Baked Croque Monsieur
Croque Monsieur, a Continental cross between French toast and a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, feeds a crowd when you bake it casserole-style in the oven.
Sixteen (1/2" ) slices fine-grained white bread
1/4 cup Dijon style mustard (optional)
3/4 pound sliced or grated cheese (Gruyere, Swiss or Cheddar)
3/4 pound sliced ham
1 med. to small onion, thinly sliced
6 large eggs
2 1/2 cups whole milk
1 tsp. Herbs de Provence (or mixed dried herbs of your choice)
1 tsp. salt
Topping
1 1/2 cups Panko (Japanese style coarse bread crumbs), or homemade dried breadcrumbs
3 TBS. butter, melted
1/4 cup grated cheese, parmesan, swiss, or cheddar
Butter a deep 9X13-inch baking pan. Remove the crust from the bread, if desired. For firmer texture, toast the slices lightly. Spread eight of the slices of bread with mustard. Place them in the baking dish, mustard side up, cutting the slices in half, as necessary, to completely cover the bottom of the pan. Top with half of the cheese, all of the ham, all of the sliced onion and then the remaining cheese and the remaining bread slices. Press the sandwiches together. Beat the eggs, milk and seasonings together. Pour slowly over the bread. Cover and place in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight.
About 1 hour before serving, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Mix the breadcrumbs with the melted butter and the grated cheese. Sprinkle over the casserole. Bake 42-48 minutes, until the top is golden brown and the eggs are set. Remove from oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes before cutting and serving. Yields generous 8-10 servings. You could easily get 12 brunch size servings.
When I made it, I toasted the bread, used mustard, used Herbs de provence, used fewer bread slices (12), used Gruyere cheese, used Panko crumbs available from Asian section of grocery store. I loved it! Maybe my bread slices were bigger then the ones they used in the original.