Croque Monsieur and Croque Madame - French sandwiches

French breakfast with Croque Monsieur

Today there is a strong nostalgia for France... I want to give you a recipe for a very common French dish that is often served there for breakfast. It is called Croque Madame or Croque Monsieur. These Croc gentlemen are delicious French sandwiches (local fast food) that are prepared according to the same recipe. With a small but significant difference.

What is the difference between Croque Madame and Croque Monsieur?

The photo of this French breakfast was taken at Freedom Square with my own hand))) I actually ordered Croque Madame... and therefore there should have been 2 eggs on the sandwich, that is, 2 eyes of yolk))) - this is Croque Madame... sort of - two breasts)) And when there is one egg in the scrambled eggs on a sandwich - it’s a Croque Monsieur))) The Gauls cheated me then)))

Croque Monsieur sandwich

What you need for Croque Monsieur and Croque Madame sandwiches

for 2 servings

  • 4 slices of rich white bread;
  • 3-4 tablespoons butter;
  • 6 thin pieces of cheese;
  • 2 thin pieces of ham or ham;
  • 2 (for Monsieur) or 4 eggs (for Madame);
  • Salt and herbs.

How to make Croque Monsieur or Croque Madame

Collect 2 sandwiches

  • Spread each piece of bread with a thin layer of butter (on one side) and place a piece of cheese on the butter. Then place 1 piece of ham on 2 pieces of bread. Cover them with the remaining two pieces of bread (butter and cheese side down) and press lightly.

That is, between the pieces of bread you have layers of butter and cheese, tending towards each other. And at the meeting place there is a border, a layer of a piece of ham. Layers: bread, butter, cheese, ham, cheese, butter, bread.

Bake sandwiches in the oven

  • Place the sandwiches on a wire rack and bake in an oven preheated to 220 degrees C until the bread is golden brown.
  • Turn the sandwich over to the other side. Place a piece of cheese on top. And bake for another 3-4 minutes.

Fry the top of the Croque Monsieur or Madame

In the remaining butter, fry 2 fried eggs (from 1 or 2 eggs, depending on your culinary fantasies).

French cuisine is famous with its original cold appetizers. Many of them eventually gained popularity in other countries of the world. Take, for example, the very tasty Croque Monsieur sandwich. The recipe for its preparation is interesting and at the same time quite simple. In addition, the dish itself also has a telling name. After all, “croc” translated from French means “crunch.” This is the whole essence of the product itself. It is designed for men who like to crunch with taste.

Sandwich from the oven

Many French families often prepare Croque Monsieur for a quick snack. The recipe for this dish is unique in that a regular white and ham sandwich is baked with the addition of aromatic mornay sauce. For preparation you will need the following components:

white bread (you can take a loaf), ham and Gruyère cheese.

For the sauce:

50 grams of butter, 200 milliliters of cream, Parmesan cheese, salt, 40 grams of flour and a quarter teaspoon of pre-grated nutmeg.

How to make Croque Monsieur? The recipe usually starts with making the sauce:

  1. First you need to grate the cheese.
  2. Heat the oil in a saucepan and, adding flour to it, turn it into a homogeneous paste with constant stirring. The French call this mixture "roux".
  3. Add cream to the saucepan and stir everything thoroughly so that there are no lumps. The resulting mass must be brought to a boil over low heat.
  4. Add the remaining ingredients and wait while stirring until all the cheese has melted. The sauce is ready.
  5. Now you can work on the sandwich itself. To do this, spread a piece of bread on one side with butter. Carefully place a slice of ham and grated cheese on top. Cover the food with a second piece of bread.
  6. Coat the workpiece with oil on the outside, and then place it on a baking sheet and place it in the oven for 5-6 minutes, preheating the latter to 190 degrees.
  7. Turn the product over with the fried side up and pour the prepared sauce over it. Place it back in the oven for about 5 more minutes.

The result is a fragrant and very tasty Croque Monsieur. The good thing about this recipe is that the sandwich is prepared very quickly. This comes in handy when time for a snack is limited.

Sandwich on a frying pan

If you don’t have an oven, you can also make Croque Monsieur. A recipe with a photo of the finished sandwich already makes you want to start the cooking process as soon as possible. We will tell you how to bring your plans to life using a regular frying pan. First you need to collect the required products on your desktop. For 4 servings you will need:

100 grams of butter, 75 grams of flour, 1.7 cups of milk, salt, fresh bread, 2 teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce, 110 grams of any hard cheese, a teaspoon of thyme, 340 grams of ham, 4 tablespoons of Dijon mustard, 0.5 cups of Parmesan ( grated), a little allspice and a third of a teaspoon of chopped nutmeg.

