Ham & Cheese Puff Pastries | Moorlands Eater Recipes | (2024)

Ham & Cheese Puff Pastries are warm pockets of flaky, buttery pastry, filled with a deliciously savoury filling of cooked ham and cheese flavoured with mustard, a little onion, plus fresh herbs.I love larger ones as a main meal with salad or veggies. But they’re just as good made smaller and served as snack or at get togethers.

Surprisingly easy whether you make them with my simple rough puff pastry or bought puff pastry.

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My Ham & Cheese Puff Pastries are a really tasty way to use leftover cooked gammon or ham.

For Christmas, I’d boiled a big, free-range gammon and portioned it up into thin slices for sandwiches and thick slices for what has become our traditional Boxing Day meal of ham, egg, and chips. The rest went into the freezer to make into whatever we fancied. Soup, savoury pancakes, Staffordshire Oatcakes and, as it turned out, these fantastic Ham & Cheese Puff Pastries.

HAM & CHEESE PUFF PASTRIES

I think there’s something about an individual savoury pasty or pastry that’s so appealing. A crisp and/or flaky outer shell plus a soft but robustly flavoured filling all in one handy package.

I’ve recently posted my childhood favourite of with shortcrust pastry and a hearty, homely filling. While the recipe I’m sharing today might appear more difficult, it really isn’t. Ham & Cheese Puff Pastries can, like my corned beef pasties, be served as a main course with veggies or perhaps salad. But, made smaller, they’re great party food too.

PUFF OR ROUGH PUFF PASTRY

While you can make these pastries with ready-made puff pastry, I hope you’ll try my easy homemade ‘rough puff’. It’s the same all-butter, flaky pastry I use for my Sausage Rolls recipe and you’ll find full instructions in that post. Briefly though, all you do is grate cold butter into flour and add cold water to make a dough. Four quick rounds of rolling and folding, chilling for 15 minutes in between, results in a light, layered pastry that puffs up as it cooks.

To make the full amount of Ham & Cheese Puff Pastries you will need a double batch of the sausage roll pastry. That’s about a kilo. If you’re buying ready-made sheets of puff pastry, then the number you’ll need will depend on the size of the sheets. Refer to the packet and work out how many you’d need to cut out eight 15 x 15 cm squares. My recipe makes 8 large pastries (or a greater number of smaller ones if preferred) but you can easily halve everything if you want to make less.

HAM & CHEESE FILLING

While I have made puff pastries with a lovely, melty all-cheese filling before, I wanted the accent to be on the ham in these ones. So I’ve included a much larger proportion of diced cooked ham than Cheddar cheese: 350 grams of ham to 170 grams of cheese. To add extra richness, there’s a few tablespoons of cream. The filling is firmer than a simple cheese pastry which also means it’s less likely to ooze out when baking. To make doubly sure, I bind it with a little beaten egg.

To flavour the ham and cheese filling, I’ve used that classic partner to both: mustard. I prefer wholegrain mustard, but you could swap in Dijon or English. There’s also finely chopped onion in there. Because the pastries bake in a relatively short time, be sure to chop the onion very finely so it’s fully cooked. I’ve discovered a super-quick way to do this: slice using the thinnest setting on a mandolin then chop with a knife. I like a little fresh herb in my Ham & Cheese Puff Pastries so include chopped parsley. Chives would be a good alternative.

To make the filling, simply mix together everything but the egg and season with black pepper. Have a taste and see if it needs any salt, although I don’t add any to mine as I find the mustard salty enough. Finally, stir in enough of the beaten egg to bind the mixture. You probably won’t need a whole egg, so you can save some for sealing and glazing the pastries later.

SHAPING THE PASTRIES

If you’ve made a double batch of my homemade rough puff pastry, after mixing the pastry dough and shaping into a block, I recommend cutting it in two. This will make rolling out easier and you can keep one half chilled in the fridge while working with the other. If using frozen bought puff pastry, make sure it’s thoroughly defrosted or it will certainly crack when you try to use it.

When using doughs like shortcrust pastry, it’s usual to roll and cut out whatever shapes you like, gather up the scraps and make more. But we can’t do that with either kind of puff pastry. That’s because in gathering up and bringing together the scraps you will destroy the layering that makes it flaky when cooked.

So, using homemade rough puff, roll out the first half into a rectangle 60 x 15 cm long. It should be approximately 3 mm thick. This can then be cut into 4 squares each 15 x 15 cm. I use a plastic container as a guide to cut around. If you’re using ready-made sheets, prepare one at a time following the manufacturer’s instructions. Then cut into 15 cm squares, or as close to that as you can get depending on the size of the sheets.

Working with one square at a time, brush a 1 cm border of beaten egg all around the edge. Then place ⅛ of the filling in a triangular shape over half of the pastry as shown in the photo above. Fold over the other half to cover the filling and firmly press down to seal. Dip the tines of a fork into flour and press down again.

Transfer the pastry to a lined baking sheet then use the rest of the cut out squares to make more.

BAKING HAM & CHEESE PUFF PASTRIES

Just before baking, brush some beaten egg over the top of each pastry to give it a nice glaze. Then make two cuts on the top of each one (I snip with scissors) to let the steam out as they bake.

We first cook the Ham & Cheese Puff Pastries at 220° C /200° Fan /Gas 7 /425° F for 10 minutes. This will kick-start the pastry into puffing up. Then we lower the heat to 200° C /180° Fan /Gas 6 /400° F until thoroughly cooked through and golden brown. This should take a further 10 – 15 minutes. While that’s happening you can be shaping another batch of pastries.

When done, transfer the cooked pastries to a wire rack to cool slightly. Before baking the next batch, remember to turn the oven temperature back up again!

If you’re not eating them all straight away the pastries can be stored in the fridge for 2 – 3 days. Or you can freeze them. To reheat a batch, put in the oven at 200° C /180° Fan /Gas 6 /400° F until piping hot. For smaller amounts, an air fryer is perfect.

SERVING HAM & CHEESE PUFF PASTRIES

I love these warm pockets of flaky, buttery pastry filled with a deliciously savoury filling as a main course with salad or veggies. If I’m feeling especially hungry then I might have a few air fryer chips on the side too. But, made about half the size, they’re brilliant as a snack or served as part of a buffet or party food.

If you use ready-made puff pastry, then Ham & Cheese Puff Pastries are pretty quick to make. But homemade rough puff really isn’t difficult either. Whichever method you use, I’d love to hear what you thought. Please do leave a comment and rating to let me know.

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