Easiest and Tastiest Spiral Ham {Recipe}

I am soooo late in releasing this blog post. It’s been sitting drafted in my dashboard without the finishing touches, for a little over two weeks. In the words of my daughter: Me, bad little blogger.

So, today I wanted to share with you the Easiest & Tastiest Spiral Ham you’ll ever make. My MIL shared this recipe with me. And it was passed to her by her late sister-in-law, Diana. My daughter is her name sake. Her middle name actually.

Ingredients:

• 1 10lb Spiral Ham
• 1/2 cup of packed Brown Sugar
• 1/4 cup of packed Brown Sugar
• 1/4 cup of Water
• 1/4 cup of Cloves
• 10 oz bottle of Saucy Susan (peach-apricot glaze)
• 1 can of Pineapple slices
• 1/4 cup of Maraschino cherries
• 4 oz bottle of Ham glaze
• Wooden toothpicks

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°
2. Place ham in a baking pan. Dissolve brown sugar with 1/4 cup of warm water. Apply mixture onto ham. Press the cloves into the sliced ham top. When pressing the cloves towards the front edge of the ham, be careful as the ham may spread. I use the wooden toothpicks, to perform what I call surgery to keep it all together. 
3. Cover the ham with foil. Make sure to tent the foil. Bake for 2 hours. I calculate the cook time by the pound at 15 minutes. So for a 10lb ham, you’re cooking it for 150 minutes or 2 hours and 30 minutes.
4. In the meantime mix the entire contents of the Saucy Susan, ham glaze, juice from the pineapple slices, 1/2 of the juice from the maraschino cherries and 1/4 cup of brown sugar in a mixing bowl. Refrigerate. 
5. Following the 2 hours in the oven, pull out your ham & remove the cloves. Evenly spread out the pineapples onto the ham, using the wooden toothpicks to hold them. Place a maraschino cherry in the middle of each pineapple, again using the toothpicks. Spread 3/4 of the glaze mixture on top of the ham.
6. Place the ham back into the oven, tented with aluminum foil for another 30 minutes, basting frequently. Use a meat thermometer to confirm the internal temperature of 160 degrees. Make sure that the thermometer does not touch the bone.
7. Once fully cooked, remove the pineapples and cherries & begin to slice. I typically just pull the slices off without the use of a knife.
8. Serve the ham topped with pineapples, cherries and the saved glazed mixture.

And there you have it, the Easiest and Tastiest Spiral Ham.  Perfect for the Holidays. This ham makes an appearance every Noche Buena (Christmas Eve) feast. And this year I made it for Easter too.

Oh and if you’re gonna ask if this recipe is Weight Watchers friendly or how many calories does it contain. I will have to look at you like a deer in head lights. Let me clue you in on us Spanish Folk, our meals tend to be filled with lots of butter, oil, mayonessa, love and lots of calories. So note, that after eating this ham you’ll most definitely have to work it, either at the gym or hit the pavement. But I will admit, it’s TOTALLY worth it. And so are many more of our signature meals.

With that being said, Buen Provecho Mis Amigos!