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Prosciutto Bread with Provolone

January 14, 2022 By Karl 16 Comments

UPDATE:

I just made a couple more loaves of this, substituting hard salami for the capicola and steak bacon for the prosciutto. I did keep the original pepperoni. These meats make for a much better and more reasonably-priced product. Maybe you can call it salami and provolone bread.

If you can’t find steak bacon at your butcher, you could just use chunks of pork belly–it’s pretty much the same thing. Just make sure to pre-cook and cool the bacon or pork belly before adding it to the dough.

One last thing: when the bread has cooled after baking, it must be refrigerated because of all the meat and cheese in it.

—————————————————————————

Here’s a delicious recipe based on one from Cooks Country/Cooks Illustrated. Please note that this recipe yields two loaves.

This was actually fairly quick and easy to make, but note that if you use the Italian meats in the ingredient list, you’re going to spend about $30 on meat alone. I went to our local Italian deli to get the needed ingredients, and was disappointed to find that most of the meats were $35-$45 per pound—pretty overpriced. I walked out of there with less than a pound of ingredients and my wallet a lot lighter. 

Here’s the thing, the recipe calls for chunks of meat, rather than slices of meat, which makes sense, given how it’s supposed to turn out. None of our local grocery stores had any of the cheese/meat ingredients in non-sliced form, so I went to a real Italian deli. After that fact, my recommendation is to 1) skip going to the most overpriced Italian deli in town just to get capicola and 2) substitute prosciutto and capicola with other, more reasonably-priced Italian meats, such as salami, etc. This way, you could make both loaves for about $20, rather than the $40+ that I spent. Of course, it would no longer be “prosciutto” bread. Frankly, the capicola actually sucked, as it was overly-salty; the bread would have been much better without it. Maybe the type I bought was just low quality or something.

With all that said, the recipe, itself, is really very good, with the exception of the capicola. Substitute that out, and you’ll be set.

What you’ll need:

  • 3 cups (16.5 oz.) bread flour—I recommend weighing, not measuring
  • 1.5t instant or rapid-rise yeast
  • 1t salt
  • 1 cup mild beer, room temperature (Budweiser is fine)
  • 6T water, room temperature
  • 3T extra-virgin olive oil
  • 4 oz. (0.25-inch-thick) provolone cheese, cut into 0.5-inch pieces
  • 3 oz. (0.25-inch-thick) sliced prosciutto, cut into 0.5-inch pieces
  • 4 oz. (0.25-inch-thick) sliced pepperoni, cut into 0.5-inch pieces
  • 3 oz. (0.25-inch-thick) sliced capicola, cut into 0.5-inch pieces
  • 1t coarsely ground pepper
  • Cornmeal

What to do:

Whisk together the flour, yeast and salt in the bowl of stand mixer, then whisk together the beer, water and oil together in a separate vessel.

Mix the flour mixture with a dough hook on low speed while slowly adding the beer mixture until a dough starts to form and no dry flour remains, scraping down bowl as needed—about 2 minutes. Increase the speed to medium and knead the dough until it is smooth, elastic and clears sides of bowl—about 8 minutes.

At this point, return the mixer speed to low and gradually add the cut up cheese/meats and pepper. Continue to knead until combined—about 2 minutes. Now transfer the dough to a lightly-floured counter and knead by hand for a bit, collecting any pieces of meat left behind in the mixer bowl. Try to get the meat and cheese evenly distributed throughout the dough.

Form the dough into a ball and place it in a slightly greased large bowl. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let the dough rise at room temperature until doubled in size—1.5 hours.

Now you’re ready to make the two loaves. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly dust it with cornmeal. Turn out the dough to a counter and gently press down to deflate any large air pockets. Cut the ball into 2 even pieces—maybe weigh them to ensure an equal split. Press each piece of dough into an 8 x 5-inch rectangle with the long side parallel to the counter’s edge.

Working with 1 piece of dough at a time, fold the top (long) edge of the rectangle down to the midline, pressing on it to seal. Now fold the bottom (long) edge of rectangle up to midline and pinch to seal. Flip the dough over—seam-side down—and gently roll it into a 12-inch loaf with tapered ends. Transfer the loaf to 1 side of prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the second piece of dough and place that loaf about 3 inches from first loaf on the baking sheet. Cover both loaves with greased plastic and let them rise at room temperature until puffy and the dough springs back slowly when pressed lightly with your finger—about 45 minutes.

