Bola de Carne - Ham and Bacon Bread

This is a Portuguese recipe and it's one used a lot for parties or Christmas or special occasions. It's called "Bola de Carne" which is basically just a bread filled with bacon and ham and sometimes chourico sausage too. It's really good!

HAM AND BACON BREAD

2 cups flour
3 eggs
4 TBSP butter
salt
1 and half packets of dry yeast
1 cup warm milk
Bacon, Ham, Chourico Sausage (just eyeball it...about half a pack of bacon chopped etc)


In a small bowl, add the warm milk and the yeast, mix well.

In a separate bowl, add the flour, eggs, butter and salt then add the milk mixture and beat well until you have a soft doughy mix.....it will be more like a thick batter. Let it rise for a few minutes.

Grease a baking dish (I used an 8x8 inch) and sprinkle some bread crumbs.

After the dough has risen for a bit, add a thin layer to the bottom of the pan and spread evenly to cover the bottom.

Add a layer of ham slices, then the bacon and then the chourico sausage ( for this recipe I didn't add the chourico).

Follow by another layer of dough, then another layer of the meats and keep repeating until you end with a dough layer.

Smooth it out and sprinkle some more bread crumbs over the top.

Let it rise until doubled in size, mine took about 45 minutes.

Bake in a 375º oven for about 30 minutes or until lightly browned.