Ham and Mushroom Loaf

By: Pete on 08:24:00

Another fairly simple filled bread, again to be used as travelling snack food as I head round the south of the UK cycling. I've been trying to create a sort of swiss-roll effect, where the dough is rolled out, the filling laid over it, and then you roll it up. The biggest issue I'm hitting is getting the filling to be even, and also to not cause a big air bubble near the top. This time I tried slashing the loaf to provide an escape for any steam generated.

Ham and Mushroom Loaf

Dough Ingredients

• 500g strong white flour
• 10g salt
• 7g fast action yeast
• 30g sunflower oil
• 300ml water

1) Put all the ingredients in a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment

2) Mix for 8-10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and soft

3) Place in a lightly oiled bowl, and allow to rise for 2 hours (or, as I did in this case, pop it in the fridge and prove it overnight)

Filling ingredients

• 300g chopped ham (you want the decent deli-stuff, not the thin, wet slices)
• Half a punnet of mushrooms

1) Chop the mushrooms to roughly the same size as the pieces of ham

Assembly

• Poppy Seeds
• Milk (to glaze)

1) Turn the proved dough out onto a lightly floured surface

2) Knock back, then roll out to a rectangle 30cm x 50cm

3) Sprinkle the ham and mushroom evenly over the dough, leaving a small gap at all edges

4) Starting on a short edge, roll the dough into a cylinder

5) Turn the ends under to seal the filling inside

6) Place on a baking tray lined with baking parchment, and leave to rise for 1½ hours

7) Pre-heat the oven to 200'C

8)  Brush the loaf with milk, using a pastry brush

9) Sprinkle the top with poppy seeds

10) Slash the loaf deeply 3-4 times diagonally

11) Place in the oven, and pour 500ml of water in a tray in the base of the oven

12) Bake for 35 minutes

13) Remove to a wire rack to cool