French Ham and Cheese Baguette- 2 Ways

This is one of those 2 for the price of 1 recipes today, and that just means double the goodness. The humble ham and cheese sandwich is getting delicious upgrade thanks to some French baguette and some delicious condiments. And bonus, we're making one cold and one warm sandwich, so there's basically a sandwich for every mood!

Let's start with the cold sandwich. There's a very popular sandwich in France call jambon-beurre which is simply a ham and butter sandwich. There are some variations of this sandwich that will add gruyere cheese and/or cornichons, so we're loosely taking inspiration from this sandwich while making ours!

To start, we need some delicious French baguette. We're going to cut the baguette down into personal sandwich sized portions. Then, we'll slice the baguette in half to give us a nice foundation for our sandwich.

To fill our sandwich, we'll use simple deli ham and creamy sliced brie cheese. Just like the jambon-beurre, we're going to schmear good, softened, salted butter all over one half of our sandwich. Then, our sandwich takes a Monte Cristo-esque turn, and we'll schmear the other half of our sandwich with sweet strawberry preserves. And, that's it! Sandwich version number one is done!

For our warm sandwiches, we're going to use that same French baguette, deli ham, and sliced brie. However, we're going to give the baguette a light drizzle of olive oil, and toast it until it's just golden on the outside but still nice and chewy on the inside.

The glue for our warm sandwich is a delicious mustard aioli. So, we'll take some mayonnaise, some stone ground mustard, and sprinkle of garlic powder. Mix it together, schmear it all over the toasted bread, pile in that ham and brie, and sammie number two is ready to go!

Both of these sandwiches use simple, humble ingredients. But, they pack so much elegant flavor. It truly will be hard to decide which one of these is your favorite, because they are both extremely incredible in different ways.

Our cold sandwich is cool and refreshing. It's the perfect mix of savory and sweet. The salted butter adds a beautiful richness to this sandwich, while the strawberry preserves add an unexpected pop of sweetness. Then, you have that savory ham and that creamy brie, and the combination of all of it together is out of this world.

Then on the other hand, our warm sandwich is comforting and all the best parts of ooey gooey. The toasted bread is light and crisp. The brie becomes extra creamy and melty against the warm bread. And, the mustard aioli adds a nice touch of tang to help balance out an otherwise rich and luxurious sandwich.

I could eat both of these sandwiches all day every day. And in fact, I kind of have! And you can't deny how perfect these sandwiches are for basically any occasion. Picnics, parties, showers, or just your average every day lunch at work...there's never a wrong time or place for these sandwiches.

Okie dokes, everyone! That's all we've got for today.

Have a fantastic weekend, and let's eat!