Day 193: Venezuela and Pan de Jamón

Hola, Raffies!

Get out your candles and Christmas decoration! Only 117 days left! Time for a Christmas dinner, right?
We are going to Venezuela and we are going to enjoy a typical Christmas dinner: Pan de jamón. This is a lovely calzone-like dough, rolled up and filled with ham and bacon. For the vegetarians among you, you can skip the meat frenzy and go for a version with cheese and vegetables. Both are totally worth trying!

For my recipe I found "La Cocina de Gisele", who gives some valuable tips for the preparation:

500g flour
1 spoon fresh yeast
100g butter at room temperature
2 eggs
100g sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 l milk, lukewarm
200g bacon, sliced
500g ham, sliced
100g olives, sliced
75g papelón or panela (unrefined whole cane sugar)
raisins

In a cup of water, melt the yeast and mix. Leave to rest for about 5 minutes. In a bowl, mix the milk with the salt and sugar.
On a working surface, place the flour and make a volcano shape with a dent in the middle. Pour the yeast into the dent. Mix with your hands. Add the eggs, the butter and the milk and work well with your hands. If the dough is very sticky, add some more flour. Make a ball and place it into a bowl. Leave it to rest for at least 35 minutes. You can place it into the oven without turning it on and by placing a glass of warm water next to your dough. Remember to cover the dough.
In the recipe, they advice you to get your work done or tend to the chores of the household while you are waiting to the dough :)
Soak the raisins in water and, on a floured working surface, roll out the dough into a square of about 0.5 cm thickness. With this amount of dough you'll end up making 3 medium breads or one really big one.
Place the ham and bacon on your square. Add the raisins and olives and roll it up. Again, the recipe suggests to put little filling in, if you are planning to sell it, but a lot if you are going to enjoy with your friends and family :)
Close the ends with your fingers and bake at 180°C for 20 minutes. Now brush it with the panela and some egg (otherwise just egg works fine too) and bake for another 40 minutes until nice and crispy brown. Enjoy your Christmas!

If you want the vegetarian version, just replace the ham and bacon with cheese, spinach, onions, leek and mushrooms.

It was great! The dough was soft and slightly sweet. It worked really well with the ham!

Love,

Raffi