While the loaves are rising, put an oven rack in the middle position and heat the oven to 450 degrees F. Just before putting the loaves into the oven, slit the tops of the loaves with a paring knife—making about a 0.5-inch-deep gash the length of the loaves., stopping 1.5 inches from each end.

Bake until the bread registers 205–210 degrees—about 22–25 minutes. 

When they’re done, transfer the loaves to a wire rack and let them cool completely—about 3 hours. 

Break pieces off to serve, as they’ll be very hard to slice because of all the meat and cheese chunks inside.

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Filed Under: Appetizers & cheese, Baked goods, Italian

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Comments

  1. Bev Bachel says

    January 14, 2022 at 7:31 am

    Looks delicious. And breaking up pieces rather than slicing sounds ideal to me.

  2. Karl says

    January 14, 2022 at 12:53 pm

    Thanks. It is really good. It’s a little like eating a sandwich because there’s so much meat in it.

  3. Kat says

    August 8, 2022 at 6:47 pm

    I’m new to your site, looking for a prosciutto bread recipe. There are many recipes like this out there but I chose yours to try out – it’s excellent. But what attracted me to your recipe was your refreshing and giggle worthy honesty: “Frankly, the capicola actually sucked, as it was overly-salty…” I’m looking forward yo perusing your other recipes! Thanks!!!

  4. Karl says

    August 12, 2022 at 7:50 pm

    Hi, Kat. Thanks for your kind note. Glad you enjoyed the recipe and my writing style. Too many food bloggers take themselves too seriously. If something sucks, I’ll say so. 🙂

  5. LaNell says

    November 21, 2022 at 12:21 pm

    Wonderful bread! I’m going to try it with sharp cheddar & apple chunks.

  6. Karl says

    November 22, 2022 at 5:49 pm

    Glad you liked it! Cheddar and apple seems like a fine idea.

  7. Lavona says

    December 15, 2022 at 9:51 pm

    Hi I was wondering if I could freeze this bread so I can make a week ahead of time?

  8. Karl says

    December 16, 2022 at 1:32 pm

    That’s a good question. I was thinking the same thing, as I’m planning on making a couple loaves within the next couple of weeks. I don’t see a reason why it couldn’t be frozen. I’ve frozen loaves of bread before with no ill effect, so one would expect this bread to freeze well, too.

  9. Mae says

    October 17, 2023 at 10:40 pm

    This looks delicious. Have you ever tried adding roasted garlic to the recipe?

  10. Karl says

    October 19, 2023 at 11:04 am

    I have not, and that sounds like a delicious idea. Thank you!

  11. Pat Romero says

    December 19, 2023 at 1:47 pm

    I love this recipe. I live in Florida now and no one knows what this is. In one week I have made 10 loaves and every single one came out awesome. I’m Italian and know my bread. Thanks again

  12. Karl says

    December 19, 2023 at 2:11 pm

    That’s awesome! Glad they turn out for you so well!

  13. Michelle says

    December 21, 2023 at 3:54 pm

    Someone please tell my why my first mixing of flour mix with beer didnt form a ball but stayed wet wet? Very pricey. Will switch meats if you can answer my question. I added almost o e cup of additional flour to get it into forming a ball.

  14. Karl says

    December 23, 2023 at 8:16 am

    I’m not sure why that didn’t work for you. Maybe ensure that you measure the flour by weight–measuring by volume is often grossly inaccurate. Not sure if “pricey” is referring to the cost of flour and beer, but I’m sorry to hear that the recipe didn’t work out for you.

  15. Becky says

    December 23, 2024 at 8:19 am

    O. M. G. BEST BREAD EVER! I’ve wanted to try this bread ever since I saw it featured on the D D & D episode featuring Dolce & Clemente in Robbinsville, NJ. Unfortunately, they don’t ship their bread so I was looking for a good recipe and landed on yours (I refuse to pay the ridiculous subscription fees charged by America’s Test Kitchen). Despite a bit of variation in the meats compared to those used by Dolce & Clements, yours looked to be the best and it lived up to expectations. It produces the most beautiful golden brown loaves absolutely chock full of Provolone and delicious deli meats. I used extra sharp Provolone, imported prosciutto, pepperoni, and quality hot capicola – the cost was about $20.00. It was not overly salty, and we couldn’t stop eating it. Weighing the bread flour is crucial because the cup measurement falls short. Thanks for the recipe and Merry Christmas!

  16. Karl says

    December 23, 2024 at 5:52 pm

    What a wonderful comment! Thank you so much. I’m glad the bread turned out so well.

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