Croque monsieur
Croque monsieur is a hot sandwich made with ham, cheese and bread. In a more enriched version, the sandwich also includes béchamel sauce. Today I give you the recipe for the version with béchamel sauce.
The best croque monsieur is made with products of the best quality – fresh bread, delicious ham and good-quality, intense cheese are all necessary to get the best taste out of this delicious sandwich. Two types of cheese I can recommend are Gruyère and Ementaler. A mixture of several types of different cheese will also work just as well. It is really important that the cheese have a proper flavour.
When it comes to ham, a good quality cooked or smoked ham will be the best in a croque monsieur. The ham should be cut roughly 5 millimetres thick. The thicker the slices, the better and more noticeable their flavour will be. The size of the slices should be equal to the size of the slices of bread used to prepare the sandwich.
As I mentioned above, my recommendation is to make croque monsieur with béchamel sauce. Of course, there’s nothing like homemade ingredients and this is true for the béchamel as well. The recipe for homemade béchamel sauce can be found on the blog, you will find a link to it below.
Despite the fact that croque monsieur sandwiches are quite caloric, I admit that I eat them as often as I can. I usually serve them for breakfast, often with lettuce seasoned with vinaigrette. Try it 🙂
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Ingredients for croque monsieur.
- 8 slices of bread
- 4 thick slices of ham
- 250 g bechamel sauce
- 4 tablespoons of butter
- 50 g of cheese
- 4 tablespoons of cheese
How to make croque monsieur sandwich.
Prepare the béchamel sauce according to the recipe HERE. Warm up the finished sauce, then add 50 g of grated cheese to it and mix it. Stir until the cheese is completely melted and combined with the béchamel.
Place four slices of bread on the kitchen counter. Spread half of the béchamel sauce on four bread slices and place a slice of ham on top of each one. Cover the ham slices with the remaining sauce and sprinkle with grated cheese. Cover the cheese with the remaining four slices of bread.
Dissolve two tablespoons of butter in a large frying pan. When the butter is liquid, arrange the sandwiches on it. Fry on a medium heat until golden brown, then turn them over, add the remaining butter and brown the other side of the sandwiches as well.
Line a baking tray with baking paper, place the fried sandwiches on it, and put the tray in an oven preheated to 200 degrees Celsius for 8 to 10 minutes. Serve the croque monsieurs warm.
Good to know when making croque monsieur.
If you don’t want to fry the bread on butter, you can put it in a toaster. Personally, I think that the taste of fried bread in this sandwich is irreplaceable.
The béchamel sauce definitely changes the taste of croque monsieur. I recommend making your sandwiches with this sauce. Of course, you can also make them without béchamel, but their flavour will be less intense.
Some people like to cover the top layer of the sandwich with béchamel and sprinkle it with cheese. A few times I also made it like that, but I liked it better when the sauce and cheese were only in the middle of the sandwich.
Are you looking for sandwich recipes? If so, try our recipe for Club sandwich.
