Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Ham, Cheese & Tomato Croissants


In this post I am going to talk about the Ham, Cheese and Tomato Croissants that we tried for the first time in London at a place called Pret A Manger.  I came across them one day while Ivan was at work in London and I was just walking through the city and looking for a good place to have coffee and something to eat for breakfast.  I was pleasantly surprised at how good this croissant was!  Soon after, Ivan tried it and loved it too. 

When we got back to Chicago, I decided to find the recipe for these croissants, but was not able to find it.  So I ended up creating my own version of it that I am going to share here.  Unfortunately, it has been a while since I made these croissants, so I do not have any good photos of my own to share.  I found the above photo online, but I promise to take some photos of my own croissants and post them here soon!  You can make these croissants without ham if you would like to leave the meat out.

They recently opened a Pret A Manger in Evanston, IL (you can find more info here) and it is close to where we live now.  Another one is located in downtown Chicago.  I don't get to visit it that often, but whenever I did go, they did not have these croissants.  I am not sure if this is because I was not able to make it in the morning, or because they don't make them at this location.  Nonetheless, they serve organic food, great wraps, salads and fruit snacks and if you have never been here, I would recommend visiting it when you get a chance.  It is a bit on the pricier side, but I think that it is worth it because the food tastes great!

* Update (7/6/2014): I finally made some of these croissants with cheese and tomato today and took some photos for the blog.  Take a look below. *

Ingredients: (Serving Size: 4 croissants)
- 1 sheet of puff pastry (defrosted)
- olive oil
- 1/2 of a tomato, squeeze some of the juice out and chop into small squares
- 4 slices of mozzarella cheese (or any other cheese that you prefer)
- 4 slices of ham
- oregano



Directions:
- Take out a sheet of puff pastry and leave it to defrost.
- In the meantime, cut up the tomato, squeeze some juice out of it and put to the side
- After the sheet of puff pastry has defrosted, cut into four squares, like shown in the photo below.


- Put a drop or two of olive oil on each puff pastry square and spread it around to cover most of the surface
- Put some tomato slices going from one corner of the square to the opposite corner and repeat with all four squares

- Top with a slice of ham (if using) and then a slice of cheese on top.  Sprinkle everything with some oregano


- Take the opposite two corners (not the ones used when spreading tomato slices) and bring to the middle so they meet and slightly touch (You can place a slice of tomato in the middle to hold the middle in place, like seen in the first photo)
- Repeat with all four squares


- Preheat the oven to about 400 F
- Place croissants in a baking pan and put to bake for about 15-20 minutes or until golden.


- Cool for about 5-10 minutes and serve.  These croissants would be great appetizers or finger food whenever you have guests over.


Bon apetit! : )

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