Friday, April 5, 2013

Homemade Ham and Swiss Cheese Hot Pocket


I know I'm not the only person with lots of leftover ham from Easter. I always have trouble coming up with ways to use up the extra ham. I've actually done pretty well this year. So far, I've already made a ham and white bean soup, ham and asparagus Risotto, and homemade ham stock. But there is still more ham!!! I was feeling a little creative last night and came up with another way to use up my ham: 
I made homemade Ham and Cheese Sandwich Pockets.

These tasted way better than microwavable hot pockets and were pretty easy to make. All you need is:

Sliced Ham
Sliced Swiss Cheese ( I also did some with cheddar)
Honey mustard sauce (This is totally optional, but a little mustard or something does help to moisten the filling.)
Dough -- I used my basic pizza dough/breadstick recipe, but you could use your favorite easy bread/pie/biscuit dough. My recipe is below:

Dough:
1/2 Tbsp. yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/4 t. salt
1 Tbsp. oil
1 1/4 cup flour

Mix yeast, water and sugar. Allow to sit for a few minutes until yeast begins to bubble. Add salt, oil and flour. Mix until dough comes together, and knead the dough for a minute. You may need to add a little more flour so the dough isn't too sticky. Let the dough sit for 30 minutes while you assemble the rest of the ingredients. You can use right away, but the dough will be a little dense.

Divide the dough into 4 balls. Flatten each ball into a circle of dough (about 6 or 7 inches in diameter). Spread a thin layer of honey mustard (or sauce of choice) on the dough. Leave space around the edge for exposed dough to seal it later.

Place ham and cheese on half of the circle. Try not to overfill the pocket. Fold the dough over so the circle is now folded in half. Press and seal the edges of the now semi-circle with your fingers to seal in the toppings. The shape will look a little something like this:
If you really wanted, you could try to make a more rectangular shape like a real "Hot Pocket," but this is much easier.


Cut a slit or two in the top of the dough with a sharp knife so the steam can escape. Otherwise, you'll have a pocket blowout.

Place on a greased baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until the top of the bread is golden brown.

Devour.

I use the same dough to make easy pizza calzones for dinner. In fact, when I made these last night, half were ham and cheese and half were pizza topping filled for my young boys. They were gobbled up.

Makes 4 pockets. A hungry man could eat two of these for dinner. I had one pocket with a small salad for dinner and that filled me up.


How do you use leftover ham? I'd love to hear more ideas.

1 comment:

Katie said...

That looks delicious! Now I wish I had some left over ham.