Personalized “Grilled” Cheese Sandwiches for a Crowd

Makes 4, but easily multiplied. Making them in the oven lets you have all your sandwiches ready at the same time.

Kitchen equipment:

• Baking sheet (lined with parchment paper, if you’re making personalized sandwiches)
• Metal spatula
• Butter knife, bread knife
• Small cutting knife and cutting board
• Cheese slicer, or grater with a slicing side
• Oven mitts

Ingredients:

• 8 slices sandwich bread (preferably whole wheat or multigrain, or gluten-free if required)
• 6 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
• 8 ounces thinly-sliced cheese: cheddar, Monterey Jack, Swiss, or your favourite slicing cheese

Optional additions, such as:

• Green onions, finely sliced
• Tomato or sundried tomato, thinly sliced
• Chutney or jam
• Olives, green or black, finely chopped
• Thin slices of apple
• Roasted red peppers, cut in strips
• Crispy bacon slices
• Caramelized onions

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Prepare any of the optional extras you want to use: chop the green onions and olives and roasted red peppers, slice the tomato and apple thinly, caramelize the onions, fry the bacon.

3. Butter one side of 4 slices of bread and lay them butter-side down on the baking sheet.

4. Layer half the cheese slices on the bread. Add one of the optional extras, if you like. Cover with the rest of the cheese slices.

5. Butter the remaining slices of bread and lay them on the sandwiches, butter side up. Write your name on the parchment paper beside your sandwich (if you’re cooking in a crowd).

6. Put the pan in the oven for about 8 minutes, or until one side of each sandwich is golden. Flip the sandwiches with a metal spatula and bake until the other side is golden brown, about 6 to 8 minutes.

7. Cool a few minutes before slicing diagonally and serving.

Adapted from How to Boil Water: Life Beyond Takeout, by the Food Network (2006)

We served coleslaw with our sandwiches.