Pan de Jamón
The Venezuelan Christmas loaf: a soft sweet dough rolled round ham, streaky bacon, green olives and raisins, so each slice comes out as a spiral of salt and sweet.
Photograph credit: Hallacas con pan de jamon, plato Venezuelano by Wilfredor · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
Photograph credit: Pan de jamon, Venezuelan food by Wilfredor · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
How to Make Pan de Jamón
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Mix the flour, sugar, salt and yeast, add the milk and egg, and knead 8 minutes.
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Work in the butter and knead 6 minutes more until smooth. Rise 90 minutes.
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Fry the bacon until crisp, drain on paper and chop roughly.
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Roll the dough into a 35 by 45 cm rectangle on a lightly floured surface.
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Lay the ham over it in overlapping slices, leaving 3 cm clear along one long edge, then scatter the bacon, olives and raisins.
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Roll up from the covered long edge, keeping it tight and pressing as you go, and seal the seam and both ends by pinching hard.
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Set seam down on a lined tray, prove 40 minutes, then prick all over with a skewer — this lets steam out instead of blowing the roll open.
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Brush with egg and bake at 180°C / 355°F fan for 30 to 35 minutes until deep golden.
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Brush with the warm honey as it comes out, and cool 20 minutes before slicing.
Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.
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Tips for Making Pan de Jamón
- Prick the loaf before it goes in. Unpricked, steam lifts the top crust clean off the filling.
- Roll it tight. This is the one step that decides whether the slices hold together.
- The honey glaze at the end is not optional — it is what makes the crust shine and stops it drying.
Serving Suggestions
- Hallacas and pernil, on the same table
- A cold Polar beer
- Ponche crema afterwards
Leftovers and Storage
Keeps 3 days wrapped and refrigerated, and is genuinely good cold in a lunchbox. Reheat slices in a dry pan. Freezes 2 months.
Pan de Jamón: Questions and Answers
How long does Pan de Jamón take to make?
35 minutes of preparation and 35 minutes of cooking, plus 2 hours 30 minutes of proving, so allow 3 hours 40 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 10.
Nutrition per Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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