It all depends on the flour you use and the type of yeast so adjust as needed.
Bolo do Caco
- 1 thumbnail size of Fresh bakers Yeast/ 1 sachet of instant dry yeast
- 300ml of warm water
- 1,5kg of flour
- 1 medium size sweet potato(white or orange)
Ok so let’s start by boiling the sweet potato(the white sweet potato is a Portuguese variety and sometimes hard to find or expensive so feel free to use the normal orange one) then mash it up.
In a bowl pour warm(not boiling) water and 1 thumbnail size of the fresh bakers yeast (you can get it at most supermarkets, if you can’t find it just use 1 sachets of dry instant yeast). I’ve tried both ways and they both work just fine.
In a big bowl (I use a washing up bowl) add 2 cups of the flour and the yeast mixture and mix. Add the mashed sweet potato and 2 more cups of flour. Till evenly mixed. The mixture should still be wet so add 2 more cups of flour. In total 6 cups of flour. Now you let it rest for about 1 hour.
While the bread dough is rising prepare some tea towels(not fluffy ones or the dough will stick!) lay them on the kitchen counter or table and sprinkle flour generously. This is where you going to put the bread for a second rising.
After 1 hour you will notice the mixture looks bigger and if you cut through a bit it will be fluffy too. Add 1 cup of flour to the sides of the bowl and start taking balls of dough and fold the sides into the middle till you have an even ball of dough and flatten into the shape of bolo do caco. Put them on the floured tea towel evenly spaced out and cover with more flour and another tea towel and let it rise for another 30/40 mins.
The size of the balls doesn’t matter. It’s according to what you want. So if you want individual ones make them smaller like the palm of your hand or to share make them big as you want.
Now you fry them! Yes! Fry! No oil or butter. Put a frying pan on the hob, completely dry, and put the bolo do caco to fry on medium heat till the one side gets brown. This will give it the fire oven look and taste. Flip slowly and repeat. I usually put them in the oven for another 10/15 mins at 160’C to make sure it’s well baked inside.
When they’re all done tap them to see if they’re well baked. You should hear a hollow sound. Place them in an oven tray and cover with a tea towel. This will make them soft and less crusty outside.
By now you should be hungry so serve with fresh garlic butter(literally butter & garlic and parsley blended together). Enjoy ☺️❤️