This Ham and Cheese Puff Pastry Quiche will be the star of the show at your next big get together. Very easy to make, and versatile to boot, this quiche is delicious as a main dish or appetizer, plus it’s also perfect for breakfast or brunch!
I have made this quiche several times now; it is one of those recipes that once you have tried it you know you will definitely make it again. I first made it in early December and it was so good that I just had to make it again for a Christmas party. I’ve made it a couple of time since then too!
And the fact that this is a puff pastry quiche means it is super easy to prepare. No messing around making up a crust first! The result is a quiche that has a flaky golden crust and a soft and delicious filling – yum!
While this ham and cheese quiche is wonderful hot and fresh from the oven I have to admit that I absolutely love it cold. This means that it is perfect during summer AND winter! It is also a multipurpose quiche because you can use it as a main dish or it is also wonderful when cut into smaller pieces and used as an appetizer!
Cut into larger pieces, we find that it is great on its own as a quick lunch or you could serve it with a side salad. If you cut it into smaller pieces then it is the perfect appetizer or finger food for your next party. Served cold this would be a great appetizer at a summer BBQ!
Because it is so delicious cold you can make it a day ahead and it also freezes well. When I have some frozen I will lift it out of the freezer into the fridge the night before I want to use it. I have only kept it in the freezer for a couple of weeks but it should be okay in the freezer for up to one month.
This Ham and Cheese Puff Pastry Quiche was adapted from a recipe I found at Exclusively Food. It is now a family favourite and firmly in rotation at our house!
Ham and Cheese Puff Pastry Quiche
- Yield: 6
Description
This delicious Ham and Cheese Puff Pastry Quiche is easy to make and so versatile. It is perfect for breakfast, brunch, dinner or even as an appetizer!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 sheets of thawed puff pastry*
- 1 1/4 cups of grated tasty cheddar cheese (105g or 3 ¼ ounces)
- 1 cup of diced ham (135g or 4 ¾ ounces)
- 1/2 a small brown onion, diced
- 3 large eggs
- 1/3 cup of thickened/heavy cream (80g or 2 ¾ ounces)
- 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
- salt and pepper (large pinch of each)
Instructions
- Grease a shallow 18 x 28 cm (7 x 11 in) baking dish and preheat oven to 200 °C or 180 °C if fan forced ( 400 °F or 350 °F for fan forced).
- Place the whole pastry sheet to one end of the baking dish so that it overhangs the sides by a small amount.
- Now place the half sheet of pastry at the other end of the dish so that it overlaps the first sheet of pastry by about 2 cm (about 1 inch) and so that it also overhangs the sides by a small amount.
- Gently ease the pastry into the dish, making sure that it moulds to the corners.
- Press the pastry sheets together where they overlap so that no filling can leak underneath.
- Sprinkle one cup of the cheese over the pastry base and top that with the ham and onion.
- Now sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top.
- In a medium bowl whisk together the eggs, cream, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.
- Pour egg mixture over the ham and cheese (reserve a teaspoon or two for brushing the exposed pastry).
- Tilt the pan to ensure that the egg mixture gets into the corners properly and also press down on the mixture lightly with a fork to ensure that all of the ham, cheese, and onion are coated with the egg mix.
- Fold the overhanging pastry up and over the filling (tucking in the corners) and then brush the exposed pastry with the reserved egg mixture.
- Bake for 35 – 40 minutes or until pastry is golden brown.
- Cut into slices to serve, can be served hot or cold.
Notes
*the sheets that I use are 25 cm or 10 inches square
If you like this recipe you might also like my Quick & Easy Sausage Rolls or my recipe for Delicious Savoury Pinwheels!
Hi, I'm Kaylene, and I'm a keen gardener,budding baker and wannabe DIYer!
Hi just wondering how you worked out that this is only 6 grams of carbs per serve? I typed all the ingredients into my nutrition calculator and it came up with 40 grams of carbs per serve.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention Amanda! I have only recently started using ‘only eats’ to automatically add the nutritional information to recipes. I will do a check of all my nutritional info now!
p.s sorry for the late reply!
Thank you for the mouth watery recipes, I have directed my friends to your site to share and enjoy.
You’re welcome Carolyne, thanks for introducing your friends to my blog!
I drooled just reading recipes, I can not wait to get cooking.
Hi wondering how I can modify this for dairy free option…
My daughter can have soy cheese but the heavy thickened cream, what can be the alternative?… I often use coconut cream but not sure if it would work?…
Hi Angela, I’ve never made a dairy free version myself but I have seen quiche recipes that are similar to this one and they use full fat unsweetened coconut milk. From what I have seen coconut milk is more commonly used in dairy free quiche rather than coconut cream. Anyway I hope that helps, I’d love to hear how you get on if you do try a dairy free version.
You can use liddels brand it’s dairy free
Are there variations of the filling you recommend.
Hi Barbara, I haven’t made this quiche with other fillings so I can’t give you a direct recommendation. You could probably use bacon instead of ham and include some vegetables such as spinach. Actually this would probably be nice in a vegetable version using capsicum, zucchini, broccoli and the like!
Could I prep this ahead of time and keep in the fridge overnight until baked in the morning?
Hi Darcy, I think you could prepare this quiche ahead of time if you left it only partically assembled. If you add the egg mixture to the base the night before baking you will end up with soggy pastry. I would prepared the quiche up to the stage where the cheese, ham, and onion have been sprinkled over the pastry. You could then mix up the eggs, cream, and seasonings. Just keep the base and the egg mixture separate and cover them and put them in the fridge.
When you are ready to bake in the morning just pour the egg mixture over the base and bake as normal.
This is how I would do it if I was preparing it ahead of time. I hope that helps!
Is it possible to give ingredients in metric (or ounces) measurements as well please.
Hi Loulou, sorry about not adding weight measurements as well as cups for this recipe. I think the measurements that you’re after will be: grated cheese 105g or 3 & 1/4 ounces, diced ham 135g or 4 & 3/4 ounces, and cream 80g or 2 & 3/4 ounces. I hope this helps!
Kaylene, this quiche would have to be the easiest most yummy quiche I’ve ever made.
I often make two, one per recipe and one I make with a 210gm tin of pink salmon instead of ham.
The salmon one is by far the best. And for fish lovers with lemon juice it’s delicious.
My family adores both.
I often cut big squares and freeze them- taste just as good when reheated.
Thank you for a great recipe.
Thanks for the feedback Sue, I’m so glad to hear that you like this recipe. I have frozen this too, it’s great to be able to grad something tasty out of the freezer and only have to reheat it! I haven’t tried it with salmon though, sounds like a great idea for a yummy flavour variation!
My quiche looked good coming out of the oven. Cooked 37 min. When cutting into the puff pastry, the pastry was not cooked in the middle.
What went wrong?
Hi Joan, that’s a shame that your pastry wasn’t cooked in the middle. I’m not sure of the reason though. I have never had that problem with mine. The only possibility that I can suggest is that you might have had it too high up in the oven? If you put a quiche on the top rack, the bottom might not get enough heat leading to a watery, soggy crust.