Christmas Bread (Pan de Jamon)

I know it is a bit early to think about Christmas, however, I think it is a good idea to share my recipe so you can practice before Christmas =).

Venezuelan Christmas bread or Pan de Jamon is a bread similar to Turkish bread but that is filled with olives, raisins, bacon and ham. It is part of the national Christmas dish and since I moved to Australia I had no choice but to learn how to make it....this is one of those things we give for granted!!

This recipe is not as hard a some people might think and it is really fun to prepare this bread with family and friends. Why not make it before Christmas!! This is a great Christmas gift idea as well =).

For 7-8 medium size breads

Ingredients:

- 1 cup of warm water
- 3 tablespoons of dry instant yeast
- 4 tablespoons of caster sugar
- 100 g of butter
- 1 cup of warm milk
- 3 eggs, whisked
- 1 egg white plus 2 tablespoons of cane sugar, mixed together
- 1 kg of plain flour plus 1 cup for contingencies =)
- 1 kg of leg ham
- 750 g of short cut bacon
- 1/4- 1/2 kg of raisins or sultanas
- 1 kg of green capsicum stuffed olives
- 1 tea spoon of salt

Preparation:

1. In a big bowl, add warm water, 1 tablespoon of caster sugar and the dry instant yeast. Cover it and let it rest in a warm place for 20 min.
2. In another medium size bowl, melt the butter and when it is cool add the whisked eggs, milk, salt and rest of sugar. Pour this mixture into the yeast bowl prepared in step 1. Make sure you've let the yeast rest for 20 min before mixing the two mixtures.
3. Add plain flour one cup at a time and mix well until becomes a thick dough, place the dough on a clean and dry bench light floured and knead the dough by hand, add the rest of the flour, if the dough if to wet, add more flour a bit at a time until does stick to your fingers.
4. Place the dough in the big bowl and cover it, let it rest for 1 hour in a warm place. 
5. While the dough is resting, slice all the olives and place them in a container, cook the bacon in a frying pan, ideally with no oil at all but if you want, you can use 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
6. Get all your filling ready, leg ham, bacon, olives and sultanas.
7. Once the dough has rested, you will see it has pretty much double or triple its size and it looks beautiful!!! Separate the dough in 7-8 balls. On a lightly floured clean and dry bench place a ball of the dough and with a rolling pin start flatten the dough until you make a rectangle about 1 cm thick, check your baking tray size before deciding the size of the bread. 
8. Once you've made a rectangle, start by placing the bacon, then ham then olives and sultanas, make sure all the surface of the dough is covered by ham, add olives and sultanas according to your taste.
9. Roll the bread to form a long roll, push the two ends in with your fingers, with a fork softly punch a few holes at the top of the bread. Place the bread on a tray previously greased or you can also use baking paper.
10.  Let the bread rest, covered,at least 30 min before baking it.
11. In a preheated oven at 180C bake the bread for 15 min. After 15 min with a brush, paint the bread with the egg cane sugar mixture, cover all the surface of the bread. Place the bread in the oven again and bake it for 20 more minutes until brown.
12. Enjoy!!