Croque Monsieur

This recipe is definitely what I would consider "comfort food".  In other words, it isn't something to make a habit of, but for a special occasion, this is a fabulous sandwich!  I made this for our New Year's Eve with my family, but I am just getting around to posting it now.  I guess you could say that it was a combination of being pretty busy writing a research grant application (yes, it took a month, and yes, writing one of these definitely requires comfort food), as well as the fact that January is typically the month when people are trying to cut back from the excess we experience in December.  For whatever reason, the post was not written until now, which does seem perfect as we are experiencing our coldest day so far this winter (-18 with a windchill of -32!). If that doesn't call for comfort food, I don't know what does.  The recipe comes from the fabulous cooking magazine, Cook's Country (I get mine from our local library). These cooks do what I wish I had time to do with every recipe:  they research and experiment until they come up with the best possible recipe.  Let's just say that they were very correct with this recipe! If you haven't heard of a Croque monsieur, it is basically an incredibly tasty cheese and ham sandwich (think of a ham sandwich with a tasty cheese sauce).

Sandwiches:

8 slices hearty thick sandwich bread

12 Tb. unsalted butter, melted

12 oz. thinly sliced Black Forest deli ham (I did not need use this amount)

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

 4 oz. Gruyere cheese, shredded (1 cup)

Mornay Sauce (a fancy name for a cheese sauce)

2 Tb. unsalted butter

2Tb. flour

1 cup whole milk

4 oz. Gruyere cheese, shredded

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

pinch ground nutmeg (optional) 

1. For the sandwiches:  Adjust oven 6 inches from broiler element and heat oven to 375 degrees F. Line rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with vegetable oil spray.  
2. Brush bread on both sides with melted butter and place on prepared sheet.  Bake until light golden brown on top, about 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and flip slices.  Return to oven and bake until golden brown on second side, about 3 minutes.  Reserve 4 slices for sandwich tops; evenly space remaining 4 slices on sheet.

For the Mornay sauce:  Melt butter in small saucepan over medium heat.  Whisk in flour and cook for one minute.  Slowly whisk in milk and bring to boil. 

 Once boiling, remove from heat and quickly whisk in Gruyere, Parmesan, salt, pepper, and nutmeg until smooth. 

Spread 1 Tb. Mornay on each slice of toast on sheet.  Then, folding ham slices over themselves multiple times so they bunch up, divide ham evenly among slices of toast. Spread 2 Tb. Mornay on 1 side of each reserved slice of toast and place slices Mornay side down on top of ham.  

Spread 2 Tb. Mornay evenly over top of each sandwich, making sure to completely cover over toast, including edges.

 Sprinkle sandwiches with Parmesan, followed by Gruyere.

Bake until cheese on top of sandwiches is melted, about 5 minutes.  Turn on broiler and broil until cheese bubbles across tops of sandwiches and edges are spotty brown, about 5 minutes.  Serve.

We enjoyed this!