Air Fryer Monte Cristo Sandwich

Ingredients

8 slices bread
1 c pancake mix
1 egg
1/4 c water
1/2 c milk whole
16 slices ham
16 slices cheese Swiss, Gouda, or Gruyer

Directions

Preheat your air fryer to 380F for 7 minutes. In the meantime, in a wide mixing bowl combine the pancake mix with the egg, milk and water.

Stir until you have a thick pancake batter – you want it to be thicker than your normal batter, not watery, so gradually mix in the water and the milk. Set aside.

Assemble the sandwiches like this: On a piece of bread place 2 slices of cheese, then add 4 slices ham then 2 more cheese and then the second piece of bread.

Gently use your palm to press down on the sandwich. Carefully, at an angle slide in 4 toothpicks on every edge of the bread to hold the sandwich together. By now the air fryer should have finished preheating, place an air fryer paper liner into the basket and close without turning back on.

Dip the assembled sandwich into the pancake batter and coat well on one side then gently flip over and coat on the second side. Lift up and allow excess batter to run off (don’t skip this step). Then place on top of the liner paper into the air fryer basket.

Set time for 7 minutes at 380 degrees. Then flip over and set temperature to 360F and time to 1 minute, just to finish browning and cooking the second side. (timing will vary slightly depending on how thick your batter is).

Remove from air fryer, pull out the toothpicks and keep warm by wrapping in a container with aluminum foil and continue to cool all of the sandwiches.

To serve, dust each sandwich with as much powdered sugar as desired then slice in half and serve with a little bit of raspberry preserves for dipping into. Enjoy!