What's Cooking Wednesday: Ham+Cheese Triangles

I've been making these for several years now. Two sweet friends of mine from grad school shared this recipe with me a while ago, and it's been a go-to ever since! This is basically a glorified, grown-up, and homemade version of a Hot Pocket. 

Ingredients: 

Puff Pastry sheets

Ham

Cheese*

Seasoning (if desired)

Egg

Salt+pepper

*You can use any cheese of your choice - our family just happens to be a big fan of cheddar. You can also use shredded cheese instead of getting sliced. Or you can dice your sliced cheese. Whatever works for you!

Directions: 

1. Take puff pastry sheets out of the freezer ahead of time - 20-30 minutes before starting to cook. You'll need them to thaw enough so they don't break when you unfold them and to roll the dough out. 

2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

3. Dice the ham into small pieces - sized so that you can pile them in the corner of each pastry. 

4. If you're shredding your own cheese or dicing it up, go ahead and do that too. I had these squares and was short on time, so I just folded them corner to corner to make triangles and laid them over the ham once in place. 

5. Unfold thawed pastry sheet onto floured surface. Sprinkle flour on top of pastry as well. 

6. Pinch the seam lines together prior to rolling to ensure pastry does not split. 

7. Use a roller to roll the pastry into a larger, thinner square. 

8. Use a knife or pizza roller to cut the sheet into four smaller squares. 

9. Place diced ham and cheese on one corner of each square. 

10. Use desired seasoning to add flavor to the triangles. Use lightly, though. And honestly, if you have good ham and good cheese, you most likely won't need any seasoning unless you just want it. 

11. Fold opposite corner over the ham and cheese to make a triangle. 

12. Use a fork or your fingers to press the edges of the triangle together. This will keep all the yummy goodness inside the triangles! The best method I have found for this is pulling the bottom part of the triangle over the top and pinching it together. It's not picture-worthy per se, but it works! 

13. Transfer the triangles to the baking sheet or stone. 

14. Use an egg wash to coat the top of the pastries - this gives a pretty color and shine to the pastry!

To make an egg wash - just beat an egg and add 1-2 teaspoons of water. That's it. 

Full disclosure, I did a horrible job at attempting to seal the triangles (see below) and I completely forgot to do the egg wash (see below again). 

To my defense, I had about an hour to cook dinner, get myself and my girls ready for Sadie Ann's spring performance at her school, and Chris was still at work. Thankfully, neither of these mishaps had an effect on the taste and these were consumed by all without a crumb left behind.