Croque Madame Muffins

At first, I was pretty skeptical of this recipe. I mean, rolling white bread to make the crust? Well, to my surprise, this was short, easy, and above all else, yummy. My only recommendation is to be sure to butter your muffin tin before pushing the rolled-out bread inside. Mine stuck pretty badly so a little extra butter would’ve gone a really long way.

The flavor of these breakfast cups is fabulous. The taste of the fresh nutmeg intermingled with the Gruyère cheese is very memorable. I also really love the idea of using grocery-store white bread as a pastry. Surprisingly, it works. This recipe should easily feed 5 or 6 average people, or 3 VERY hungry folks.

These muffins were every bit as wonderful as I hoped they’d be. First, I love the cleverness that turns breakfast into muffins, and then I also love the combination of egg+cheese+ham. The instructions were easy to follow and the timing on everything from the cheese sauce to the baking to the overall time was spot-on. I’m certain we’ll be making them again.

I’d say this serves 6 as an appetizer or as a part of breakfast/brunch, or 3 as a lunch or dinner (I ate 2 and my husband ate 3 along with some roasted asparagus). I used a regular-size muffin tin and had some problems with overflowing eggs. This was after pouring a fair amount of the whites off from my large eggs. At least half of the space in the muffin cups was taken up by the bread and the ham, with not much room left for the egg and cheese sauce. I found when I was adding the cheese sauce that it displaced the egg white out of the cup, causing it to spill over the edge of the pan.

I think when I make this again—and I will because we really did love this recipe—I’ll use a Texas-sized muffin pan to ensure all the ingredients stay contained in the cups. Not everyone has ramekins, but I think they’d be preferable to typical-size muffin tins.

These looked as good as they tasted and were so easy to put together. I used Gruyère for the Mornay sauce and realized too late that I only added a 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg—even with my mistake they came out wonderful! The muffins came out of the tin very easily and the crust formed a lovely cup. They’re very rich, so 1 made a perfect serving.

Yes, they’re too cute, and I was so happy to test this because I love watching Little Paris Kitchen. Rachel is just amazing—how she can do all that in her shoebox of a kitchen, whereas we Americans seem to need these big kitchens with 6-burner stoves. (Forget I said that because I want all that, too.) I see all her shows on the Cooking Channel, and for this recipe, she rolled out the bread to half the thickness, which would make them easier to unmold.

I baked mine for 15 minutes, but the eggs were a bit overcooked so I’ll decrease the time when I try this again until I get it runny. The cheese I used was Gruyère. The husband and son really liked them. I’m sure you can probably make these the night before and pop them in the oven in the morning. What a happy little recipe.

This recipe is very easy, and eggceptionally (sorry, I couldn’t resist) tasty. It feeds about 3 people with the 6 “muffins”; if they’re big eaters it may only feed 2. At first, I thought that 1/2 a teaspoon of the freshly ground/grated nutmeg would be too much, but when the sauce is added to everything else it’s just right.

Be sure you have a muffin tin that’s on the larger side or 6-ounce custard cups; I think the author was using a jumbo muffin tin. Once you add the bread and ham into the smaller muffin tin it’s almost completely full. Even with adding only 1/2 the egg whites (all I could find were large eggs), I could only fit 1 tablespoon of the sauce on top, and then they still overflowed onto the cookie sheet I baked them on.

I really liked these cute little “muffins.” In making the Mornay sauce, I found that it thickened rather quickly after I returned the pan to the heat with the whisked milk, mustard, and spices. The recipe called for 10 minutes, but it took me more like 4. Also, I cut back the nutmeg to 1/8 teaspoon because I felt the full 1/2 teaspoon would’ve been too overpowering for my family’s tastes; it was a perfect amount for us.

I subbed in wheat bread because that’s what we eat at our house, and I used a little bottle of vitamins to press the bread into the muffin cups since I didn’t have any narrow glasses. Also, I had a hard time finding “small” eggs, so I just cut back on egg whites as noted; I’d almost enough for a muffin with only whites. My husband and I each had 2 for breakfast, but perhaps 1 would be enough for a light breakfast if served with fruit or other sides. Very easy to put together, and could be quick if the sauce was made ahead of time.

It’s a perfect thing for a nice brunch: very easy to prepare in advance, not too big, and very tasty. Besides that, it’s something a bit unusual that you won’t see every day. The flavors of the egg, ham, and cheese work together perfectly (what a surprise), and the textures with the crusty bread outside and the soft egg/cheese filling are quite pleasant. I highly recommend this dish for brunch or a little lunch with a green salad on the side.

I prepared the muffins the night before (completely assembled and kept them in the fridge). The next morning, I baked them and that worked perfectly. I baked them for 20 minutes, which led to nice crusty bread, but the eggs were hard-cooked as well. I like them more on the soft side, so the next time I’d probably raise the temperature to 390°F and bake for 15 minutes. It was somewhat tricky to get the bread in the muffin pan. The bread slices get very soft after brushing them with the butter and sort of fell apart when I tried to put them into the pan.

In the end, I used my fingers; that worked much better than using a glass. I didn’t need all the egg whites, even though I bought small eggs. I ended up cracking and separating the egg, then putting the yolk on top of the ham and pouring some egg white over it (after I beat the whites with a fork to make them more pliable).

It was the ham and egg with Gruyère sauce that intrigued me about this recipe, and I wasn’t disappointed. The instructions were complete and accurate, and the measurements were also perfect. The recipe produced a nice, elegant meal in under an hour with no complications. All tasters liked the finished product and requested it again.

I thought these were quite good and the cheese sauce was much easier to make than expected. I did use the option of Parmesan instead of Gruyère since I had it on hand and didn’t want to make a trip to the store just to get another cheese. I’m sure they’d be just as delicious with Gruyère and next time I have some on hand I’ll try them that way too. I don’t buy small eggs, though I did have some that were supposed to be large but looked on the small side, so I used those.

I took the muffins out of the oven after 15 minutes and they were almost perfect for my taste. The white was just a little underdone, so I left them baking for 5 more minutes. After the extra 5, there was one spot in the yolk that was a little more cooked than I prefer. I like my white done but yolks very runny. Hubby on the other hand likes his yolks completely done so I cooked his for 25 minutes. I baked these in a silicone muffin pan and they came out perfectly by scooping them with an oversized serving spoon. I think 2 muffins per person is the perfect serving size unless you serve them with fruit; then I think 1 per person would be fine.