Pão francês is Brazil's best kept secret, and it's almost impossible to find in the US. Here's the recipe we started with, plus the padaria secrets that make the real thing so hard to copy at home.

From the first time I visited Brazil, nearly 15 years ago, one of the things that immediately stood out was every bakery, market, cafe, and gas station sold loaves of bread that looked like large dinner rolls. Coming from the US, where we had sliced bread and few other options, it took many years for me to fully appreciate just how important pão francês is to daily life in Brazil.