Cooking method:

  1. First, melt 40 grams of butter in a frying pan.
  2. Add flour and stir well.
  3. Slowly add milk and cook the resulting mixture over low heat for about 3 minutes.
  4. Add Worcestershire sauce, salt, nutmeg and thyme.
  5. Spread 4 slices of bread on one side with Dijon mustard.
  6. Sprinkle with cheese and place a slice of ham on top. Cover everything with the remaining pieces of bread.
  7. Fry the sandwiches in oil in a frying pan on one side.
  8. Turn the pieces over, pour fresh sauce over the fried crust and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
  9. Keep the sandwiches in the pan for a few more seconds so that the tops can brown.

Despite its simplicity, this design looks very appetizing.

The secret of the classics

You can prepare Croque Monsieur in different ways. The classic recipe is the easiest to use, since it requires a minimum set of ingredients to work. No sauce is used for this option at all. This makes the work much easier. All you need is:

for 4 slices of loaf (bread), 2 lettuce leaves, 100 grams of cheese, 50 grams of butter, herbs and 80 grams of ham.

The process itself is extremely simple. It consists of three operations that must be done in the following order:

  1. Fry all the slices of bread on one side until crispy in a frying pan.
  2. Place cheese on 2 pieces and wait until it melts. To do this, it is better to cover the pan with a lid.
  3. Place ham, herbs, salad on the cheese and cover everything with the remaining pieces of bread. Wait another 30 seconds. This time will be quite enough.

The finished sandwich can be served immediately with hot tea or coffee. By the way, it is not customary to eat such a dish with your hands. In this case, the French always use cutlery (fork and knife).

"Croque Provençal"

There are several options for preparing Croque Monsieur sandwiches. Recipes differ in the composition of the layer located between two pieces of bread. It doesn't have to be cheese and ham. Several varieties of this famous dish are known in cooking. The most popular of them is croc:

  • Hawaiian (with pineapple);
  • Norwegian (with salmon);
  • tartiflette (with potatoes);
  • Provencal (with tomatoes).

As an example, we can consider how the last option is prepared. It most closely resembles the original itself. The following ingredients are used to prepare this sandwich:

slices of bread (loaf), ham, butter, cheese and tomatoes.

Technology for making this sandwich:

  1. Cut off the crusts from all sides of the bread.
  2. Place cheese, ham and a tomato slice on one slice.
  3. Cover everything with the second piece of bread.
  4. Grease the outer parts of the bread with oil and then fry using an oven or a frying pan.

Sometimes, as a simplified option, you can take a regular sandwich maker. All that remains is to put the pieces of bread with a layer in the mold and press them between the plates. It takes just seconds to bake. This method is very convenient to use in the morning, when there is very little time to prepare breakfast.

One of the most popular versions of the croque-monsieur sandwich is one that consists of sausage and cheese, or rather, in the classic version, ham and Gruyère cheese. There are several versions of its origin. Some people prefer the story of how workers accidentally left their sandwiches on a hot radiator, others like the appearance of the croque monsieur as a chef's invention, etc.

Over time, many sweet and savory croque-monsieurs have emerged: with tomatoes, with salmon, with bananas, with pineapples, and others that are always tasty and crunchy. When I was compiling the book “Street Food from Around the World”, I used a simple quick version of milk and cheese as a sauce, but it tastes more impressive with bechamel sauce, but you need to tinker with it...

p.s. If you put a fried egg on top of a sandwich, it turns into a croque madame))

To prepare a croque monsieur, prepare the ingredients according to the list.

If you decide to make a croque monsieur with béchamel sauce, make sure to make that first. To do this, melt 2 tbsp. tablespoons butter and mix with 1 tbsp. spoon of flour.

Pour in 1 glass of milk while stirring, add a pinch of salt and ground nutmeg. Cook until thickened. Cover the surface of the bechamel sauce with cling film to prevent a drying crust from forming on its surface.

Grate the cheese and divide into three parts. Brush each piece of toasted bread with butter or vegetable oil and, if desired, Dijon or other mustard. Place half of the prepared pieces on a greased baking sheet and sprinkle with the first part of the cheese.

Cover the cheese with ham, ham or other sausage.

