Snapshot : Silver Star Bakery ’ s Sweet Bread
Eduarda Ferreira still remembers how her grandmother prepared sweet bread in their native Azores , laying a blanket atop fresh-kneaded dough to keep it warm and help it rise in clay pots . Ferreira and her husband , Pedro , bought Silver Star Bakery in Providence ’ s Fox Point neighborhood in 1988 and inherited the previous owner ’ s recipe — one as traditional and as finicky as her grandmother ’ s : “ Real eggs , real butter ,” Ferreira says as she checks a batch browning in a giant AJ Fish bakery oven , “ twelve hours , thirteen hours to rise ; we don ’ t use a lot of yeast .” Sweet bread , or massa in Portuguese , is most popular around Eastertime , when bakers prep new batches each morning to keep up with demand , including loaves dotted with whole fresh eggs . By the evening , the baking bread adds a hint of warm sweetness to the 100 block on Ives Street — just enough to lure passersby inside for a taste . silverstarbakery . com – CASEY NILSSON
112 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l APRIL 2021