Ham and Cheese Puff Pastry Squares

The amount of puff pastry I’ve consumed over the past few weeks might be alarming to some, (like my doctor) but not to others (like the French). I’m just saying, if you pass me on the street and want the secret to my glowing skin: butter.

I had to test my 15-minute puff pastry recipe a few times, and then I tested dessert recipes with it. Desserts like apple turnovers and palmiers. Oh, and let’s not forget that ‘dessert,’ where I brushed dough with even more butter and showered it with cinnamon and sugar. I was just showing off for that one. After the last batch of puff pastry was gone, I had the idea to make you a quick, savory appetizer for Thanksgiving. So, I made another batch of dough. Oh, bless these strugglin’ arteries.

One recipe of my homemade puff pastry makes 4 reasonable-sized ham and cheese sandwiches, which we ate with Caesar salad for dinner one night. (Salad negates butter, if you didn’t know). As an appetizer, you can get 8 bites out of it. You can scale up from there, according to your party plans. It’s just so dang simple. Grab some sliced ham (thin, but not shaved) and your favorite cheese (I used Kerrygold Dubliner with Irish Stout), brush on a little mustard, crimp, and bake.

You’ll have the butter glow in no time!

Yield: 4

Ham and Cheese Pastry Puffs

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Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 17 minutes

Total Time 37 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 recipe u][15-minute puff pastry[/u]
• flour, for rolling
• 2 tablespoons mustard (Dijon, or your favorite)
• 6 thin slices of ham
• 1 cup grated Kerrygold Dubliner cheese (Dubliner with Irish Stout is fantastic here)
• 1 large egg yolk, beaten

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 450.
2. The recipe for 15-minute puff pastry calls for the dough to be chilled for 1 hour before use. Do not skip that step. Then, on a floured surface, roll out the dough to a 10" square. Trim the edges with a knife, if you're into that neat sort of thing.
3. Brush mustard over all of the dough.
4. Place the ham slices, slightly overlapping each other on the bottom half of the dough. Be sure to leave a 3/4" border.
5. Cover the ham with the cheese, again leaving a border for crimping.
6. Fold the top half of the dough over the ham and cheese, and press the edges closed gently with your fingers. Use a fork to crimp the edges.
7. Move the pastry to a baking sheet. Brush the egg yolk over the entire exposed surface liberally with the beaten egg. Use all of the egg, don't skimp.
8. Bake for 17-19 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown. Let cool for a few minutes before slicing an serving.

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