Venezuelan Christmas Traditions Begin at the Duráns

Today we made pan de jamón. Pan de jamón is ham bread (pan de jamón sounds better, doesn't it?). It is a traditional Christmas food in Venezuela. Because our family is Venezuelan-American I try to do Venezuelan-American things for Katrina so she learns cultural traditions from her heritage. The first year of her life we made hallacas at Christmas (I will post pictures of this event this year early next week). Last year I surprised Panchito with pan de jamón. A good friend, Kristy, made me the dough and I did the rest. Then, last year I received a kitchenaid mixer for Christmas from my parents and this year I am able to make my own dough (without having to knead it myself!).

So, today I went grocery shopping and got the ingredients for pan de jamón (stuff for bread dough, ham, green olives and raisins) and surprised Panchito with a loaf this evening. Take a look at the process.

Here is the dough with the ham on it.

Katrina put the raisins and green olives on the bread.  

 

Then she "painted" the rolled loaf with beaten egg to give it a gold, shiny appearance.

Here are Panchito's first pieces of pan de jamón of the 2008 Christmas season.

 

He said it tastes just great!

Then, with the other half of the dough I made cinnamon rolls (an American tradition!).

 

Stay tuned for more Venezuelan and American tradition posts...