I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas. We have a few days to recuperate (and shop some more sales) before New Year’s Eve. For our Christmas celebrations, we had our traditional dinner of Singapore Noodles, ham & sausage, and dumplings at my aunt and uncle’s house. We then came back home with full bellys and rested up a little bit for the big day. And then on Christmas Day we made our traditional Sausage Cups for brunch/lunch (look out for the recipe soon, they would work great for a New Year’s Eve party).
We have no set tradition for Christmas dinner, having tried many different variations of roasted chicken, turkey dinner, and more. This year I wanted to try a new food tradition for dinner: a Monte Cristo. For those of you who have not been lucky to enough to have eaten a Monte Cristo, it is a turkey, ham, and Swiss sandwich that is then completely deep fried. It is then sprinkled with powdered sugar and served wit raspberry preserves. It is glorious, my friends.
Well you may have noticed that the picture of my sandwich is not deep fried. Well, we had some deep frying issues. I had a good batter and hot oil, but when I dipped my bread in the batter, it became soggy, and it was difficult to completely cover the sandwich, meaning oil soaked in during frying. The sandwiches we got tasted good, but the oil lurking inside was likely to give us a holiday stomach ache Not fun, especially when we had so many desserts waiting to be eaten. Instead, we had a Monte Cristo alternative: Challah French toast with griddled turkey/ham and melted Swiss in between. Topped with powdered sugar and maple syrup, with raspberry preserves on the side. Yes, my friends, make this.
A short disclaimer: this sandwich will in no way help you take revenge on people who caused you to be falsely imprisoned.
6 slices Challah bread
3 eggs
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
6-8 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
Nonstick Spray
Roasted Turkey and/or Ham, thinly sliced
Swiss cheese, grated
Powdered sugar
Maple Syrup
Raspberry preserves
In a large bowl, whisk eggs, milk sugar, vanilla, and salt together. Heat a griddle over medium high heat. Spray with nonstick spray. On one side, layer you lunch meat of choice and top with a slice of Swiss cheese. Cook for 2-5 minutes, covering with lid if needed, until cheese begins to melt.
Quickly dip two slices of challah bread into the egg mixture. On the other side of the griddle*, cook the bread for 1-3 minutes per side, until golden brown. Transfer meat and cheese onto one slice of your French toast. Place the other French toast on top and slightly compress together. Cook for an additional 2-3 minutes. Transfer to broiler if you need to melt cheese further. Repeat for the remaining two sandwiches, spraying the pan with nonstick spray in between.
Top with sprinkling of powdered sugar. Dip into maple syrup or raspberry preserves. Sandwich can be eaten by hand or with knife and fork, depending on the amount of toppings.
Makes 3 sandwiches.
*You can make all three sandwiches at once if you have a large enough griddle. If you do not have a griddle pan large enough to cook both the meat and French toast, you can use two separate pans to cook each at the same time.
cinnamon freud 
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