Succulent Pan de Jamón!

I made my first pan de jamón (ham bread,) the very year my good friend Miro Popic launched his book El libro del Pan de Jamón y Otros Panes. While in college, I was working my first job as a staff writer for Pandora, the magazine that used to come with El Nacional newspaper on Saturdays, and they assigned me to interview Miro.

He gave me an autographed book which I treasured for many years (until I lost it in a store where I was shopping for Christmas presents, more than 15 years ago.) Being born in Chile, Miro made a huge contribution to the Venezuelan gastronomy and culinary traditions: his book made a typical Venezuelan Christmas recipe available to anybody ready to bake.

Baking pan de jamón became a very serious tradition in my kitchen for the holidays until I discovered La Cava do Iria, a bread and pastry shop in Santa Eduvigis, Caracas, which sells the best pan de jamón ever.

So, I decided to focus on my Christmas Rum Cake and cookies, and let the blessed Portuguese bread makers do their job.

Craving for pan de jamón while in California, three years ago I began baking it for Christmas again, using common sense (I couldn’t find a complete version of Miro’s recipe on the internet and my precious Mi Cocina a la manera de Caracas was coming with all my stuff in a container that arrived to the Port of San Pedro five months later.)

Besides common sense, I added a lot of whatever goes in the filling: ham, sliced stuffed manzanilla olives and raisins, raisins and more raisins, because after all, abundance is what Christmas is all about.

Here is my pan de jamón recipe, the most delicious salty bread for the holidays season, the way we love it in my home country.

Pan de Jamón | Ingredients for one bread, make 18 to 20 slices
½ cup tepid water
2 Tbs. of granulated sugar
2 Tbs. of yeast
1 pound of all purpose flour
2 eggs
1 cup of tepid milk
4 Tbs. of unsalted butter, melted
1 Tbs. of brown sugar
5 slices of bacon
1 pound of ham, shaved (I used fat free black forest)
1 ½ cups of stuffed manzanilla olives, sliced
1 cup of raisins
1 cup of white raisins
2 Tbs. of molasses

Dissolve the granulated sugar in tepid water. Add the yeast and let it rise, around 20 minutes. Once the yeast has risen, in the bowl of a food processor, using the plastic blade to make dough, add the flour, the yeast mixture, one egg and the milk. Process it until uniform and compact. You may need to scoop some more flour. Let the dough rise for at least one hour.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. On a floured surface, with the help of a roller, extend the dough to make a 15 by 20 inches, ¼ of inch thick rectangle. Make the edges a little bit thinner. The thinner the dough, the better. Brush the rest of the butter to cover the dough. Sprinkle the brown sugar. Distribute the bacon and evenly cover the dough with the ham. Sprinkle the olives and the raisins. Make an airy roll, by carefully folding the dough. Fold both edges under. With a fork poke the loaf evenly.

Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. Carefully transfer the roll to the baking sheet. Bake it for 40 minutes. In a bowl, beat one egg and add the molasses. Brush the bread crust with the egg molasses mix. Bake it for 5 minutes. Let it cool down for at least one hour. Slice it and enjoy.

To print the recipe click here.