The venezuelan ham bread or “pan de jamón” is a tradicional recipe that is consumed religiously with the rest of the Christmas dish (hallaca, chicken and potato salad, oven roasted pork, and so on).
Being a venezuelan living in California, there are not much places where to buy one, nor a single “panadería” and the places where you can find it in this coast are so few you can count them with one hand (Amara Chocolates in Pasadena is one of the bests, BTW). So, I had to learn how to prepare it and recipe after recipe, I treasure this one that I’m sharing with you.
Pan de Jamon Venezolano
Ingredients
For the Dough:
500 grams (4 cups) all-purpose flour
6 grams (2 teaspoons) yeast
4 grams (1/2 teaspoon) salt
24 grams (2 tablespoons) of sugar
1 egg
1 cup (225 ml) warm milk
45 grams (3 tablespoons) butter at room temperature
For the filling:
400 grams of leg ham
3 slices of bacon
1 cup red pepper stuffed olives (or more)
3/4 cup raisins (or more)
To varnish:
1 egg
2 tablespoons of papelón or brown sugar
Preparation
- Let’s start by making the dough: In a small cup together 1/4 cup of warm milk, add a teaspoon of sugar and yeast, mix, cover and let stand for five minutes until foamy. If you’re using instant yeast, simply add it to the flour.
- Once you have achieved the foam of the yeast, add it to the flour, the milk powder, the rest of the warm water (3/4 cup) and the slightly beaten egg, (if you use a mixer or kitchen helper, mixing with the dough hook, if not, knead by hand. As we knead, add the butter in small portions. Continue until you get a soft dough that does not stick to your hands (in the mixer or helper). cooking, about 5 minutes at medium speed).
- Now add a little oil in a large container, cover the entire internal surface and put the dough there, turning it so that the entire dough is impregnated with oil. Cover with a clean cloth and let rest in a warm place for 30 to 45 minutes. Meanwhile, we have a snack… we prepare the ingredients for the filling.
- Divide the dough into two parts. On a floured surface, spread the dough with a rolling pin, put the ham distributed on the surface of the bread, leaving a space of 10 to 15 centimeters at the bottom, on the ham you distribute the bacon, olives and raisins on the entire surface of the dough, roll up the bread like a gypsy arm just until that space that we left without filling, to which we are going to make cuts the width of a finger with the knife to pass those resulting strips on the bread as decoration (another option is simply to distribute the filling all over the bread, roll it up completely and pinch the dough with your fingers at the end, so that it is closed.Place the breads on a floured tray, cover and let rest for another 30 minutes (they will rise a little more).
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Prick the buns with a fork to allow steam to escape when cooking. Bake the loaves for 20 minutes, then brush the bread with the beaten egg and brown sugar and continue baking for another 20 minutes.
Take them out of the oven when they are golden brown, put them on a cooling rack and then slice them as you like.
Bon appetit!
Excelente. Felicitaciones.