Cheese on toast, while similar to toasted cheese sandwiches, is not the same thing. It is, however, quick, easy, fun and open to experimentation. This is a general description how I make Cheese on Toast (CoT).
Ingredients:
-
Bread
Preferably whole grain, preferably organic. You can have trouble with the bread flopping/crumbling if it's too soft (I eat with my hands) - make sure that the bread is dense enough. Slices on the thin side seem to work best. Of course, fresh is preferable. An easy way to meet all of these requirements is to get a bread machine and use home-made bread in your CoT! Bread machined are great.
-
Cheese(s)
You can also have a different cheese in the filling, of course, but here we are talking about the cheese that gives CoT its name - the one that goes on top. This should be a hard cheese that melts nicely. Cheddar is by far the one I use most here, though mozarella can also be successful. You can mix cheeses if you like.
-
Filling
This can be entirely omitted, if you're going for the simplistic style. My favourite fillings include cream cheese, ham, salami, tomato puree and cottage cheese.
-
Extras
This includes sauces, seasonings, and anything not considered substantial enough to merit being called a filling. Depending on what it is you're using, these can be added before the filling, after the filling but before the cheese, or after the cheese. It is these little extras that make CoT one the most fun and versatile yet easy to prepare foods. My favourites in this department include pepper (if you can, get a pepper mill and some good mixed peppercorns to go in it; I rarely have CoT without pepper), worcester sauce, jalapeno sauce, tabasco sauce, lemon juice, grated parmesan, or whatever I come across in the fridge/cupboard.
Method:
-
Place as many slices of bread as you want under a grill under maximum heat, until the top side is toasted a nice even brown.
-
Remove the semi-toasted bread from under the grill and place them somewhere toasted-side down.
-
Apply fillings, extras and cheese, in whatever order seems best, to the untoasted side of the bread. Cheese always goes above fillings, though. E.g. worcester sauce (applied directly on to the bread because it tends to run off if you drip it onto the cheese), followed by some ham, followed by some cheddar, followed by a generous grinding of the pepper mill. Take care cutting the cheese: too much cheese means it won't melt properly. Best results are achieved if you use a cheese cutter/slicer rather than a knife, in which case one or two layers of cheese are usually appropriate. You should aim to cover almost all of the surface of the CoT with cheese.
-
Place the bread back under the grill until the cheese has melted and is bubbling or browning. Ideally, the cheese should always bubble, and it should do it reasonably quickly so that any exposed bread (usually around the edges) does not get overtoasted.
-
Eat and enjoy.