Croque Monsieur Crostini.
If you haven’t figured it out by now, the way to my heart is through a block of cheese.
It’s like, newsflash!
Oh wait, except it totally isn’t. Because cheese is ALL I TALK ABOUT.
I get it. The cheese struggle is real but it’s so dang good and I love it so much and no no no don’t make me stop.
We can eat burnt, bubbly cheesy bread together instead of fighting about it.
This may not look like much, in fact it kind of looks like a tray of blobby golden bread or something. BUT. It’s golden bread plus crispy ham and a huge smothering of gruyere cheese sauce.
Oh oh! And mustard. Oh my gosh, the mustard. The grainier the better.
I might have a mustard collection. It’s embarrassingly horrifying and quite possibly takes condiments in excess to the highest levels.
Which reminds me, have you seen the Trader Joe’s mustard gift set this year? What in the actual heck, it is delicious. Of course, I had to buy it for myself because I’m a jerk. It has truffle mustard. And beet mustard. And two more that I can’t remember at the moment but I reeeeeeally obviously need that mustard to go with my collection.
And every single day I’m moments away from eating a little bit with a spoon. Because I live for mustard.
See you on mustard Hoarders, brb.
And that’s why I fell so completely hard into this recipe years ago when I first tried it: the mustard. I mean yes, obviously: the cheese.
You know that is where our invisible internet friendship began. All the cheese. All the time.
But the cheese is pretty much a given. You can put cheese sauce on anything these days and it’s no bigs. But the mustard in the recipe is what drew the flavor monster out of me. It MAKES it.
Oh god, just ignore me. Every ingredient makes it because they are all top notch delicious and half way terrible for you.
Remember back in the day when I made a croque madame? It’s this, but with an egg.
Cue my brain explosion right now. As if I could get any more obnoxious with the things I always ramble about.
Even though we sort of discussed cheese at length on Monday (or when don’t we?), I couldn’t help but share this with you rightthisminute in case you need a fabulous holiday appetizer. Because it’s my absolute favorite sandwich/lunch/late night love and now it’s made into bite size form!
Which means…
You know it…
You can eat more. Mini things = eating more of the things. We been over this quite a few times.
It also can mostly be prepped ahead of time, but I would do the cheese sauce at the last possible moment. You can always assemble an entire tray and then take it to a friends house to bake. Or you can quickly reheat your sauce on low, pile it on, and pop these in the oven.
That cheesy mess! I adore it.
Croque Monsieur Crostini
Ingredients
cheese sauce
- 1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1/2 tablespoon flour
- 2/3 cup half and half
- 1 cup freshly grated gruyere cheese
- pinch of salt, pepper + nutmeg
croque monsieur
- 6 ounces deli ham
- 1 large baguette, sliced (you want 15 to 20 pieces)
- 1/2 cup grainy dijon mustard
- 1/2 cup freshly grated gruyere cheese
- 1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
- fresh herbs for sprinkling, parsley, basil, sage
Instructions
- Note: I love to use crispy ham in this recipe, but you don’t have to.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Once hot, add ham in batches, turning with kitchen tongs and cooking until crispy on all sides. Remove and place on a plate. Once cool, tear into pieces since the crostini is smaller.
- Heat a small saucepan over medium heat and add the butter. Once sizzling, whisk in the flour and cook until golden, about 1 to 2 minutes, to create a roux. Add milk and stir constantly until slightly thickened, then reduce heat to low and add in gruyere. Stir until melted, then season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
- In a bowl, mix together the grated gruyere and parmesan.
- Take each slice of baguette and spread it with the grainy mustard. Add a sprinkling of cheese, then top that with a piece of crispy ham. Cover the top with a heaping spoonful of cheese sauce. Add another sprinkling of grated cheese. Repeat with all the bread slices.
- Bake the crostini for 15 minutes, until golden and bubbly on top. If desired, you can broil at the end for a moment to make the cheese even more bubbly and golden.
- Serve immediately.
Did you make this recipe?
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I appreciate you so much!
Guess who ate all the cheese off the baking sheet? #ihavenoidea
30 Comments on “Croque Monsieur Crostini.”
My heart is like yours, wrapped up in cheese! Bubbly, crispy cheese. Oh my! These crostini’s look like they’d make the ideal holiday appetizer for the Ugly Christmas sweater party I am hosting. And I am going to make these on my new wood cutting board and giveaway that I’m hosting right now on my blog. Thanks for sharing! Now if you only added chocolate to these……I’m just saying…..
Cheese and mustard, you’re a girl after my own heart!
Yes, please! And I bet that whoever ate the cheese off the pan was one happy girl.
Mustard and cheese are a match made in heaven! I swear mac and cheese without mustard is not the same either. Something about the combination – the vinegar-y element w/ the melty cheese MAKES it.
Ugh. Yaaas! Cheese is my spirit animal.
Imagining these with tiny sunny-side-up quail eggs on top and just DYING.
ugh, so GOOD.
Holy cow those things look absolutely delicious! Pinned and trying :)
I want to make these just so I have an excuse to burn some cheese onto a baking sheet and eat it.
yep that’s basically how i felt about it.
Yum! Croque Monsieurs are one of my favorite comfort foods!
Kari
http://www.sweetteasweetie.com
You should totally visit Boutique Maille: http://www.maille.com/. It’s a boutique in Paris where they have practically a bajillion mustards ON TAP, and little white crocks to fill with all the flavored mustard goodness.
Love them so so much.
http://www.sobellanursery.com
Very nice pictures.
http://www.boomcraftbeer.com
Yes, yes yes yes. I love crostini and I love cheese and I love mini foods. Gahhhh. How do you do it, like, every time?
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I’m totally making these asap! YUM!!!
My husband took me to a French restaurant for our anniversary a few years ago and i ordered this, and it was delicious! I’ll have to try making it soon!
Paige
http://thehappyflammily.com
Love this idea!! Croque Monsieurs are sooo good but sometimes I get overwhelmed by the whole sandwich. I so love that these are bite-sized!
What a great idea for a snack , breakfast, lunch or why not dinner. I’m going to check out your Croque Madame , happy holidays.
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Wow I could not believe how incredible these were. I served them at Christmas brunch and am doing a requested encore at a baby shower this month. Super easy, very impressive recipe. The were being snatched right off the pan as I brought them out. I could have tripled the recipe and still not had enough! I served cornichons along with these and I like that combo. Thank you! Sweet recipe!
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