I recently visited Portugal on a vacation with some family and while in Lisbon, my Dad and I—the early birds—would go out in the mornings and get coffee and pastries for the later risers. On the first morning in Lisbon, we found a cafe/bakery close to our Airbnb called Bread & Friends, and according to Google Maps, they also happened to be the earliest pastry/coffee shop to open in the neighborhood. So we walked over.
At first glance, the outside and inside of this place felt very well put together like it was a location in a large restaurant chain. After a bit of googling later (aka finding the Bread & Friends website), it seemed like they only had one location, and that they were just a well-designed, slick-looking restaurant and bakery. After returning home I learned that I was wrong about all of this and they’re owned by the swanky hotel chain next door.
Regardless of whether it was a chain or independent bakery/cafe, they had a lot of great savory and sweet pastries, cookies, fresh juices, and espresso/coffee which cemented them as a very close option for us in the mornings.
We picked up some regular croissants and chocolate croissants, cinnamon rolls (quite different from what Americans think of as cinnamon rolls) and they also had a ham and cheese puff pastry-looking thing that was calling my name.
The photos don’t do this thing justice, because it’s a very simple pastry. It was a croissant or puff pastry that was wrapped around 1 or 2 slices of deli ham and some sort of white, very creamy cheese and baked with an egg wash painted on top to ensure that the top got consistently browned and shiny.
After a little searching online it turns out that this sort of meat and cheese wrapped in puff pastry is a common sight at bakeries in Portugal. I enjoyed this pastry a couple of times on this trip and I wanted to have a process to recreate it at home, so I started work on this project.
What is this handheld pastry?
To fully understand what we’re working with here, we first need to do a little translation work.
Note: I’ve done a bit of research online about some of the following translation content but by no means am I a subject matter expert on the Portuguese language. I do not speak Portuguese but I have found some very helpful resources that have helped me understand some of the pastry words that are used in Portugal.
Portuguese is a masculine/feminine gender language meaning nouns will typically have both a masculine or a feminine version.
To deal with the sandwich/handheld that I’m writing about here we need to talk about two different words or phrases.
Misto or Mista
Misto and mista mean the same thing. Misto is the masculine version of the word and mista is feminine. This works similarly for a lot of words in Portuguese in that the masculine will often end in O and the feminine ends with an A. I have read that the O version, or masculine version is the default version.
In Portuguese misto means “mixed” but when used in the context of food, it seems to mean a mix of meat and cheese, or more specifically it usually denotes ham and cheese. This means that when you see something like tosto misto it’s going to be a ham and cheese toast or toasted sandwich.
Merenda vs Folhado
I’m not 100% sure about this but it seems that merenda is a word that doesn’t typically use a masculine form. Merenda has several meanings, but the one we’re interested in here is “snack.” If you find the word merenda on a cafe menu it often means bread with ham and cheese or the menu might be more specific like in the photo above and say merenda mista which clarifies for you that it will be bread with ham and cheese.
The word folhado or massa folhado translates to puff pastry in English. Massa appears to translate to “dough,” so I’m not totally sure why it’s needed when folhado already means puff pastry, but I’m sure there’s a reason that I’m just too American to figure out.
What do these words have to do with this handheld pastry?
Today I’m writing about what I am calling a folhado misto which we’ve now learned means “puff pastry mixed” or more specifically it means a puff pastry with ham and cheese.
Now that we have the translations out of the way, we need to discuss the ingredients.
Puff pastry
Puff pastry is a dough that you can make at home. I have made croissants for this sandwich blog a couple of times and puff pastry dough is very similar to croissant dough in the way that you laminate butter between layers of dough to create a fluffy, flaky, light piece of pastry when it’s fully baked. I wrote about using puff pastry back in 2022 to create an Italian beef toaster pastry that was pretty epic.
It’s not super hard to make puff pastry but it does require way more time, patience, and effort than regular bread or pizza dough.
Luckily for us, puff pastry is readily available at most grocery stores. It’s sold in a frozen form, so you can keep it in your freezer until it’s time to eat. Once you remove one of the sheets from the package it takes about 30 or 45 minutes on the counter to thaw before baking or the package will probably provide you with instructions for quick thaw in the microwave.
I use the 45-minute countertop thawing method but if you are the type of person who is especially organized, you can also thaw it overnight in the fridge.
