Deli Meat Is The Easy Filling To Try In Pastries

Pastries are an international obsession, and it seems like every country has laid claim to a signature concoction of fluffy fried or baked dough stuffed with something tasty. The French are known for their filled-pastry delicacies, like cream puffs, eclairs, and brioche tarts filled with fruit sauces. The Italians have their cannoli — little tube-shaped shells of fried pastry stuffed with chocolate, fruit, and even cheese. In Portugal, there's the pastel de nata, a traditional egg custard tart. Kolaches are the pinnacle of carb perfection, made with fruit in little pillows of pastry dough, and you can also use pastry dough to make a delicious custard-filled Boston cream donut at home in just a few steps. It's easy to picture chocolate or fruit filling when you imagine the perfect pastry, but stuffing your pastries with deli meat might not be an idea that comes as easily. However, protein-packed pastries are a fantastic breakfast treat and make for an easy meal any time of day.

Deli meat and pastry puff are a match made in heaven, and not only because they can provide hot, individual meals that stay warm and are easily transportable. It's a delicious combination of golden, flaky breading and salty, saturated flavor usually combined with creamy, melted cheese. It's undeniable: butter-soaked pastry, meat, and cheese just belong together. 

Deli rolls are a delicious combination of toasted, flaky, buttery breading and a selection of cured meats, cheeses, and toppings, all rolled up in a log and baked together. They're a crowd-pleaser with familiar flavors that can feed a large group of people. Deli rolls are easy to make with any kind of deli meats and sandwich condiments like mustard, mayonnaise, and relish. You can even get serious about the project and use a deli meat slicer like this one to slice your own meats for the roll at home. Flatten out puff pastry dough, add condiments, and layer on any kind of deli meat you want. Once you've covered all of the flattened dough, roll it up like a burrito. Give your deli roll a bakery-level finish with a little egg wash and then pop it into the oven for baking.

Use pastry squares and deli meat to make mini deli rolls for kids or as finger food appetizers, and for puff pastry breakfast parcels using cured breakfast meats like bacon. You can cut your ingredients into strips and twist them together for a unique presentation or fold your pastry squares into triangles around your deli meat for traditional-style hand pies. Craft puff pastry into a spiral around sliced deli meat and cheese for a beautiful, round presentation, or even create mini Reuben sandwiches inside a stuffed pastry roll-up with a little corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, and Thousand Island dressing. 

Stuffing pastries with meat isn't anything new, and using cured meat in the process is standard in many pastries from around the world. They're known as meat pies and hand pies in Europe, empanadas in South and Central America, tourtière in Canada, and b'stilla in Morocco. Borek is a popular cheese-filled hand pie in Middle Eastern culture, sometimes stuffed with a little rolled-up turkey or other kind of deli meat. Italian stromboli is a baked turnover, often referred to as a pizza roll, made with deli meats and cheese. There are also Italian antipasto squares made by layering cured deli meats and cheese with puff pastry dough. 

There are also versions of meat-stuffed pastries throughout Asia and the rest of the world, like Chinese sausage pastries and keema puff pastry from India.  In Portugal, there's the traditional meat puff pies called pasteis de carne, and in Malaysia you'll find the chicken- and curry-stuffed karipap pastry. Modern twists on all of these recipes add deli meat to the mix, or swap it in substitution for traditional ground beef, lamb, turkey, and pork. From rice to ricotta, people fill pastries with all sorts of ingredients, and stuffing pastries with deli meat might just be the next great twist on a savory pastry.