Croque Madame Casserole

• Preheat your oven to 375°F.
• If the bread isn’t a day old, or if it’s feeling too squishy, place it in a single layer on a baking sheet and lightly toast for about 5-10 minutes. We don’t want to get a lot of colour, just a little more “dry”.
• Using a 2" ring or cookie cutter or sharp paring knife, cut a hole in the center of 4 bread slices.
• Trim bread to fit evenly into a 9x9 baking dish. Ultimately we are doubling up, making 4 sammies. Once you know they fit, remove the bread slices and set aside. Spray your baking dish with non stick spray.

LET’S MAKE THE BECHAMEL

• Melt butter in a medium pot over medium heat.
• Add flour and cook, whisking or stirring with a spatula constantly, until butter foams then subsides and the mixture is light gold. We are not trying to make brown butter, just a roux.
• Slowly add your milk, whisking constantly to prevent lumps from forming. Increase heat to medium-high and cook, whisking, until mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon, 4–6 minutes.
• Reduce heat to very low and add the nutmeg, salt and pepper. Taste. Adjust.
• Now we want to slowly add in 1 cup of the grated Gruyère a handful at a time, making sure cheese is melted before adding more.
• Taste again and set aside! YUM!

LET’S BUILD AND BAKE!

• Let’s add a couple ladles of sauce down into the dish making a nice thin layer across the bottom.
  
• Arrange our 4 full slices of bread into the dish.
• Spread a little Dijon on each slice of bread.
• Layer some ham onto each slice of bread.
• Let’s add more béchamel over the ham.
• Sprinkle with more gruyere.
• Spread another third of the Béchamel over the ham. Sprinkle evenly with 1 cup Gruyère.
• Now let’s give the sammies their tops (with the holes) and spread the remaining bechamel over the sammies, leaving room to crack our eggs. If you wish to add the rest of the Gruyère around the borders of each sandwich, go for it. This also helps to build up a “nest”, which wil make it easier to nestle in our eggs.
• Crack 1 egg into each hole.
• Another little crack of pepper if you wish, then you’re ready to bake!
• Cover lightly with tin foil (spray the underside with non-stick spray) and bake on the middle rack for about 20 minutes.
• Then let’s remove the foil, turn the heat up on our ovens to 400°F and move the rack up to the top of the oven, then bake a few more minutes until the egg whites are set. **This can vary depending on your ovens as well as how you like your eggs to be cooked. It could take anywhere between 10-20 minutes. Just be sure the whites of the eggs are no longer “translucent” and they don’t have a real jiggle.
• Cool a little before serving! Enjoy!