After seeing how easy this folhado misto is to prepare, it became obvious to me that it wouldn’t be a terrible idea to keep puff pastry sheets in the freezer for lunchtime or snack emergencies.
Ham
The ham that I saw in both Porto and Lisbon seemed similar to what we in the United States call Polish ham or sometimes just called by its most popular brand name, Krakus Polish Ham. If you don’t think you know what Polish ham looks like and you frequent American grocery stores, you’ve probably seen the “square ham” which is typically rectangular and not square, but semantics.
Krakus lays claim to being “America’s #1 Imported Deli Ham” so it could be possible that restaurants and cafes in Portugal are also importing theirs. Regardless, if you scroll way up or have a better memory than I do, you will note that the original Bread & Friends merenda mista was definitely using ham that was cut from a rectangular-shaped loaf.
Does the folhado misto require Polish, rectangularly cut ham slices? No.
Can you use whatever ham—or other deli meat—that you prefer and still have a good experience with this pastry? Yes.
A folhada would be great with sliced turkey and cheddar or roast beef and swiss. Make yourself happy with the options or just use what you have available.
Cheese options
The folhado/merenda misto that I ate in the morning in Portugal had ham and cheese in it. The cheese kept a cream cheese-like texture long after the pastry had cooled. This led me to believe it was using something similar to cream cheese or maybe even cream cheese itself.
I used a couple of variations of cheese for the puff pastries that I ate. I used Boursin brand cheese spread that would keep a texture like cream cheese and it contributed some garlic and herb flavor which wasn’t detrimental to the pastry, but it did make it something different from what I had in Lisbon.
The other cheese I used was Havarti because it melts well and has a creamy flavor that is very mild. I think a combination of these two cheeses worked well, but the Boursin was hard to control since it melted really fast and often would escape quite a bit from the confines of the puff pastry.
Basically, the point here is that Boursin does work well in this folhado but you really need to have a subtle hand when adding the cheese because it will get messy if you add too much. I think 2 tablespoons was about the maximum I would add.
Let’s make this snack
Now that we know all most of the ingredients, it’s time to get started with construction.
Making three folhado
With the type of puff pastry sheet that I typically find at the store, it makes sense to make 3 folhado at once because of the way the sheet of dough is folded.
If you are making three folhado at once you can build them all together and cut them after you fold the puff pastry. That’s what I did on this first version. But in later versions, I either built them one at a time or two at a time and I would slice the puff pastry dough into one or two pieces based on the fold lines in the dough.
Making just one folhado
Note: the slide show I’ve created for the build process for making just one folhado at a time has a spicy sauce mentioned that I haven’t discussed in this post yet. I write much more about that down below.
For the most part, making one folhado is the same as making three at once. But if your dough is folded like mine, you can carefully break off one-third of the puff pastry sheet while it is still frozen. Then you can make just one folhado at a time while keeping the rest of the dough safe in the freezer. I don’t think it would be a great idea to let the pastry sheet thaw and then freeze it again. I think the dough might be worse for wear if you did that.
Cut the puff pastry sheet along the fold lines to create three dough pieces. 
Create a piri piri butter sauce by combining melted butter and hot sauce. 
Paint that buttery hot sauce on the top (future inside) of the puff pastry dough. 
Layer the ham and sliced cheese but try to keep the cheese on the bottom half because we will be folding the dough over on itself. 
Add a few crumbles of the Boursin cheese but don’t go overboard. 
Fold the top part of the dough over the bottom part. It’s ok if the top doesn’t quite reach the bottom. 
Paint the exterior/top with egg wash to help with browning. 
Bake at 425 F (218 C) for 20 to 23 minutes or until puffy and browned.
Cool on a rack
Trust me on this. I have eaten a lot of these over the past week and am pretty much a Professional Folhado Eater™ at this point. These things will be really hot when they come out of the oven. The folded-over ham and cheese in the middle will be molten lava temperature for at least 3 or 4 minutes. Do not rush to eat these unless you hate having feelings on the roof of your mouth.
Remove them from the sheet pan and let the pastry rest on a cooling rack if you have one. If you let them rest on a plate or cutting board they will steam themselves and result in a soggy bottom pastry.
