How to Bake Porto's Cheese Rolls at Home

Last checked: October 16, 2026

A box of Porto's Bake at Home Cheese Rolls shows up frozen, unbaked and packed in dry ice. What happens next is up to your oven.

Done right, you get the same flaky, sugar-topped pastry people line up for in Glendale and Burbank.

Done wrong, you get pale tops, scorched bottoms, or a filling that burns your mouth.

Porto's own method is simple, with one step most people skip. Here's the full process, based on the instruction card in every box.

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What comes in the box

Cheese Rolls are sold through Porto's Bake at Home store by the dozen, unbaked and frozen.

As of October 16, 2026, a dozen costs $22.99.

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Each shipment includes a printed baking card and a sheet of parchment paper. A few ordering rules are worth knowing before you buy:

• Two dozen minimum per order. You can't order a single box of Cheese Rolls on its own. Pair it with another dozen, like Potato Balls or Refugiados.
• Six dozen maximum. A cake counts as two dozen toward both limits.
• No mixing within a box. Each dozen is one item. For variety, Porto's sells pre-set Sweet and Savory Samplers.
• Shipping is a flat rate by ZIP code. Two dozen and six dozen cost the same to ship to the same address.

Porto's ships to the 48 contiguous states and Hawaii through FedEx. Alaska and addresses outside the US aren't covered.

Before you bake: storage and thawing

Put the box in your freezer the moment it arrives.

Porto's says most unbaked pastries are best within about 40 days in the freezer, and each box carries its own use-by date. Go by the date on your box.

Don't thaw them. Cheese Rolls go straight from the freezer to the oven.

Puff pastry rises because cold butter layered in the dough turns to steam in a hot oven. If the dough sits on the counter and softens, that butter starts melting into the flour, and you lose some of the rise and flakiness.

Step-by-step: Porto's official baking method

1. Preheat to 400°F. Give your oven the full preheat. A half-heated oven is one of the main reasons pastries come out flat.

2. Stack two baking sheets. Place one baking sheet directly on top of another. This is the step people skip, and it matters.

The extra sheet acts as a buffer between the heat and the bottom of the pastry. Cheese Rolls have sugar on top and a sweet cream cheese filling inside, and both can scorch on the bottom before the top layers finish browning. Two sheets slow the heat from below.

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3. Line with parchment. Lay the parchment from the box on the top sheet.

4. Space them out. Place the frozen Cheese Rolls on the parchment with at least half an inch between each one. They puff as they bake, and pieces that touch will steam each other instead of crisping.

5. Bake on the middle rack. Slide both sheets onto the middle rack together.

6. Watch the time.

Porto's suggests checking five minutes before the low end of the range, because ovens vary. If yours runs hot, you'll notice it here.

7. Let them cool for about 15 minutes. This is the other step people skip. The pastry cools fast, but the cream cheese filling holds heat for much longer.

Biting into one straight from the oven is a good way to burn the roof of your mouth.

How to tell they're done

Look for an even golden-brown color across the top and the sides, not just the edges. The layers should look puffed and separated.

If the center still looks pale or the pastry looks tight and doughy where the filling sits, give them a few more minutes and check again.

A small amount of filling bubbling out of the seams is normal.

A lot of browning on the bottom before the top colors usually means the sheets weren't stacked, or the rack sat too low.

Mistakes to skip

• Thawing first. The dough softens, the butter warms, and the rolls bake up flatter.
• Crowding the sheet. With less than half an inch of space, the sides stay pale and soft.
• Opening the oven again and again. Each peek drops the temperature. Check once near the end of the range.
• Reheating leftovers in the microwave. It turns puff pastry soft and chewy. Use the oven instead (see below).

Can you use an air fryer?

Yes. Porto's publishes a separate set of air fryer instructions for its Bake at Home items, linked from the baking instructions page on its store.

Follow that card rather than guessing, since air fryer baskets heat faster and closer than a full oven.

Bake in small batches so the rolls have room to puff, and check them early on your first try.

Baking for a party

If you're baking two or three dozen, bake in rounds on the middle rack rather than squeezing pans onto different racks.

Plan delivery around your event. Porto's ships one to two nights before your chosen delivery date, and carriers can drop off any time between 8 AM and 9 PM.

Most areas get deliveries Wednesday through Saturday, with Tuesday added for much of Southern California.

Since the rolls keep in the freezer, Porto's recommends having the box arrive a few days before your event rather than the same day.

Cheese Rolls taste best within a few hours of baking. For a morning gathering, bake them that morning.

Leftovers

Leftover baked Cheese Rolls can be wrapped and kept in the refrigerator, since the filling is cream cheese.

To bring back the crunch, warm them in a 350°F oven for a few minutes until the outside crisps again. Let them sit a minute before eating.

Is Bake at Home worth it?

In Porto's bakeries, a single Cheese Roll costs $1.19. A Bake at Home dozen works out to about $1.92 each, before shipping.

If you live near one of the six Southern California Porto's bakeries, buying fresh is cheaper.

If you're in Phoenix, Chicago or New York, Bake at Home is the only way to get the real thing. See our Bake at Home price list to compare items.