Ham & Cheese Breakfast Puffs

On Tuesday night, we were having a friend over, so naturally I made a 9 pound ham for dinner.  For three people.  Now that may seem like too much ham to you, but is there really such a thing?  I say no.  In my defense, it was the smallest ham Publix had, and I was not about to do something totally inconvenient like go across the street to Kroger to see what hams they had.  So anyway, back to my big huge ham.  Studded with cloves and glazed with brown sugar and honey, it was magnificent.

But as you may have guessed, I have a lot of ham on my hands.  I reserved some in the fridge for our dinner the rest of the week.  I froze most of it in one pound blocks, and of course I saved the bone.  Just wait til the summer.  My green beans will be the bomb thanks to this very ham bone.  But there was a little ham left in the fridge this morning that needed to be used.  So I decided it must somehow become breakfast.  After I discovered I had a puff pastry sheet in the freezer, this idea came to me.  Ham and cheese breakfast puffs!  I made it up as I went.  And it was good.  So here it is, for your eating pleasure.

When you pop this in the oven, the cheese melts and the ham caramelizes with the onion and the pastry puffs and browns...it's just wonderful.  If having too much ham is wrong, I don't want to be right.

Ham & Cheese Breakfast Puffs

Ingredients:

1 puff pastry sheet
1 cup shredded extra sharp cheddar
3/4 cup diced ham
1/4 cup diced sweet onion
1 egg

Preheat oven to 400.  Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper and then spritz with nonstick spray.  Dice 1/4 cup of onion, which was about 1/4 of a medium onion for me.

Next, shred your cheese.  I shredded some using the medium grate, and some using the fine.

Trim any fat off the ham.  Here's what my ham looked like pre-dice:

Here's post-dice:

Combine your onion, ham, and cheese in a mixing bowl.  

On a floured surface, spread out your dough.  Cut into 4 equal sections.

At this point, I determined that my dough quarters weren't going to be big enough to accommodate my fillings. So I rolled them out to make each a little bigger and thinner.

You can't tell from the picture but I swear they are much bigger now.  OK, so now spoon on your ham and cheese filling.  Try to put most of it in the bottom left corner of each pastry square.  This will help when you fold them over.

Next, fold the top right corner of each square over the fillings so that the edges meet.

Now use a fork to press and seal your edges.

Now place each pastry onto prepared baking sheet.  In a small bowl, beat egg with 1 Tbsp of water.  Brush the top of each pastry with the egg.

Cut a little slit in each one for air to escape.  Here's what they look like:

Now place in the oven and bake 18 minutes or until golden and puffy and beautiful!  Here's what they look like when they're done.  Yay!

Serve immediately.  Enjoy!