Pão com chouriço
One of the smells of Portuguese festivals and fairs: rolls straight from a wood-fired oven, with slices of smoky paprika chouriço sausage rolled up in bread dough. In the oven the sausage fat soaks into the crumb and stains it red, and the bread takes on a smoky, slightly spicy flavour. The dough is simple — flour, water, yeast and salt — and shaping needs no special skill. They are best still warm, with a glass of red wine.
Your own work in that: 35 min.
- Kneading 15 min
- Rising 60 min
- Rolling in the sausage 20 min
- Proving 40 min
- Baking 25 min
- Cooling 10 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneMake the dough
Set aside a spoonful of the flour for dusting the rolls. Mix the rest with the yeast and salt, add the water and olive oil and knead 10–12 minutes, until smooth and elastic.
Ingredients: 500 g strong white bread flour · 320 ml lukewarm water · 7 g dried yeast · 9 g salt · 1 tbsp olive oil
Smooth and elastic — a classic bread dough.Leave to rise
Cover the dough and leave somewhere warm an hour, until doubled.
Ingredients: 500 g strong white bread flour · 320 ml lukewarm water · 7 g dried yeast · 9 g salt · 1 tbsp olive oil
Slice the sausage
Remove the sausage casing if it is tough and cut the sausage into 2–3 mm slices.
Ingredients: 200 g chouriço or smoked chorizo, thinly sliced
Divide and flatten
Divide the dough into 8 pieces. Flatten each by hand into a rectangle about 15 × 10 cm.
Ingredients: 500 g strong white bread flour · 320 ml lukewarm water · 7 g dried yeast · 9 g salt · 1 tbsp olive oil
Roll in the sausage
Lay the sausage slices on each rectangle, leaving a 1 cm border. Roll up tightly from the short side and pinch the seam and ends so the fat does not leak out.
Ingredients: 200 g chouriço or smoked chorizo, thinly sliced
Rolled tight — sausage in every bite.Prove
Set the rolls seam down on a lined tray, cover and leave 40 minutes. Heat the oven to 220°C.
Ingredients: 500 g strong white bread flour · 320 ml lukewarm water · 7 g dried yeast · 9 g salt · 1 tbsp olive oil
Bake
Dust the rolls with the reserved flour and bake 20–25 minutes, until golden and they sound hollow when tapped underneath.
Ingredients: 500 g strong white bread flour · 320 ml lukewarm water · 7 g dried yeast · 9 g salt · 1 tbsp olive oil
The sausage fat stains the crumb red.Cool briefly
Cool 10 minutes on a rack — the filling is very hot. Serve warm, tearing the rolls by hand.
Ingredients: 500 g strong white bread flour · 320 ml lukewarm water · 7 g dried yeast · 9 g salt · 1 tbsp olive oil
Before you start
Which sausage
Portuguese chouriço is smoked and heavily seasoned with paprika and garlic. Spanish slicing chorizo or a good smoked paprika sausage can replace it. Do not use raw sausage (such as fresh cooking chorizo) — it may not cook through inside the dough.
One large loaf
You can roll all the dough into a rectangle, cover it with sausage, roll it up and bake it as one loaf at 200°C for 35–40 minutes.
Storage
The rolls are best on the day they are baked. Once cool they can sit for a few hours at room temperature; after that keep them in the fridge for 2–3 days. Reheat 5 minutes in an oven heated to 180°C before serving.
