No Morning Is Complete Without Ham And Cheese Spinach Puffs

The trick to this dish is the sauce bakes inside of the cheese puffs, you don’t have to make them with the sauce you could just scoop cheese in the middle of each puff but you will be doing your mouth and stomach a disservice.

The cheese sauce aka Mornay Sauce is very simple to make and I feel it makes for a better overall consistency to this dish. Insider tip, you could use Mornay sauce to make mac and cheese!

One bit of advice, though. The “Mornay Sauce” in this recipe is not made the traditional way which uses flour and butter and starts out as a Bechamel. It is a workaround that will yield great results but in a fraction of the time and it cuts out additional fat and carbs from needing to make a roux, then the Bechamel, and then the Mornay Sauce.

This recipe is an adaptation from Eatwell 101 and it is highly recommended you check out their original recipe to get other ideas of how to make this dish.

Ingredients 

Recipe Makes 6 puffs

Mornay Sauce

• 1⁄4 cup whole milk (it has to be whole milk, super important)
• 1 cup grated Emmentaler, White Cheddar or Gruyere cheese
• pinch of nutmeg
• pepper to taste

Puffs

• 1 Sheet puff pastry (thawed and refrigerated until needed)
• 4 oz thick cut ham, cut into 1⁄4″ pieces (honey baked ham works great)
• 1 cup fresh cooked spinach, (1 pound of fresh will yield approximately 1 cup cook spinach) chopped
• 1 teaspoon diced yellow onion
• 1⁄4 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 egg whisked

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.  Thaw out puff pastry on the kitchen counter if you have done this already. Once puff pastry thaws keep refrigerated until needed.
2. Heat on medium heat a large non-stick pan. Add olive oil, onions, and garlic. Cook until the onions turn translucent making sure not to brown garlic or onions. Add spinach, constantly turning spinach until it wilts. Place spinach in a colander or strainer. Press out some of the excess water out of the spinach until very little liquid comes out. Once the liquid has been pressed out, chop spinach for roughly 20-30 seconds then set aside.
3. * See notes below* Heat milk in a small pot on medium low. Add cheese and constantly stir with a rubber spatula making sure the cheese melts. Keep stirring until cheese melts completely. Turn off heat, season with pepper and nutmeg add chopped spinach and ham stir a few times making sure ham and spinach are completely mixed with Mornay Sauce. Set aside.
4. Remove puff pastry from the fridge, cut into 5-inch squares then scoop enough filling onto the center of each puff pastry square. Fold each of the corners inward. Brush each of the puffs with the whisked egg.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Serve and enjoy.

*When making the sauce make sure not to overheat your milk or this will cause the sauce to “break” once you add the cheese. You want to gradually heat the milk and cheese together. If your sauce happens to “break” meaning it has a grainy lumpy consistency blend the sauce for a few seconds. This will emulsive the fats and milk solids back together.

Photo source: Eatwell 101