It is said that the origin of this bread was the result of the invention of a baker from Caracas in December 1905. The original ham bread, but it became so popular that other bakeries joined the tradition of making it, adding other ingredients such as olives and raisins.
Like all successful recipes, this one has also ended with numerous versions and today you can find ham loaves made with puff pastry and with fillings as diverse as cream cheese, nuts or figs.
He Venezuelan ham bread It is a recipe to be made with a good dose of love, it requires patience and care so that the result is bread. fluffy and airy. The best thing is not to skimp on the quality of the filling ingredients, since it is about presenting this bread on dates as important as Christmas. So, we will choose a good smoked cooked ham, bacon, raisins and stuffed black or green olives, the ones we like best.
Let’s go with the recipe!
recipe information
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- Preparation time: 20 minutes
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- cooking time: 45 minutes
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- total time: 2 hours and 35 minutes (plus 1 hour and 30 minutes of dough rest)
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- rations:8
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- Category: loaves
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- type of cuisine: venezuelan
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- Calories per serving (kcal):507
Ham bread ingredients for 8 people
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- 20 g fresh baker’s yeast
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- 250 ml of water
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- 30g of sugar
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- 500 g of flour of force
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- 40 g powdered milk
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- 10g of salt
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- 2 eggs
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- 50 g butter at room temperature
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- 6 slices of smoked cooked ham (about 200 g)
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- 6 slices of bacon
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- 50 g of raisins
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- 100 g pimiento-stuffed olives
How to make ham bread
To make the dough for the ham bread, we will begin by dissolving 20 g of fresh baker’s yeast with a little warm water that we will have removed from the 250 ml of water that we will use in total. In addition, we are going to add 1 teaspoon of sugar, about 10 g. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the mixture rest to activate the yeast.
In a large bowl, first put the dry ingredients: 500 g of flour, 40 g of powdered milk, 10 g of salt and 20 g of sugar.
Add to the bowl 1 egg that we will have at room temperature and the yeast that should already be bubbling.
Pour the rest of the water over the dough and then work it into the bowl until all the ingredients are integrated.
Once the dough is formed, add 50 g of butter at room temperature and continue to knead (now on a floured surface) until the dough is homogeneous.
Cover the dough and let it rise for 1 hour in a warm place.
After this time, the dough will have doubled its volume and we can use it to make the ham bread.
Roll out the dough and cut it to give it a rectangle shape. With the leftover dough from the cuts, we can make small loaves or freeze it to use another day. On the rectangle of dough, we put 6 slices of smoked cooked ham (about 200 g) reserving a part of the dough uncovered to later make the decoration.
On top of the smoked ham we put 6 slices of bacon.
On top of the bacon, spread 50 g of raisins and 100 g of olives stuffed with peppers.
Roll up the bread and make 1 cm cuts with the part of the dough in which we had not put the filling.
We join the strips to the dough creating crosses and paint the bread with 1 beaten egg.
Bake the ham bread in a preheated oven with heat up and down at 180ºC for 45 minutes. If we wish, and to make it more golden, we can paint the bread with egg again once 30 minutes of cooking have elapsed in the oven. After the baking time, let the bread cool on a wire rack before cutting it.
We eat ham bread the same day it is prepared, for a special occasion such as Christmas.
Easy preparation summary
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- Dissolve the yeast with warm water and sugar
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- Put the dry ingredients in a bowl
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- Add the egg and dissolved yeast
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- Pour the rest of the water and work the dough
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- Add the butter and continue working the dough on a floured surface
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- Cover the dough and let it rise
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- The mass will have doubled its volume
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- Stretch the dough into a rectangle and add the smoked cooked ham
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- Add the bacon to the filling
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- Finally, we put the raisins and olives
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- Roll up the dough making some cuts for decoration at one end
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- We join the strips of the decoration making crosses and we paint it with egg
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- Bake the bread for 45 minutes at 180ºC and let it cool on a wire rack.
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- We eat the ham bread the same day it is prepared.
