Monte Cristos

When I talked about our Easter brunch a few days ago, I mentioned our monte cristo sandwiches. It's not something we'd ever tried until Cafe Orleans during my birthday celebration at Disneyland last December. After that, we were pretty hooked. Neither of us are huge ham people, but since ham is an Eastery thing, we thought fried sandwiches would be good compromise to include ham without it being overpowering.

Monte cristos are amazing if you don't know about them. They are a version of a croque monsieur− a ham and cheese sandwich on brioche or challah bread, dipped in an egg batter and fried.

The Disneyland version also includes turkey, and many versions including Disney's involve powdered sugar and some sort of fruit preserves in which you can dip your sandwich.

The crust on ours weren't quite as thick and deep fried as the ones from Cafe Orleans, but that's a good thing which makes you feel a little less bad about yourself when you are eating them.

Monte Cristos

serves 4

• 8 slices of challah or brioche bread
• 8 slices turkey
• 8 slices ham
• 4 slices swiss cheese
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• salt
• 1 1/2 water
• powdered sugar
• blackberry preserves
• canola oil, for frying (~3 cups)

1. Begin heating the oil until it reaches 365-375° at which point you can begin frying your sandwiches.
2. Place the turkey, ham, and cheese on your slices of bread.
3. Combine the egg, flour, baking powder, salt, and water.
4. Dip each sandwich in the batter then place in the oil, frying for 3 minutes, flipping and frying for another 3 minutes.
5. Place on a baking sheet or plate lined with paper towels to drain the excess oil.
6. Dust with powdered sugar and serve alongside preserves.

recipe slightly adapted from the Disney Food Blog