Classically French and unbelievably delicious, this homemade Croque Monsieur is definitely the fanciest ham and cheese you’ll ever eat!
Hey, mes amies! As you read this, Mr. Crumby and I have set off on our belated honeymoon to Europe, and to keep you company while we’re away, I’ve asked five of my closest blogging friends to guest post, and to share with you their favorite European-themed recipes. Today, we are bidding adieu to Paris and headed to the lovely island of Venice, Italy! We didn’t make nearly enough time to see everything we wanted to here in the heart of France, but that’s the beauty of hopefully being able to come back some day. My lovely friend, Madison from The Wetherills Say I Do, was lucky enough to spend a semester abroad in Italy, but decided to branch out and share a fantastic French Croque Monsieur recipe with us that I’m looking forward to making when I get home, so I can relive the food in this beautiful city! Welcome, Madison!!
Hi friends! My name is Madison and I blog at The Wetherills Say I Do, a faith based lifestyle where I talk about everything from easy recipes, to helpful blogging tips and marriage lessons.
When I heard about Erica’s European adventure and she asked me to guest post, I was thrilled! Having spent a semester in Italy, I have a huge love affair with European culture and food! Knowing that Erica would be jetting off and spending some time in Paris, I started looking for Parisian recipes I could share with you all.
A lot of us have heard of a Croque Monsieur. Just before Erica asked me to guest post, I was actually at a little French bakery and they had the sandwiches. I had never had one before making them at home, but let me tell you, I’ll be ordering those from now on.
I decided to go all out for this recipe. One of my biggest goals for myself this year is to push myself in my cooking. There have been so many recipes that I’ve wanted to try but told myself they were “too hard”. So this year, I’m not doing that. I’m trying them all, which may involve some failures but that’s okay! So for these sandwiches, instead of buying focaccia bread, I made my own! You can go either route with this recipe, but if you want to make you own you can find the recipe here.
Croque Monsieur is one of those things that sounds super fancy, but in reality it really isn’t. Making the focaccia bread from scratch was the most tedious part, but the rest is so easy to handle. There are five ingredients needed for this recipe: focaccia bread, ham, gruyere cheese, dijon mustard and béchamel sauce- which has its own ingredients but saying five ingredients makes it much less intimidating 😉
One wonderful thing about these sandwiches is they reheat perfectly! If you don’t eat it all at once, place back in the over for about 5 minutes to reheat!
If you’ve ever had a fear of making French food or thought these delicious sandwiches were something you could only order at a restaurant, think again! I hope you’ll come visit my blog and see what it’s all about!
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Croque Monsieur
Ingredients
- 1 loaf rustic bread
- 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- ¾ pound sliced ham
- 8 ounces Gruyere cheese sliced
Béchamel
- 1 ¼ cups milk
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves divided
- Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees with rack in bottom third.
For the Béchamel
- Heat milk in a saucepan over medium heat until hot, about 5 minutes. Alternatively you can microwave the milk for about 2 minutes until hot (this will save you a dirty dish, too!)
- Melt butter in another saucepan over medium heat; add flour, whisk to combine, and cook 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add 1½ tablespoons thyme, then gradually whisk in milk. Simmer béchamel 2 minutes, whisking.
- Remove from heat, and add 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper.
Assembly
- Cut top crust off bread; slice loaf in half horizontally. Spread mustard on one slice of bread. Fill sandwich with sliced ham and the Gruyere. Toast on a baking sheet until cheese is melted and top is golden brown.
- Remove from oven. Preheat broiler. Spread béchamel on top. Broil until golden brown and bubbling, 6 to 7 minutes. Remove from oven; garnish with pepper and remaining thyme. Let sit 10 minutes before cutting.
Nutrition
Have you ever tried making something homemade that you thought would be too difficult?
Madison | Wetherills Say I Do says
Thank you so much for letting me guest post during your trip! Now I want this sandwich again!! 🙂