Friday, December 11, 2009

Christmas Bread from Venezuela - Pan de jamon




Every year for the past four years this Christmas bread from Venezuela has graced our table for breakfast on the morning of December 25th. Oh wait, every year except last year.

You see, we have an electric range and my bread was in the oven about ten minutes when poof! There was a power outage that lasted all day and I was left with raw dough mess.

I am not ashamed to tell you that I cried. Seriously for real, I cried. Do you know how much a ham costs? I was angry that my money and the ingredients had been wasted. Maria, my Venezuelan neighbour cried too. She has not had this taste of home for years and was so excited when I told her that I was making it.

This year I am beside myself with joy. I have found a Venezuelan run establishment that sells pan de jamon. Christmas breakfast has been saved!

Don't have a Venezuelan bakery in your neck of the woods, then click here to link to the recipe. Click here for a picture of one of my early attempts at baking pan de jamon. I am happy to report that my pan is pretty darn close to the real deal.

16 comments:

  1. It does look like the perfect way to start the day! I know how you feel with power outages, here on the west coast of Auckland we have alot to. In fact we had one this Saturday that lasted 6 hours, thanks fully I didn't have a class to run this weekend!

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  2. This looks wonderful. How frustrating it must have been to lose something that had taken so much of your time. I'm glad you've found a sure source for this years celebration.

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  3. Oh this looks wonderful!! Is this a breakfast bread or can you make it anytime?? i LOVE THIS!

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  4. Thanks for stopping by Mary and peasepudding.

    Bunny you can certainly make this bread any time. It's special ocaission for us only because ham is quite expensive.

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  5. this looks delicious! Thanks for sharing :)

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  6. The bread looks yummy ... perfect for Christmas breakfast. Nice pictures too!

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  7. I think I'd like this for lunch with cheese melted on it!

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  8. Do you know how it freezes? It would be a great addition to mu kids lunch rotation.

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  9. Dee it freezes well. In fact that's where it is now awaiting Christmas morning.

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  10. Hey,hopefully you'll be able to have this on the 25th. Bless you! Your bread looks really stunning. I'm saving it up for later use. Thank you so much for sharing.

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  11. That looks incredible! And poor thing about the power outage. I would have been so upset too! BTW love the snow falling on your page :D

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  12. Stunning. Can taste the tart olives and salty hame

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  13. This looks really good and great idea to have on Christmas day...
    Thanks for sharing this recipe.

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  14. Beautiful bread, & ever so festive. I love tradition that comes with food! Have a great holiday season my friend!

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  15. not only is there no venezuelan bakery in my neck of the woods, but i've never even tasted a venezuelan food. clearly, i've been missing out--this looks wonderful!

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  16. Hi, I am stopping in from Shane's blog. What beautiful pictures and very interesting recipes! This bread looks absolutely delicious. Glad I came over to look around!

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