Amazing Variation on a Croque Monsieur/ Madame

Above is a wonderful variation on a croque monsieur/madame which essentially is a ham and cheese toast.  However, the traditional french sandwich is flat and if you add an egg on top of it, it's a croque madame.  Croque just means 'crunch' and this variation that I did had crunch, eggy goodness AND bacon.

Check out the oozing eggy goodness! This was my first attempt and I'm so proud of myself.  So...what do you need?

Ingredients
1 slice of white bread per person
1 egg yolk per person
1 slice of bacon per person
1 dessert spoon of white sauce
shredded gryuere cheese
shredded Parmesan cheese (optional)
melted butter

Making white sauce from scratch is really easy and you can find the recipe for it over Allreceipes.com.  It is essentially melted butter, flour and milk.  Anyway, back to the croque monsieur.

1. Preheat your oven to 200 deg C
2. Cut the ends off the bread so that you are left with only the white portion.
3. Flatten each slice of bread with a rolling pin or any other object
4. Brush the slice of bread with melted butter (this is to prevent all the items from oozing out into the bread)
5. Push it into a muffin tray and press the sides down such that it's a mini cup
6. Cut your bacon into 2-4 small pieces and line the bottom of the bread
7. Add the yolk on top of the bacon
8. Spoon the white sauce on top of the yolk
9. Sprinkle enough shredded cheese on the top
10. Brush any visible tips of the bread with melted butter
11. Bake for 5 mins for small eggs and 7 for large ones

I made this for my friend and I as a starter and boy was I blown away at how simple but yet gratifying this dish was! It was creamy, salty, cheesy, crispy but yet light.  Although it probably has enough calories to be an entree on its own.  Hahaha!  Anyway, try it! I think it'll make a really wonderful breakfast to kick start your day!

Update on 8 Aug 2013:

I made a wholemeal bread version and substituted bacon with sausage.  Also, I didn't have any cow's milk so I used goat's milk.  In addition, I added truffle oil into my white sauce.  Boom! This version is SUPER tasty and I loved the pockets of truffly goodness that oozed into my mouth.  As this wholemeal loaf had sunflower seeds, this added another texture into what is already a damn good dish!