Bollos preñaos – Asturian bread rolls with chorizo

Set aside 10 g milk for brushing the rolls and warm the remaining 240 g only until lukewarm and comfortable to touch. The milk must not be hot. Weigh the egg without its shell, keeping the white and yolk together. The butter should be soft. Remove the chorizo casing and divide the sausage into eight compact portions of 30 g.

Mix the flour, yeast and sugar in a bowl. Add the lukewarm milk, egg and salt, and bring together. Knead by hand on a clean work surface, gradually adding the softened butter. After about 10–12 minutes, the dough should be smooth, springy and soft, just slightly tacky. Do not add flour; do not add extra fat either. The initial stickiness will lessen as you knead.

Shape into a ball, place in a bowl and cover. Leave in a warm place without drafts for about 60–90 minutes, until the dough roughly doubles in volume. It may take longer in a cool kitchen; judge by the dough's growth, not by the clock alone.

Turn the dough out onto a clean surface and press gently to release large air bubbles. Divide into eight portions as evenly as possible. Flatten each with your palm into a small disc, leaving the center a little thicker than the edges. Prepare a baking sheet lined with baking paper.

Place one prepared portion of chorizo in the center of each disc. Gather the dough over the filling and firmly pinch the edges together with your fingers, enclosing the sausage completely. Keep the edges to be sealed clean, without fat from the chorizo. Shape into round or slightly oval rolls and set on the baking sheet seam side down, leaving a few centimeters between them.

Cover the rolls with a clean cloth and leave for about 35–45 minutes, until noticeably rounder and puffed up. Allow a longer rise if needed. Toward the end, heat the oven to 200°C with conventional top and bottom heat. Gently brush the rolls with the reserved milk, using only as much as needed; leave the unused remainder out of the dish.

Bake on the middle rack for about 25–30 minutes, until the rolls are evenly golden and fully baked underneath too. The crumb beside the filling should be baked through and the chorizo hot. This version uses sausage that is already ready to eat; the baking time is for cooking the dough and heating the filling.

Transfer the rolls to a rack and leave for about 15 minutes, until the crumb is no longer scalding hot and settles around the filling. Serve still warm, one roll per snack serving. Cut open, each should show a compact piece of chorizo and crumb lightly colored by its paprika-flavored fat.