James Martin’s Gruyère and pancetta brioche sandwich fills sliced brioche with melting Gruyère and maple-drizzled crisp pancetta, then dips the whole sandwich in sweetened egg and milk and fries it golden in butter. It’s a croque monsieur crossed with French toast, takes under 10 minutes in the pan, and serves four.
The recipe comes from BBC’s Home Comforts, and Martin says he encountered this hangover cure on his travels in the United States. That explains the mash-up: a French filled sandwich meets an American diner trick of egg-dipping before frying. The maple syrup on the pancetta tips it towards brunch territory rather than plain lunch.
The brioche is what holds it all together. Ordinary bread would go soggy in the egg mixture, but brioche is enriched with butter and eggs, so it soaks up enough to form a golden crust without falling apart, and it matches the richness of the Gruyère and pancetta inside. Dip for a few seconds per side, no longer.
James Martin Gruyère And Pancetta Brioche Sandwich
Course: DinnerCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy4
servings10
minutes10
minutes685
kcal20
minutesJames Martin’s American-inspired hangover cure from BBC’s Home Comforts: crisp maple pancetta and melting Gruyère inside brioche, dipped in sweetened egg and fried golden in foaming butter. A brunch sandwich that takes 10 minutes. Serves four.
Ingredients
12 rashers thinly sliced pancetta
2 tbsp maple syrup
8 slices brioche
4 large slices Gruyère
2 free-range eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp caster sugar
150ml/5fl oz full-fat milk
50g/2oz unsalted butter
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions
- Crisp the pancetta:Heat a frying pan over high heat. When smoking, add the pancetta and dry-fry for 1-2 minutes each side until crisp. Drizzle over the maple syrup and transfer to a warm plate.
- Build the sandwiches:Lay four slices of brioche on a board, top each with a slice of Gruyère and three rashers of the pancetta, drizzle over the pan juices and close with the remaining brioche slices.
- Make the dip:Whisk the eggs, sugar and milk in a shallow, wide bowl until combined, then season with salt and pepper.
- Dip:Dip each sandwich into the egg mixture, letting the brioche soak for a few seconds on each side.
- Fry:Heat half the butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. When it’s foaming, add two sandwiches and fry gently for 4-5 minutes each side, until golden on both sides and heated through. Keep warm. Repeat with the remaining butter and sandwiches.
- Serve:Serve immediately.
FAQs
What exactly is this, a croque monsieur or French toast?
Both, and that’s the trick. A croque monsieur is a filled, grilled cheese-and-ham sandwich; French toast is bread dipped in sweetened egg and fried. Martin’s version combines them by building a cheese-and-pancetta sandwich, then dipping it in egg-and-milk batter before frying. The result has the melting cheesy filling of one and the golden, custardy shell of the other.
He picked up the idea in America, where diners serve stuffed French toast with savoury fillings, and brought it home. The maple syrup on the pancetta adds a sweet-salty note that leans the whole thing towards brunch, and the egg-dipped brioche fries into something richer than either dish alone.
Does it have to be brioche?
Not strictly, but brioche is ideal. It’s already enriched with butter and eggs, so it’s sturdy enough to soak in the egg mixture without falling apart, and sweet enough to complement the maple pancetta. Ordinary white bread works but goes soggy more easily and lacks the richness.
Challah is the closest substitute, with the same egg-enriched, slightly sweet character. Avoid anything crusty, wholemeal or grainy, since the filling needs a soft, yielding bread that melts together with the cheese and the pancetta under the golden crust. Sliced brioche loaf from the supermarket is perfectly fine here.
Can I use a different cheese?
Gruyère is the right call for melting: it goes silky and stretchy without splitting, and has a nutty, slightly sweet flavour that works beautifully with the salty pancetta and the maple. It’s the same cheese behind a proper croque monsieur and a good fondue, chosen for exactly that melt quality.
If you can’t get Gruyère, Emmental or Comté are the closest substitutes, both Swiss-style melters. A mature cheddar would work for flavour but melts differently, often oilier and less elastic. Whatever you pick, cut or slice it generously thick so it genuinely melts inside the sandwich rather than just warming through.
Why drizzle maple syrup on the pancetta?
For that sweet-salty combination. The maple hits the hot, crisp pancetta and caramelises into a sticky, smoky glaze that adds depth to every bite. It’s a distinctly American touch, the same idea behind maple bacon, and it’s what pushes this beyond a simple cheese toastie into something more indulgent.
Don’t skip the pan juices either: Martin tells you to drizzle them over the sandwich before closing it, which carries that maple-pancetta flavour right through the filling. If you’re not a maple fan, honey or even a smear of redcurrant jelly gives a similar sweet-against-salty contrast.
How do I stop the filling falling out or the sandwich falling apart?
Two things. First, dip rather than soak: a few seconds per side is enough for the brioche to absorb the egg mixture and form a crust when fried. Leave it sitting in the bowl and it gets waterlogged and the sandwich disintegrates in the pan.
Second, fry gently over medium heat rather than blasting it on high. Four to five minutes per side gives the egg time to set into a firm golden shell and the Gruyère time to melt inside. If the heat is too fierce the outside burns before the cheese melts, and you end up with a brown crust around cold filling.
Is this really a hangover cure?
Martin calls it that with a wink, and it has everything the theory recommends: eggs and protein for recovery, salt and fat for comfort, sugar for energy, and enough richness to line a fragile stomach. Whether it cures anything is debatable, but it makes a rough morning substantially more bearable.
It’s also a genuinely impressive brunch if you’re not hungover at all, since it looks and tastes like something from a smart restaurant but takes 10 minutes. Serve it with strong coffee and a simple green salad or fresh fruit, and you’ve got a weekend brunch that feels like an event.
