Buttery, flaky croissants stuffed with melty cheese and slices of ham, then topped with creamy bechamel. These super easy ham and cheese croissants are your ticket to a simple yet luxurious breakfast, brunch, or anytime snack. Whether you’re planning a cozy Sunday brunch or need a quick meal, this recipe delivers bakery-style flavor in minutes!

Ham and Cheese Croissants – or should I say Croissant au Jambon – are one of those classic pastries you see in a bakery and think to yourself, ‘I’ll never be able to properly replicate that!’ But just like the best things in life, this recipe could not be any simpler and easier to make.

And it’s quickly become one of my favorite snacks to make at home.

I’ve recently developed a brand new baking obsession: making croissants from scratch. It started with me acquiring this lovely little book that I highly recommend if you love bread. It’s not a big deal, though, it’s just a complete baking course from the world-renowned French culinary school École Ferrandi that I would someday love to attend (here’s hoping).

And flipping through this massive, wonderful book full of pictures and rich details and step-by-step instructions, you suddenly start feeling that maybe making incredibly delicate and elaborate things like croissants is completely doable at home. And next thing you know, you’re weighing the flour and laminating dough. And before you know it, your life is changed.

How to Make Ham and Cheese Croissants

So I’ve been making a lot of croissants lately. It’s such a labor of love that requires time and a little bit of effort that it feels like therapy to me. I’ve given them to friends and family, I’ve left a few in people’s freezers. I cannot be stopped, apparently.

But this is not a post about making croissants, this is a post about what to do with fully baked croissants. You don’t need to make them from scratch, you can grab them at your local bakery or even frozen ones at the grocery store. I promise you no matter what croissants you start with, you’ll end up with a wonderful little treat.

To make ham and cheese croissants, you need well, ham and cheese and croissants, but the one thing that ties the whole thing together, takes it to a new level, turns it into a superb, luxurious, creamy sandwich, is something that is made from staple ingredients like flour and milk: béchamel sauce.

Béchamel Sauce

Béchamel is a white sauce and white sauces are made with a white roux (butter and flour cooked together) plus milk. White sauces are the base for most cream soups, as well as soufflés, and it’s used in many dishes from lasagna to moussaka

The flour and butter act as a thickening agent for the sauce and they’re cooked slowly together for several minutes before any milk is added – that’s the roux. This process eliminates that raw, pasty taste that uncooked flour will give to a sauce, and also prepares the flour particles to absorb the milk.

Now, the important thing to remember when making roux is that the thickness of your sauce is in direct relation to the proportion of flour you use per cup of liquid. I always follow Julia Child’s measurements (based on all-purpose flour):

THIN SAUCE: 1 tbsp flour per cup of liquid

MEDIUM, GENERAL-PURPOSE SAUCE: 1½ tbsp flour per cup of liquid

THICK SAUCE: 2 tbsp flour per cup of liquid

SOUFFLÉ BASE: 3 tbsp flour per cup of liquid

For this recipe, I usually do the medium sauce ratio, but sometimes I actually prefer the thick ratio. All this to say is that either works just fine.

Another important note from Julia: white sauces should always be made in a heavy-bottomed enameled, stainless steel, pyrex, porcelain, or tin-lined copper saucepan. If a thin-bottomed pan is used, it is a poor heat conductor and the sauce may scorch in the bottom of the pan. Aluminum tends to discolor a white sauce, particularly one containing wine or egg yolks.

Variations and Customizations

I used gouda cheese with cumin seeds for this version, but any sem-hard, creamy cheese works here: Havarti, Emmental, Gruyere, and even cheddar.

For the ham, I used prosciutto cotto, but any other substitute works too, from prosciutto to even turkey.

To make it more of a meal, add arugula or spinach for a fresh touch. Add a fried egg for a croissant breakfast sandwich.

For an even easier croissant sandwich, try this prosciutto and goat cheese one. Or if you’re a fan of mortadella, try this one! And for a fiber/ protein rich breakfast, try this chickpeas on toast with poached eggs.

If you try these easy ham and cheese croissants, I’d love to hear how they turned out! Leave a comment below or tag me on Instagram. Happy brunching!