Cooking Parisian food is always a sure-fire way to impress people so when you next have friends over for breakfast I strongly recommend that you make Rachel Khoo’s Croque Madame Muffins.
The best thing about them is that once you have prepared everything you can pop them in the oven and get everything else ready, you don’t have to worry about making 5+ poached eggs or if you group prefer their scrambled eggs soft or well done.
The bread acts a muffin cup which holds a gooey mixture of ham, cheese sauce and an egg.
You can serve it with a salad or to make it a little more British you can serve it with beans and mushrooms.
Croque Madame Muffins
Yield 4 portions
Ingredients
For the cheese sauce
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp plain flour
- ¾ cup of warm milk
- ½ tsp of nutmeg
- ¼ cup of good handful of Gruyere or cheddar
- Salt and pepper
For the muffin
- 8 slice of white or brown bread per person (I’d recommend 2 per person)
- 3 tsp butter (melted) or olive oil
- 3 slices of ham cut into strips
- 8 small fresh eggs
Instructions
Start off by making the sauce
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter over a medium head and add the butter – beat together until you have a smooth paste.
- Take off the heat to cool then add milk whilst whisking constantly
- Place the pan back on the heat and add the nutmeg and simmer for 10mins whilst whisking every now and then
- Once the sauce is thick and creamy take it off the heat and add the cheese, salt and pepper.
- Check the consistency and add more milk (to thin) or cheese (to thicken) if necessary
To make the muffins
- Preheat the oven to 170 degrees.
- Take your slices of bread and remove the crusts, flatten with a rolling pin and coat both sides with the melted butter (or olive oil)
- Place the slices of bread into a muffin tin and flatten with your fingers (or use a glass)
- Add the ham, followed by the eggs – if you are worried about the size of the egg, separate the yolk, add that first and then top up the white
- Add 2 tbsp of cheese sauce and then top with grated cheese and pepper
- Bake for 15 mins for runny eggs
- Eat immediately – if you leave these to cool the residual heat will cook the eggs through