March Feast: Flaky Ham and Cheese Sandwiches

Flaky Ham and Cheese Sandwiches

Ingredients:

Honey-Mustard Sauce:

½ cup mayonnaise

¼ cup Dijon mustard

Dash of salt

¼ cup honey

1 Tbsp. distilled white vinegar

Sandwiches:

One 13.2-ounce package Wewalka Puff Pastry dough, at room temperature

1/3 pound very thinly sliced Virginia ham

¾ cup shredded Gruyere cheese

Egg wash: 1 egg whisked with 2 Tbsp. water

Directions:

1. To make the honey-mustard sauce: In a small bowl, mix the mayo, mustard, salt, honey, and vinegar. Blend until smooth and set aside.
2. To make the sandwiches: On a piece of parchment paper cut to fit on a baking sheet, roll out the puff pastry with a long side facing you (Wewalka brand comes already on a piece of parchment paper). Cut the dough into 6 equal squares: Using a pizza cutter, cut the dough in half lengthwise, dividing the dough into 2 long rectangles. Now make 2 widthwise cuts to give you 6 pieces total – 3 on the top row and 3 below. (The exact dimensions of the squares will depend on the brand of puff pastry you are using.)
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees convection (or 375 degrees standard).
4. Spoon about 2 tsp. of the honey-mustard sauce onto the center of the square, then spread it to cover as much of the square as you can, leaving a clean border of ¾ inch on all sides. Next, cut the ham into squares that will cover the mustard part, again leaving about ¾ inch of space around the border. Place up to 2 Tbsp. of Gruyere on top of each ham slice.
5. Brush the empty 3/4-inch borders with the egg wash. Gently pull up a corner of one square and fold it over to form a triangle. Use a fork to crimp the outside edges together and set it on a baking sheet. Repeat with the rest of the squares. Use the remaining egg wash to brush the tops of all the triangles.
6. Transfer the triangles and the parchment paper to a baking sheet. Bake until golden brown and 100% puffed up, 16 to 18 minutes. When first out of the oven these sandwiches are super hot, so let them cool 5 minutes, then serve with the rest of the honey-mustard sauce.

Note: Don’t try to stack too much ham and cheese on the pastry squares because they will not fold.

Enjoy!

The recipe and photo for this recipe came from this cookbook:

The Happy Cookbook; A Celebration of the Food that Makes America Smile.  By Steve and Kathy Doocy.  William Morrow, 2018.

Stay tuned for the next historical post on March 15th.