Sprinkle with the other half of the cheese and cover with the remaining pieces of bread.

Place the croque-monsieur pieces in an oven preheated to 200 degrees until browned. Then pour the bechamel sauce over the top and sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

Return to the oven and bake until the cheese is melted and lightly browned.

The croque monsieur is ready, serve immediately.

Bon appetit!

In the names “Croque Monsieur” and “Croque Madame” the second part is clear to everyone and is familiar as an address to a man and a woman in French. What then lies behind the root “krok” and what kind of dishes are with such interesting, even humorous names? It turns out we are talking about hot ham and cheese sandwiches. Krok means “crisp, crunchy.”

As legend testifies, they received their original name thanks to the communication culture of the French. It roughly looked like this. The visitor asks the waiter: “Croque, monsieur.” The waiter brings the order and serves it to the visitor with the words: “Croque, monsieur.” This is how this phrase in its name became attached to the sandwich.

A ham and cheese sandwich can be too simple in any cuisine other than French. The use of Dijon mustard and béchamel sauce, along with crispy slices of bread and juicy toppings, make it taste luxurious.

A croque madame differs from a croque monsieur by having a fried egg on top of the sandwich. It turns out that these scrambled eggs were associated with a French bonnet, which is why the sandwich received a feminine name.

Today there are many variations of these sandwiches, loved by children and adults all over the world. This is a croque Provençal with tomatoes, a croque d'Auvergne with blue cheese, a Norwegian croque with salmon, a croque tartiflette with potatoes, even a Hawaiian croque with pineapple.

Croque-monsieur is a famous French hot sandwich: croquer means “crunch”, monsieur means “lord”. Croque-madame is the same hot sandwich served with a fried egg on top. That is, a croque monsieur is a classic French sandwich with ham, cheese and bechamel sauce. Croque Madame is a sandwich with ham, cheese, bechamel sauce and a fried egg.

Bechamel sauce - how to prepare

An important ingredient in croque madame and croque monsieur is French béchamel sauce. To prepare it, you will need ingredients:

  • 550 ml ml milk
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • A pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper (white or black)
  • A pinch of ground nutmeg

Melt butter in a frying pan and add flour. Fry for three minutes, stirring constantly. Then add milk, reduce heat and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly (so that there are no lumps in the sauce). The longer you keep the sauce on the fire, the thicker it will become. Strain the finished sauce, add salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

Croque-monsieur sandwich - how to cook

Making a croque monsieur sandwich is fairly easy once you've already prepared the sauce. For this you will need ingredients (for two sandwiches):

  • 4 slices of bread
  • 2 pieces of ham (you can use 4 - then each sandwich will have not one piece of ham, but two)
  • 4 slices hard cheese (Gruyère, Emmental, Maazdam or cheddar)
  • Butter
  • Olive oil
  • Salt, black pepper

Grease the bread slices with butter and fry in a dry frying pan until golden brown on both sides. Then reduce the heat, place a slice of cheese on each piece of bread and cover the pan with a lid to slightly melt the cheese. If necessary, add a little olive oil to the pan. Then place a piece of ham on two pieces of bread and cover with the second piece of bread. Pour the sauce over the finished sandwich and you are ready to serve.


Croque madame sandwich - how to cook

The croque madame sandwich is prepared exactly the same way as the croque monsieur, plus a fried egg. So, while the sandwich is browning in one pan, you need to fry the fried egg in the second pan. The egg is fried on one side, and it is important that the scrambled egg is no larger in size than the bread and that the yolk remains intact. Place the fried egg on the sandwich, pour over the sauce and serve. Bon appetit!

Other ways to make a sandwich

Grease one piece of bread with butter, the second with mustard. Place ham and cheese on the first piece of bread, trim the sides of the ham and cheese. Then brown the sandwich in a frying pan with olive oil on both sides.

You can add grated hard cheese to the sauce - the sauce should turn out like very thick sour cream. Fry the pieces of bread in a frying pan on one side, brush the other side (not toasted) with sauce, put the ham on top and cover with another piece of bread.

The finished sandwich can be sprinkled with grated hard cheese and placed in the oven for a few minutes to melt the cheese.

Also, the finished sandwich can be sprinkled with herbs or served with a leaf of green salad.

Traditionally, French gruyere cheese is used for croque madame and croque monsieur, but you can replace it with maazdam cheese, cheddar cheese or other hard cheese. Bon appetit!