The Famous Monte Cristo

When I was younger I used to LOVE the Monte Cristo sandwich from Bennigan's Restaurant!  When they closed down all of the Bennigan's that is what I missed the most!  I would think about making one of their sandwiches often, but I wasn't really sure of how to go about it.  Then I started cooking more and just recently I got brave enough to try it out myself!

When hurricane Matthew came through a few weeks ago I loaded my girls up along with my mother, grandmother, and my oldest sister; just two days before it was projected to hit our area and drove to my parents' second home in Alabama.  It just so happened that my mom had a spiral ham in the freezer, raspberry preserves in the fridge, and my cousin who also joined us in refuge brought a lot of sliced cheese!  There was also a deep frier there which made this cooking project a breeze.  I decided that it was just meant to be and got to work!

I mixed together two cups of pancake mix for the batter to dip the sandwiches in, I added enough water so that it wasn't too runny.  The batter needs to be sticky and medium thick.  You can use whatever pancake or waffle mix that you have, it doesn't matter.  I have also used milk instead of water to add to the pancake mix so you choose your preference.  I took two slices of bread and put two slices of cheese on it (one on each side of bread).  Then I added a very good amount of spiral sliced ham to the middle of the sandwich.  I cut the sandwich in half diagonally and dipped it into the pancake batter.  I proceeded to drop it into the deep frier and let it cook.  Once it was nice and golden, I took it out and dusted it with powdered sugar and added a side of raspberry preserves.  It was so very very delicious!  I know you are really not supposed to brag about yourself, but this sandwich was SO good!  It is not listed as healthy obviously, but I think almost all things in moderation are okay. LOL  I hope you enjoy this sandwich we loved it so much that I made them again as soon as we got back home!