Croque Madame Muffin Recipe

After having my first real French croque-monsieur at Angelina in Paris last year, I desperately wanted to recreate the memory at home. On the way home, I saw a TV program on Air France about making the perfect bechamel sauce, which I later found was the key in making a croque-monsieur. After googling endlessly for the prefect recipe, I think I've found it! I have modified the recipe slightly to my liking so I hope you'll like it as much as I have. My bf likes to have eggs for breakfast, so this recipe is for the croque-madame version (eliminate the egg if you want the croque-monsieur version). 

Croque-monsieur from Angelina Paris.

Croque-monsieur first appeared on Parisian cafe menu in 1910 so it's been around this long for good reasons. There are two versions: a croque-monsieur which is basically an adult ham & cheese sandwich or a croque-madame, a ham & cheese sandwich with an egg. The croque-madame is also known as a croque-a-cheval in Normandy, France.
 
Here's what you'll need to make 6 croque-madame muffins:

 

• 1 muffin tin/tray that holds 6
• 6 large slices of white bread (or brown if you want to 'pretend' to be healthy)
• couple tablespoons of butter, melted
• 3 slices of ham, cut in halves (I personally like the honey ham)
• 6 small eggs (I prefer organic range free if you could find them)

      For the bechamel sauce:

• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 1 tablespoon of plain flour, sifted
• 200 ml of full cream milk
• 1/2 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground nutmeg
• 15 g of gruyere cheese, grated
• 15 g of emmmental cheese, grated

To make the bechamel sauce:

1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan.
2. Add flour.
3. Mix butter and flour mix with a wooden spoon until it forms a paste.
4. Slowly whisk in the milk, Dijon mustard and nutmeg.
5. Continue stirring until the mixture over medium heat until the sauce thickens.
6. Lower temperature to low, stir in the cheese (reserve some for the topping later).

Prepping the muffin tin and final cooking process:

1. Preheat oven to 180° C or 350° F.
2. Remove crusts from the bread and with the use of a rolling pin, flatten each slice.
3. Brush melted butter on the muffin tin, place one slice of flattened bread into each and carefully tucking in the corners as you do (if you have holes, just flatten an extra slice of bread and patch as required).
4. After you have created your bread cup inside each holder, place half a slice of ham inside each.
5. Crack an egg into the centre of each, be careful not to break the yolk.
6. Scoop 1-2 tablespoons of bechamel sauce over each and sprinkle with the remaing grated cheese.
7. Sprinkle salt and pepper as you like.
8. Bake for 15 minutes if you like your eggs runny or up to 20 minutes if you prefer your eggs throughly cooked.
9. Remove from oven and serve immediately.

I served mine with a garnish of gherkin/cornichon and fresh seasonal fruits.

Have fun cooking and hope you will try this recipe with your loved ones this weekend.