Ham-Filled Croissants

Submitted by: Diana Moxon (Sweden)

A recipe with a story… I don’t have any real heirloom stories of a dish from ancient Brits!... But here’s a recipe that I often make for my Eurovision Song Contest parties. I used to live in Sweden, and the Swedes are fabulous and breads, cakes and cookies. I bought a recipe book while I was living in Sweden called ‘Att Lyckas med gott hembakat’ which means roughly Successful Home Baking. And there is one recipe that I fell in love with called Skinkfyllda gifflar – which means ham-filled croissants. You don’t have to make it with ham, often I just make it with cream cheese and finely chopped and fried mushrooms. I will say they are always a huge hit at my Eurovision party or wherever else I take them!

Ham-Filled Croissants

(Serves 18-24 people)

Ingredients 

• For the croissants:

  • 11-12 ounces of all purpose white flour

  • 2 ounces butter

  • 1 tsp salt

  • 1tsp sugar

  • 1/2 to 3/4 oz dried yeast

  • 7/8 cup of warm water (approx.)
    

• For the filling:

  • 6 ounces cooked ham

  • 4 ounces cream cheese

  • 1tbsp of chopped chives

  • 1 beaten egg for glazing
    

• For the topping:

  • Cumin seeds, or sesame seeds, or poppy seeds, or whatever

Instructions:

Mix the dried yeast with the warm water and stir until dissolved. Rub together the butter and flour, add the salt and sugar and the yeast/water mixture and mix together until it forms a ball.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it until it feels smooth (around 5 minutes). Divide the dough into two and roll them into round balls. Using a rolling pin, roll out each dough ball to a roughly 10” circle. Using a knife, cut the circles into 8 triangular pieces – cut north to south, east to west, northeast to southwest, and northwest to southeast.

Mix together the cream cheese, ham and chives. Divide the mixture into sixteen evenly sized clumps and put a clump on the wide end of each triangle.

Starting from the outside/longer edge of each triangle, roll the dough over the ham and cheese towards the pointy end of the triangle. You should have a croissant shape.

Put the 16 croissants on a baking sheet and leave them to rise for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, brush lightly with the egg wash and sprinkle with your choice of seeds. Bake at 435F for 8-10 minutes until golden brown.