Croque Monsieur Hand Pies

I seem to go in waves when thinking about food.

Sometimes it is all about the low and slow cooking, others we eat tonnes of muffins and still others we are crazy about sandwiches other times it is all about pizza.

 Ok, by we, I mean I make what I feel like and my lovely family grins and bears it.

Right now everything needs to be a hand pie and ready to rock out the door in a rush.

One of my fav sandwiches has always been a croque monsieur.

Yummy bread, ham, swiss and a flavoured white sauce over the top.

Ooey, gooey, needing time to savour and not to be rushed.

Unfortunately that isn’t lunchtime for me but I still want the awesome flavour so I’ve made a portable version.

I also thought these would be super to have while opening presents tomorrow.

I started with a really thick bechamel sauce.  1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup flour and 2 cups of milk.  Flavour with 1/2 tsp of nutmeg, sea salt and pepper.  Purists will always want to have white pepper in the sauce but I like the zing of black instead. I had a ham already cooked so I sliced it into chunks. and made a bread dough out of; 1 1/2 cups warm water, 2 tsp yeast and 1 tsp sugar.  Proof.  Add 2 eggs and up to 4 cups of flour.  This is meant to be a soft dough that is also not sticky.  Divide into eight pieces… pat into 6 inch circles (1/2 inch thick) and top with 3 T. bechamel. A nice chunk of ham and an ounce of swiss make up the rest of the filling. Tuck the ends under and top the whole thing with 1/4 cup of shredded swiss. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes (or until browned on the bottom) and golden on the top.