A fresh take on the classic French grilled ham and cheese! Adapted from a recipe by Rachel Khoo.
Prep Time10 minutesmins
Cook Time30 minutesmins
Total Time40 minutesmins
Course: Breakfast, Brunch
Cuisine: French
Servings: 6
Calories: 266cal
Author: Nagi | RecipeTin Eats
Ingredients
Bechamel Cheese Sauce
1 1/2tbspunsalted butter
1 1/2tbspflour
1 1/4cupsmilk(full fat works best, though low fat does work)
1/3cupgrated gruyere cheese(or tasty or cheddar), plus extra for sprinkling
2tspDijon mustard
1/4tspfreshly ground nutmeg
1/4tspsalt
Black pepper
Toast Cups
6large slices of fresh white bread(Notes 1 and 2)
2tbspmelted butter(salted or unsalted)
6eggs
100 g / 3 oz leg ham
Garnish
Fresh parsley, finely chopped
Freshly ground nutmeg
Instructions
Turn the oven on to 180C/350F.
Cut the crusts off the bread, then roll out with a rolling pin until flattened.
Press the bread into Texas muffin tins to form cups. Place into the oven (even if it is still heating up) for 5 minutes, just to dry the bread out a bit (Note 3). Don't let it brown.
Bechamel Cheese Sauce
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium high heat. Add the flour and stir until a paste forms.
Add half the milk and whisk until the sauce thickens - around 1 minute.
Add the remaining milk, Dijon mustard, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Keep whisking because once the milk heats up, it thickens very quickly. Whisk until the sauce is thick enough to coat the spoon thickly (around 1 1/2 to 2 minutes), around the consistency of tomato ketchup.
Remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes. The sauce will thicken considerably as it cools. Then stir the cheese in.
Assemble Toast Cups
Brush the melted butter around the edges of the toast cups (to help them brown nicely).
Divide the ham between the toast cups, then carefully crack an egg into each.
Top with Bechamel Cheese Sauce, then sprinkle each with a pinch of grated cheese.
Bake for 18 minutes (for runny yolks) to 23 minutes (firm yolks). (Note 4)
Rest for a few minutes, then sprinkle with parsley and a grating of fresh nutmeg.
Serve immediately.
Notes
1. The original recipe calls for ordinary small sandwich bread which fits into ordinary muffin tin / cupcake tins. However, it is slightly too small for ham + egg + cheese sauce. So the original recipe actually includes an instruction to use small eggs or to discard a bit of the whites (which is actually quite tricky to do).I tried to make it with ordinary sandwich bread in cupcake / standard muffin tins and found that it overflowed and just made a mess. However, if you make this using the larger size sandwich bread in Texas muffin tins, then it is the perfect size! The bread slices I used were around 13 x 13 cm (just over 5 x 5"), including the crust.2. This needs to be made with fresh bread. If it is not fresh, then you can't roll it flat which makes it impossible to mould into the muffin thin.3. The purpose of popping the bread cups into the oven even while it is coming to temperature is to dry the moulded bread out a bit. This serves 2 purposes: a) helps the cups come out crispy; and b) to reduce the amount the egg and/or cheese sauce is soaked up by the bread (which makes the cups soggy).4. Remove the toast cups from the oven while the eggs are still a touch underdone (i.e. still looks jiggly) because the egg continues to cook in the residual heat.5. Because of the Bechamel Cheese Sauce, I find these quite rich and filling. One is usually enough and though I always want more, if I have two I find it is too much.6. Nutrition per serving.