We had ham bread for breakfast. This is one of the guilty pleasures we allow ourselves in December, since you'll hardly ever find cold meats in our fridge. Now, many people think this is a difficult bread to make...Well it's not difficult, but it takes a while... Would you like to see?
For us Venezuelans, ham bread is a must in December. It's essential in our Christmas Eve dinner parties and also to celebrate New Year's Eve. And you guess right if you think it's one of the most requested leftovers in the new year.
The first sensation is of a sweet slightly flaky crust, then there is the soft crumb slightly moistened by a little bacon fat and by the cane honey. As you chew, you find the olives fleshy and juicy with their delicate salt that contrasts with the sweetness, raisins sweet and swollen with the juices of the hams. I's a very festive bread, no doubt.
I'm not picky about the brand of bacon for ham bread. It really doesn't have to be premium bacon. As for the smoked ham, I prefer one that is not too sweet, that's all. The cooked ham is another matter; as I don't cook it before putting it in the bread, I like it to be a firm ham, without much salt and without much fat; my favorite for this bread is Plumrose.
Olives must be of good quality too; my favorite brand for this bread--and for almost everything else--is Loretto. If I can't find Loretto, I buy La Giralda.
Raisins should be of good size and not too dry, so that they add flavor and are soft. I'm never looking for a specific brand when it comes to raisins.
The photo that you can see above is of a mini ham bread I made with the leftovers 馃構
I usually make these little ones to offer to my guests. I usually have a few of these at home to offer to guests.
The economy has deteriorated a lot in my country and personally it's very hard for me to make a living day after day, but I try to keep the tradition that during the current holidays, you should always offer something to drink and eat to the guests that come to your house, more than a glass of water or a cup of coffee.
That being said, let's get to work!
We need a preferment. This will help us get a softer crumb.
To make the preferment, add the yeast, sugar, warm milk, and half of the flour in a bowl big enough to make all the dough. Mix well with a hand whisk. You can see below that I used water too; this was just to complete the right amount of milk.
Cover the bowl and let it raise for half an hour or until you see lots of bubbles on the surface.
Add the rest of the ingredients except the margarine. Knead a little to mix well.
At this point the dough is not elastic. Not to worry. You don't need to knead it. Just wait.
Let the dough raise for another half an hour and then add the margarine. When we add the margarine at this point and not from the beginning, the crumb of the bread becomes moister and we achieve a slightly flaky effect on the crust.
Now let the dough raise for 2 hours or until it quadruples in size.
This dough is fluffy and easy to handle. The result is a light and moist crumb full of flavor, which will turn a little flaky on the surface 馃構
First it was the preferment and then it was left to rise twice. This is that the dough rises three times so we practically don't need to knead. It's enough to knead for a couple of minutes to get all the ingredients to mix homogeneously each time we add them.
Divide the dough into two equal halves, since we are going to make two 35 cm loaves of one kilo each.
Roll out each portion of dough to a maximum thickness of one centimeter and shape it as rectangular as possible. I use a pizza cutter to achieve a more square shape. I then make mini loaves with the leftover dough scraps. Then, with the help of a kitchen brush, cover the dough sheet with a thin layer of cane honey.
I like to make my own cane honey and always have some in the fridge. To make it, I melt a 1-kilo piloncillo in 500ml to 1 liter of water, depending on how thick I want it.
Some people put the smoked ham and bacon directly on the dough. I like to let them cook a little in a frying pan, so that they release the excess fat. This way, the crumb is much lighter and the whole loaf is less greasy on the inside.
...So I place the bacon slices first on the bottom of the pan and on top I place the smoked ham slices. I put the pan on medium to low heat for 3-4 minutes, until I see that they have released a good amount of fat. This fat, by the way, can be used to substitute margarine or butter in this bread dough or any other bread dough you want to make.
I leave the cooked ham cold, as I explained before. I make sure to have all the fillings on hand, as the bread assembly must be done quickly or the can honey will spill out of the bread and make a mess.
There are many ways in which you can place the ingredients. I like to arrange the bacon slices in the same direction of rolling, so that each slice of bread is completely filled with bacon; I think this part is important for those who love ham bread. Also, I place a row of olives in the center of the roll, so that each slice of bread has at least one olive; and this, my friends, is also very important.
Once I've arranged all the fillings so that they cover the dough sheet as evenly as possible, I drizzle them with more cane honey. This last part is immediately noticed by my guests, who always comment on the nice extra sweetness and moist--not fat--inside the bread.
...So the row of olives is placed at the starting end and covered with the dough sheet, to make sure it is right in the middle of the bread roll.
Then, as you can see in the photos below, I cut some bangs on the last part of the dough sheet, which I have left unpainted with cane honey.
These bangs will wrap the bread all over the top; just stretch them a little over the raw bread covered in beaten egg so that they stick well.
Phew! We're almost done. These bread will bake at 300掳F x 35 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.
These two loaves traveled with me to my sister's who leaves in the neighboring state.
I made another pair to share with the rest of my family at home 馃榿
I hope you have found this recipe useful 鉂わ笍
@andresromero 馃枻