Cheese & Ham Pastries - Gluten Free, High protein, Lower Carb

Recipe: Cheese & Ham Pastries Recipe »

These crispy ham and cheese pastries use rice paper instead of traditional pastry. Filled with layers of ham, Swiss cheese, Dijon mustard and green onions, the rice paper is rolled, coiled and pan fried until golden and crisp on the outside while the cheese melts inside. With around 36g of protein per pastry and just a handful of ingredients, they are a simple breakfast, brunch or snack idea. They are also gluten free and lower carb.

About These Cheese & Ham Pastries

Make breakfast at home fun with these cheese and ham swirl pastries. Best of all these are also gluten free thanks to replacing pastry with crispy rice paper (don't knock it until you try it)!. Made with just a few ingredients but designed to be super tasty and moreish you'll love these ham and cheese pastries!

BONUS: These pan fried pastries are high protein and lower carb so they're great if you're looking for a lighter, tasty snack. I calculated that each pastry has around 36g of protein!

Video How To Make Cheese & Ham Pastries

Video: How to Make Ham and Cheese Spirals

Ingredients For Cheese & Ham Pastries

Oil spray - Essential for avoiding a sticky situation with the rice paper!

Rice paper rounds - Found at supermarkets in the Asian/Vietnamese food section.

Eggs - Use large eggs.

Dijon Mustard & Honey- optional but I like how they cut through the richness of the ham and cheese

Ham - this works well with round ham slices. I know that you can get all sorts of fancy sliced ham but for ease just regular double smoked ham rounds are great for this.

Swiss cheese - Go for pre sliced cheese. Unfortunately the packet of Swiss cheese I had was 200g/7oz with 10 slices and we need 12 so I replaced with grated tasty cheese. I find this much easier using cheese slices rather than grated cheese.

Green onions - Can also use chives. Don't skip these, they really add a great flavour to the pastries!

Poppy seeds - Can also replace with sesame seeds or omit.

Butter or oil - You can use either for pan frying these pastries.

Tips For Making Cheese & Ham Pastries

1 - Oil spray is your best friend when it comes to rice paper rolls. It prevents the rice paper from sticking to surfaces. And because we will be frying them, any extra oil will only help.

2 - I brush the beaten egg onto the pastry rather than dipping it because I find this controls the texture of the rice paper better and makes it less messy and sticky.

3 - Make sure to place the ham and cheese etc at the bottom area of the rice paper so that it can be completely enclosed when you roll it up.

4 - You can make this recipe 1 day ahead of time, store in an airtight container in the fridge and fry them when needed. Make sure that they don't stick to each other and oil them well so they don't stick to the container.

5 - The 14 minutes cooking time is to ensure that the cheese melts in the centre. If you are cooking these straight from the fridge add another minute or two to account for the extra chill factor.

6 - Fry these on medium heat - rice paper only really browns on medium heat and low heat will keep the colour quite pale albeit crispy.

7 - I LOVE these when they're cooler, like after an hour or so. Normally I like pastries warm but I think these improve upon cooling!

Other recipes that use rice paper are these chee cheong fun or these crispy rice paper dumplings. Or these classic Vietnamese rice paper rolls are an absolute favourite at home!

Happy weekend everyone! x

Cheese & Ham Pastries Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 14 minutes

Makes: 4 Pastries

Ingredients Needed

• Oil spray to prevent rice paper sticking
• 16 rice paper rounds
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 24 slices ham (around 320g/11.3oz)
• 12 slices Swiss cheese (around 240g/8.5oz)
• 40g/1.4oz green onions, sliced
• 2 teaspoons poppy seeds
• 1 tablespoon butter or oil to fry

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 BRUSH - Spray a clean surface with oil spray. Take 1 rice paper sheet and brush on one side with the beaten egg. Repeat with two other sheets overlapping them over the other. Turn over and brush the other side with beaten egg.

Step 2 ROLL - Brush a little Dijon mustard and honey across the length of the rice paper. Then towards the bottom lay out 6 slices of ham, overlapping but leaving 1/2 gap at each end. Then place three slices Swiss cheese next to each other so that they cover the ham. Sprinkle a quarter of the green onions. Roll up from the bottom to the top so that you get a long snake. Coil up into a round.

Step 3 WRAP - Wipe down surface and spray with oil again. Dip one rice paper sheet in water and place the coil in the centre. When the rice paper is pliable, wrap around the pastry folding it over so that the ends of the coil are firmly wrapped up. Brush one side with egg and sprinkle with poppyseeds. Place on an oiled surface and repeat with the rest to make 4 pastries.

Step 4 PAN FRY - Place a large frying pan with lid on medium heat and add oil or butter. Add the pastries in the pan and place the lid on and cook for 7 minutes. Remove lid, turn over with oiled tongs and fry for another 7 minutes. Allow to rest for 5 minutes before cutting.

Personal Note

Although Mr NQN and I both work from home, we actually end up not really seeing much of each other during the day. I'm working in the kitchen and my office and he is in his office for most of the day. And even at lunchtime I eat lunch on the go while cooking and testing recipes while he eats lunch in his office.

Dinner time is when we have time to catch up. And one night he said to me, "Did you know that I'm learning mandarin?". I don't have a gift for languages so if anyone can speak a second language I am very impressed.

"I'm learning it from Peppa Pig," he added, a smile playing at the corners of his lips.

It turns out that it is quite a common thing for people to learn languages via Peppa Pig because the show gets translated into lots of different languages. The show also uses lots of short, grammatically correct sentances and everyday vocabulary and use repetition to help drum those phrases in. Let's see how he goes with learning mandarin using his porcine friend!

So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever heard that about Peppa Pig? And have you ever tried making pastries using rice paper?