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.

S'mores Cookies

I participated in a cookie exchange at work this past Monday where we shared yummy cookies and recipes. I made s'mores cookies for the first time and they turned out perfectly. They are gooey and very satisfying to the tummy! Try it this weekend, would you?

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole-wheat flour 
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup light-brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, cut into chunks
• 15 large marshmallows, halved horizontally
• 
  

This recipe yields 30 cookies.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, pulse oats until finely ground. Add flours, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt; pulse to combine. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, scraping down side of bowl. With mixer on low, beat in flour mixture just until combined.
2. Drop dough by tablespoons, 1 inch apart, onto two baking sheets. Top each with a chocolate chunks. Bake just until lightly golden, 11 to 13 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Remove sheets from oven; heat broiler. Top each cookie with a marshmallow. One sheet at a time, broil until marshmallows are lightly browned, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool.

Homemade Marshmallow

Ingredients:
* 2 packets of gelatin powder (I used knox Gelatine)
* 1/2 cup (125ml) + 1/3 cup (80ml) cold water
* 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
* 1/3 cup (100g) light corn syrup or honey (I used honey)
* 4 large egg whites (1/2 cup, 110g), at room temperature (I used Naturegg Simply Egg Whites Free Run)
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 

* 1 drop of red food colouring (I use Wilton Icing Colors Paste in Red-Red #610-906)

* Icing sugar for dusting

Here's how to make it:

1. In a small bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over the 1/2 cup (125ml) of cold water. Stir until the gelatin powder has dissolved.

2. In a small saucepan, combine the granulated sugar and corn syrup/honey with 1/3 cup (80ml) of water. Place over medium-to-high heat (use light-to-medium heat if you are using a gas stove) until it reaches  210ºF (99ºC) or until it starts to bubble around the edge if you don't have a candy thermometer.

3. Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until fluffy (start at 6 and finish at 10 if using a KitchenAid Artisan Mixer). Add the food colouring into the mixture towards the end.
4. When the syrup reaches about 210ºF (99ºC), add the gelatin mixture in and stir until everything is dissolved (you should not see any lumps).

5. Slowly pour the hot syrup into the egg whites and let cool. Add in the vanilla extract. The mixer should be lowered to 4 or 6 to incorporate the mixture and mix for 3-5 minutes. 
6. Dust a baking pan or casserole dish with icing sugar.

7. When the mixture is cooled, pour the mixture into prepared pan or dish.
8. Set aside for 2 to 3 hours depending on how deep the pan or dish is. 
9.  Cut marshmallow into small squares or use a metal cookie cutter to cut marshmallow into desired shape.

PS. It was my first time making it and I was pretty pleased with the result. I combined two recipes together (Epicurean and Style at Home Magazine).