Gammon and cheese galettes

I LOVE this recipe that I am sharing today, these little open face tarts are easy to make and I always have requests for them to be made for parties, picnics and lunch boxes. They are perfect for all year round and I often have a few dozen in the freezer for Christmas parties and buffets, as well as for “Al Fresco” summer gatherings. I usually use lardons, as in small diced bacon pieces, but when I was left with some cooked gammon from another meal recently, I decided to pimp the recipe up and use cooked gammon in place of bacon. It’s a real cheat of a recipe, all you need is cooked gammon (or ham), some cheese and ready-rolled puff pastry and you are away! Scatter some fresh herbs on if you wish, or add a sprinkling of paprika for an extra kick, but I find that the ingredients stand up fine by themselves.

Galettes are my favourite kind of tart or open pie, and I have a beautiful one for French Apricot Galette on Great British Chefs already, albeit a large one and not small ones as my recipe is for today. They are simplicity itself to make and if you have some frozen puff pastry in the freezer and the requisite filling ingredients to suit the occasion, you are ready to roll (no pun intended) and bake your galettes!

These little “Mini Gammon and Cheese Galettes” are perfect for so many occasions, as I mentioned before, but they are also a wonderful way to utilise any leftover gammon you may have, and make a tasty change from a “gammon and mustard” sandwich! I prefer to use ready-made (and ready rolled if I am pushed for time) puff pastry, but these also work well with home-made shortcrust pastry, although they won’t puff up as much.

You can fill them with any ingredients you have to hand, but I just love the classic combination of gammon and cheese, as does my family and friends!