If you do not have a cooling rack, you can buy two for less than 10 bucks but you can also use two chopsticks or two pieces of silverware placed on the counter or on a plate and balance the hot folhado on them to keep the pastry lifted up off the counter.
Slightly spicy version (folhado misto piri piri)
My favorite version of the folhado mistos that I made this week were the ones where I added a touch of Boursin cheese and I also added some special piri piri butter sauce. This inspiration came from the special spicy sauce that they add to cachorrinho (Porto hot dog) at Cervejaria Gazela in Porto. I will probably write about the Porto hot dog—that’s not really a hot dog—at some point in the near future, but the sauce that they spread on the meat and on the outside of the sandwich is very similar to what Americans would call buffalo sauce. It’s a blend of melted butter and piri piri sauce.
What is piri piri?
Piri piri is a pepper that the Portuguese were growing/producing in their former Southern African territories. You will see a lot of mentions of piri piri (or peri-peri) on menus throughout Portugal, especially in the context of chicken. And if you’ve ever seen the large International restaurant chain known as Nando’s they use piri piri (or in their case peri-peri) seasonings on a lot of the food that they serve.
Here’s a page on Nando’s website where they explain what peri-peri is and how they use it.
The piri piri butter sauce that I use in my folhado misto is pretty much 50/50 butter to hot sauce. It’s still a little bit spicy, but the butter cuts it a lot, similar to buffalo sauce. I paint this on the inside of the puff pastry before adding ham and cheese. The amount of piri piri butter sauce I use is just enough to give a hint of spice to the pastry but it’s not enough to make you sweat or even make your mouth hot. It’s a very subtle spice that gives the simple pastry some extra interest.
I bought piri piri hot sauce on Amazon and there are a few options. I don’t know exactly how the one I bought stands up to other piri piri sauces, but this to me tastes like a pretty good vinegary hot sauce. It’s not overwhelmingly spicy and it creates a great sauce that would be perfect as a wing sauce when you add it to butter.
Folhado misto (Portuguese ham and cheese puff pastry)
Savory ham and creamy, melty cheese wrapped in a pastry that's light and flaky. This recipe adds a slight non-traditional piri piri sauce which lends spicy and extra flavor to the pastry.
Ingredients:
Piri piri butter sauce (optional)- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons piri piri hot sauce (or your favorite brand of hot sauce)
- 1 thawed sheet of puff pastry
- piri piri butter sauce (from above)
- 3 slices of Havarti cheese (or other cheese slices)
- 6 slices of Polish ham (or other ham thinly sliced)
- 3 tablespoons Boursin cheese (or cream cheese - optional)
- 1 whole large egg
- 1 tablespoon water
Suggested Equipment
Directions:
Thaw the sheet of puff pastry per package instructions (mine required 45 minutes on the counter or in the fridge overnight).
Piri piri butter sauce: This step is optional but it will add a slightly spicy flavor to the ham and cheese pastry. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter and then add 2 tablespoons of piri piri sauce or any other hot sauce. Stir to combine well.
When the puff pastry is fully thawed, preheat oven to 425 F (218 C).
Folhado misto: open the fully thawed puff pastry sheet. With a pastry brush or spoon, paint the piri piri butter sauce thinly all over the inside of the puff pastry.
On top of the layer of sauce, add slices of cheese and ham to the lower half of the pastry sheet. Add pieces of Boursin cheese if desired, but try not to add too much or it will melt out onto the pan.
Fold the top part of the puff pasty over onto the bottom part with the cheese and then cut into three equal-sized pieces. Add all three pieces to a parchment-lined sheet pan.
Egg wash: add one egg and one tablespoon of water to a bowl and whisk to combine. With a pastry brush or spoon, paint egg wash on all top surfaces of the puff pastry.
Example of the build process for three folhado misto (I did not use piri piri butter sauce in this example):
Bake at 425 F (218 C) for 20 to 23 minutes rotating the pan halfway through the cooking time to ensure even browning.
Allow pastries to cool for 3 to 5 minutes on a cooling rack before serving because the inside meat and cheese will be very hot.
Check back next week
Next week we’ll be traveling-by-sandwich to another country, but this time instead of Portuguese it’ll be Spanish that I’m running through Google Translate. Check back to see which sandwich I’ll be dipping in spicy sauce.
