![Jansson’s Temptation (Creamy Potato Casserole)](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2023/12/19/multimedia/24EATrex-cqlm/24EATrex-cqlm-mediumThreeByTwo440.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
Pan de Jamón (Venezuelan Ham Bread)
![Pan de Jamón (Venezuelan Ham Bread)](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/11/12/dining/COOKING-BREAD1/COOKING-VENEZUELAN1-articleLarge.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
- Total Time
- About 15 hours, largely unattended
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
Advertisement
Ingredients
- 1cup/250 milliliters whole milk
- ¼cup/50 grams plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- ½ounce/14 grams/4½ teaspoons instant yeast
- 1pound/454 grams salted butter (4 sticks), room temperature
- ½teaspoon salt
- 7eggs
- 4½cups/509 grams self-rising flour
- 3⅓cups/483 grams all-purpose flour, more for dusting surface
- ½pound/226 grams ham, thinly sliced and cut into long strips ½ inch wide
- 18ounces/509 grams smoked uncured bacon, cut into long ½-inch-wide strips (do not use thick cut)
- 2cups/288 grams raisins
- ½cup/85 grams pimento-stuffed green olives, thinly sliced
- ¼cup/59 milliliters whole milk
- 1tablespoon sugar
For the Bread
For the Filling
For the Glaze
Preparation
- Step 1
Make the bread: In a small pot over medium-low heat, scald milk. When milk is near boiling and bubbles form around the edge of the pot, remove from heat and let cool.
- Step 2
In a small bowl, combine ½ cup warm water and 2 tablespoons sugar and mix well. Add yeast and let rest for 5 minutes or until bubbly.
- Step 3
Using a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk together ¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter, the rest of the sugar and the salt on medium-low speed just to combine. With mixer running, add eggs, cooled scalded milk and yeast mixture. Mix on medium speed until thoroughly combined, about 2 minutes.
- Step 4
Place flours in a medium bowl and whisk to combine. Change out the stand mixer attachment for a dough hook and slowly add flours to butter mixture about ½ cup at a time, until fully incorporated. The dough should pull away from the bowl's edges relatively cleanly. Let rest in bowl for about 5 minutes.
- Step 5
Sprinkle all-purpose flour on a clean work surface. Scrape out dough and knead for 5 minutes. If dough is too sticky to handle, add a little more flour, but do not let it get too dry. Cut dough into 2 pieces.
- Step 6
Roll each piece of dough with heavy rolling pin into a 15-by-20-inch rectangle about ¼ inch thick. Using a small offset spatula or butter knife, spread about 3 tablespoons butter in a thin layer over the top of the dough, just enough to cover.
- Step 7
Fold dough into thirds like a letter: With the short end of the dough facing you, fold up from the bottom, and then fold down from the top. Then, take the letter-shaped dough and fold one more time lengthwise, making a small square.
- Step 8
Wrap each of the pieces in plastic or place each one in a plastic bag and let them rest in the refrigerator for about 4 hours. Repeat process of rolling, buttering, folding and refrigerating 2 more times with both pieces of dough. This will take a total of 12 hours, but additional chilling time between rollings is O.K., allowing you to break up the process overnight. (For instance, the first rolling can be done the night before, followed by subsequent rollings the next day.)
- Step 9
Remove dough from refrigerator and divide each piece into 2 equal sections, for 4 pieces of dough in total. Lightly flour a clean work surface and roll one piece into a thin 15-by-20-inch rectangle, rewrapping in plastic and returning the other pieces to the refrigerator.
- Step 10
Fill the bread: Working lengthwise, put down a stripe of ham strips in a single layer. Below that place a stripe of bacon strips and below that, a sparse stripe of raisins and olives. (Make sure to use a light hand with the raisins and olives.) Repeat this pattern until the surface of the dough is covered.
- Step 11
Take one of the short edges of the dough, and carefully roll it up, like a jelly roll, tucking it in as you go to make sure it is tight. When it is fully rolled, tuck the open edges on either side underneath the roll, and place the whole roll seam-side down on a parchment-lined baking sheet so it doesn't pop open while baking. Repeat rolling-and-filling process with the other 3 pieces of dough. Place loaves on 2 baking sheets lined with parchment, 2 to a sheet. Cover loaves with a clean dish towel and let rise for 45 minutes.
- Step 12
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake 2 loaves at a time for about 40 minutes, checking to make sure tops are becoming golden without burning. If loaves are browning too quickly, tent with foil.
- Step 13
Prepare the glaze: While the bread bakes, add milk and sugar to a small bowl and stir to dissolve.
- Step 14
At the 40-minute mark, pull the loaves out of the oven, and, using a pastry brush, glaze their tops. Bake for another 5 minutes, until the loaves have a slight sheen and are deep golden brown in color. Remove from oven and let bread rest for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Freezing this type of dough (any kind of laminated dough really) will be bad for the final rise, so generally, you would freeze the final baked product and refresh them in the oven to enjoy.
As a Venezuelan who makes my moms favorite, I find the bacon to ham ratio off. The bacon allows the bread to retain its moisture, but the intent of the bread is to have lovely ham with the briny olives and sweet raisins. I’d switch the quantities and should be in a good spot!
I have successfully frozen a number of laminated doughs and had excellent results. You do need to be careful defrosting them and letting them rise again. From my favorite pastry blogger:
"You can freeze shaped croissants (or any other laminated yeasted dough), then thaw them in the fridge overnight, then proof them before baking. Since they’ll be cold you’ll want to add an extra half an hour to the proof time."
http://joepastry.com/2008/how-to-laminate-dough/
The ingredients call for instant yeast but the instructions tell you how to use active dry. The ingredients list doesn't even have the water you'd use for an active dry.
As a Venezuelan who makes my moms favorite, I find the bacon to ham ratio off. The bacon allows the bread to retain its moisture, but the intent of the bread is to have lovely ham with the briny olives and sweet raisins. I’d switch the quantities and should be in a good spot!
You don't have to freeze the dough! I've been doing pan de Jamon all my life, and this step is not necessary. I do have to say this recipe, it's crispy on the outside, and soft on the inside. Instead of freezing the dough, I would just let it rise in a bowl, covered by a cloth for about 30 minutes. Then I would roll out the dough add the ham, the raisins, and the olives, and then once you roll it in, cover it again and let it rise for another 30 minutes and then it's ready to go in the oven.
The recipe calls for raisins, and the description calls for olives?
You use both raisins and olives. I don’t like olives so, I use only the raisins
NO RAISINS, NO SUGAR
urm, this was actually meant to be private, because I'm not a raisin fan. sorry. admins, feel free to delete ...
Rolling to the size recommended yields a dough that is too thin to prevent the loaf from splitting down one side when it cooks. Otherwise my Venezuelan girlfriends say it’s ok. Too bad I was helping them with these for selling to their customers as they don’t have the proper presentation appeal.
assuming you can freeze the dough if you don't want to make all four at once?
Freezing this type of dough (any kind of laminated dough really) will be bad for the final rise, so generally, you would freeze the final baked product and refresh them in the oven to enjoy.
I have successfully frozen a number of laminated doughs and had excellent results. You do need to be careful defrosting them and letting them rise again. From my favorite pastry blogger:
"You can freeze shaped croissants (or any other laminated yeasted dough), then thaw them in the fridge overnight, then proof them before baking. Since they’ll be cold you’ll want to add an extra half an hour to the proof time."
http://joepastry.com/2008/how-to-laminate-dough/
Can I use a frozen dough from the store?
Advertisement