
Our good friends Jaimee and Aaron had us over to their place a little while back. They wouldn’t tell us what we’d be having for dinner. “It’s a surprise,” they insisted. When we showed up, there was a spread of all kinds of meltable cheese and fancy sliced bread. It was so fun! We all got to choose ingredients for a tailor-made grilled cheese. They have twin girls, and the kids loved this interactive dinner just as much as the adults did. We immediately started thinking about how we could make this grilled cheese tradition our own. Follow along for the delicious result!
We love grilled cheese sandwiches, and we love to make waffles for a leisurely weekend brunch. Morning waffle-making happens maybe about once a month at most, though, so we found a way to make our waffle maker work harder and be more useful more often.
Wouldn’t our Cuisinart 4-Slice Belgian Waffle Maker be the perfect grilled cheese maker, too? The large, square, one-inch-deep sections are the same size as a standard slice of bread, perfect for making the most delicious grilled cheese sandwiches you’ve ever tried. The day we realized that we could make an awesome pressed sandwich in the waffle maker was quite an important discovery at our house.
The heat from the top and bottom cooks the grilled cheese quickly and evenly while the indentations the waffle maker leaves in the sandwiches not only adds tooth and texture but also creates the perfect space for some creative grilled cheese toppings like our Fig & Shallot Jam.
We decided that two ingredients in the sandwich and one on top works out nicely. All you do is choose a tasty cheese and a bread then select one other items to go inside. For solid, non-melty things, like avocados, you want thin slices.
We love substituting avocado for some of the cheese on our grilled cheese, and the Amco Houseworks Avocado Slicer & Pitter helps to quickly make thin slices of avocado that fit into a grilled cheese or a taco.
Adding a small sprinkle of hard cheese like Parmesan or Asiago to the top of your grilled cheese is a game changer. We just grate 1/4 cup of Parmesan on our Microplane Extra Coarse Elite Series Grater, which came with a handy measuring cup that fits right under it to catch the cheese, and sprinkle a little light parm on top before we close the waffle maker lid.
This gives you a savory and crispy crunch to the bread!
So go ahead and be as creative as you’d like, or use your favorite standby grilled cheese on white bread with American cheese. The truth is, making your next grilled cheese in your waffle maker makes it brand-new again. Once you give it a shot, you may never make it any other way!
For the Fig & Shallot Jam:
For the Grilled Cheese:
For the Fig & Shallot Jam:
For the Grilled Cheese:
For the Vanilla & Honey Oranges:
For the Grilled Cheese:
For the Vanilla & Honey Oranges:
For the Grilled Cheese:
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