Chorizo and Proscuitto Brioche Loaf - Folar de Chaves

Happy Easter everyone!

Several years ago, Easter for myself was relatively quiet, chocolate wasn't even part of the landscape. A year and a bit ago my 6 year old nephew came to live with me. Suddenly Easter has taken on new meaning, it's filled with chocolate, new and old traditions. It's funny when kids are part of your life you suddenly try to pass on traditions that had no meaning at all or you try to create new ones.
Last year, we had an egg hunt with my friends and their child, then we had breakfast filled with traditional Easter fair. This year we carried on that tradition.

As a child, I remember  having certain foods at a specific time of year. In a world where we can have anything and everything at anytime of year especially when it comes to food, its great to uphold yearly food traditions. I think we have forgotten that in previous decades, people would only  have fruit,vegetables, and sweets at a specific time of year and it was generally followed by a holy day; a celebration of a Saints Day.  In Australia we don't really identify a food with a specific day except for Easter and Christmas. We have Hot Cross Buns for Easter and Christmas pudding for Christmas but this last one can be argued by some to not be part of our modern fair and I'd agree.
For Easter the Portuguese make Folar. Their are two types of Folar, there is the sweet version and the savoury one, which has  preserved meats. Last year I featured the sweet version so this year I made the savoury one.

How can I describe Folar well it's like a brioche.  It's a soft bread and kind of buttery.
The savoury version is called by several names Folar de Chaves or Folar de Tras dos Montes, which just means it's from the North of Portugal. Anything from the north usually features meat, hence the name.
It's so delicious it was eaten in a day.

RECIPE

• 200ml tepid milk
• 10g dry yeast
• 15g sugar
• 2 eggs
• 520g bread flour or plain flour
• 100g soft butter
• 155g chorizo, slices
• 55g pancetta or 4 slices
• 70g prosciutto  4 slices
• 1 egg for brushing the  top of the bread

 1. In a bowl add the tepid milk, sugar and yeast. Leave to stand 15 min until it bubbles and grows.
Whisk the eggs into the yeast mixture.

2. In a mixing bowl add the mixture to the bowl and add the flour. Put the hook attachment on.

3. Beat the mixture till it comes together and beat for 2 minutes. After this time add the soft butter a bit at a time till all of it has gone in. Then beat a further 3 minutes on medium speed.

 4. Transfer the dough onto a floured surface and roll out to 15-20cm, the size of your loaf pan. It should be 10com in depth so not thin.

5. Lay the chorizo first then add the pancetta then the prosciutto.

6. Roll the dough bringing it to form a long roll. Then transform the dough into a loaf pan. Spray the pan so that the bread doesn't stick to the pan.

7.Allow the dough to rest for 30 min or until it has doubled in size. Brush the top of the dough with an egg. Then bake it for 40min at 180 degrees

Happy Easter - Folar de Pascoa (Sweet Easter Bread)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. It's been a while since I've celebrated Easter, but since my 5 year old nephew has come to live with my husband & I several months ago we seem to celebrate all those holidays that kids love.
When you see easter from a childs perspective it's a time of wonder & magic, a time full of chocolate, as an adult you forget how these days felt.
I awoke on Easter morning to find my nephew eating a chocolate bunny, a smile on his face, as well as chocolate.
I wanted to reprimande him as he's not allowed to eat junk food on a regular basis, but then I thought hey it's easter, if he can't eat chocolate on this day then when, so I left him to it.
My husband & sister in law are happy they tell me, since I started this blog, because they get to taste all their childhood favorites, they devoured this folar.
To be honest I've never made a folar which is a sweet bread, my mum makes them every year, I decided that since easter was here that I had to road test Portugals famous Easter bread, & report back.
Folar is to the Portuguese what hot cross buns are to Australians.
Folar is made differently from region to region, in the north it's made with yeast, like a sweet bread & in the south it's made more like a cake, the similarity are that they all have boiled eggs in them.
Traditionally their made with aniseed but I'm not a fan of this spice so I substituted it for nutmeg.
Because of easter I made the sweet one but there are many types of folar that have different types of meat. I hope to bring you this version in a future post. 

Ingredients

520g plain flour
15g yeast
50g sugar
90g butter
2 eggs
200ml milk, tepid
2 tea cinnamon
2 tea nutmeg whole or ground
1/2 tea salt
4 boiled eggs

1. Warm  the milk till just tepid. In a bowl add the milk, yeast & sugar, leave in awarm place until the yeast bubbles & grows, about 10 minutes.

2. Measure out the flour, cinnamon,nutmeg,salt & combine all together in a bowl.
When the yeast mixture has doubled in size, mix in the eggs.

  3. Combine the eggy yeast mixture to the flour. Combine all together, till a ball forms.

4. Once the dough is combined, knead for 3 min.

5. Put a tea bowl on top of the bowl & leave to rest in a warm place, till it's doubled in size.

6. Once the dough has doubled in size punch it down & knead again for 3 min. Then cut a small piece
of dough, roll 2 rope size pieces.

7. Entwine the 2 pieces together, to make this pattern. Then repeat the process. You will meed 4 of these.

8. Line a cake pan with baking paper, then put the rest of the dough into the pan. With the patterned dough line around the base dough, then add the other two on top to form a cross.
Then place the boiled eggs in the spaces left & brush the top with an egg. Leave for 5 minutes until the dough rises.
Bake at 190 degrees for 40 min.

I've included a photo of my mums version. As my mum gives us one of hers each year I decided to make a folar from the north. My husband & sister in law appreciated this as their parents come from the north.

It was great to have their opinion on my one.

Tips

• The milk should be warm, if it's too hot, it will kill the yeast.
• You dont have to knead the dough as much as you would normal bread dough
• If you dont like eggs you can put apples or pears through the dough mix