When people think of making a "perfect" melted cheese sandwich they generally look to various grilled cheese techniques and ingredients. Today, however, I want to look at a way of making a melted cheese "croque monsieur" style bit of greatness that is broiled instead of fried.
There are an enormous number of variations of this that can be done and we will touch on some of them at the end, but here we are using an English muffin, ham and cheddar cheese.
To begin, lightly toast your English muffin. (If you are using bread, follow all of the same steps).
On one side -- in the case of English muffins the inside -- coat the bread with a layer of Dijon mustard. On the other, outside side, spread some softened butter.
Then place a layer of grated cheese over the mustard. We used old, sharp cheddar, but you can use any cheese. Another common one is, of course, Swiss or Gruyere.
Cover this with some slices of ham. We used Black Forest style.
Combine the two sides together and place on an ungreased oven pan. Place the pan in the oven set to broil and cook for around 5 minutes. You want, as generally with broiling, the oven rack to be at either the highest or second highest placement depending on the size of your oven
After around 5 minutes, leaving the broiler on, take the sandwiches out, flip them and top with another layer of grated cheese on the outside. Put them back in the oven and broil for 5 minutes more or until the topping cheese is melted and golden-brown to your liking.
Take out of the oven, sprinkle with some ground black pepper, let sit a couple of minutes and serve.
This is very, very tasty! There are also any number of variations. Below we used a whole wheat bread. Rye bread is terrific for this. Substitute spicy salami or roast beef for ham. You can switch it up all you want.
But the butter and the broiling will always produce a terrific texture and flavour.
Enjoy
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