4 Toastie Maker Hacks to celebrate Grilled Cheese Day and more! 🧀
The toastie maker is a marvelous and often underrated piece of equipment for turning carbs into melty, crunchy, golden deliciousness; and it works on more than just your basic sandwich bread. 🥪
The most common and ultimate god level use of a toastie maker takes us straight to the wonders of the grilled cheese sandwich, and since it’s Grilled Cheese Day today, we thought we’d share some toasties of epic proportion (plus a few other hacks ✌️) to put your toastie maker to good use! 💯
Store those cast iron skillets away - it’s toastie time!
The classic cheesy cheese
A Marelli Cafe special that we just can’t get enough of… filled with the meltiest cheese and a whole bunch of special add-on, if you’re feeling fancy. 🧀
Or the ultimate homemade ham & cheese
As great as a restaurant-grade toastie can be, there’s nothing that quite hits the spot than a homemade crunch AF ham & cheese to kill those hunger burns. And here at FoodBlog, we’re quite obsessed with the ham + cheese combo. 🤙
Make it Maltese with kunserva
And when we say we’re obsessed, we mean we’re obsessed… toasties brighten up our mornings, afternoons, nights and even wake us out of bed sometimes! And that’s where we get creative with a kunserva, ham and cheese toasted hobza! 🇲🇹
Maybe a kimchi special?
Does kimchi belong in a grilled cheese? “Why ever not”, says sourdough guru, and winner of our Pink October Bake-Off @thegoodstuff. In doubt? Give it a try! 🤔
You can even go ‘healthy’ with brown bread
Well, as healthy as triple layers of cheese goes… but the brown slice should balance it all out, right? We know we’re not following anyone, this brown-bread cheesy toastie is high up on the piggy scale and we’re living for it! 🐷
But if Grilled Cheese is your regular midnight munchie go to, here are some innovative ways to use it and some tips to bring your A game:
Leftover pizza
Heating up those last two slices of pizza from last night’s The Oven takeaway is somehow the most delectable breakfast man can conjure up, but doing it right isn’t plain sailing. 🍕
You often end up with a lukewarm, soggy, cardboard-y pizza whose cheesiness has lost all its integrity. This is where the humble toastie machine saves your morning. ⏰
Place the slices on top of each other with the top one facing down like a sandwich. Add some fresh cheese to the middle (optional but defo recommended) and let the magic happen. Your pizza will regain its crispy crust and cheesy goodness, and you’ve also basically turned it into a new thing, and that’s always fun. 🤩
Quesadilla
Making a quesadilla is super easy if you do it in a toastie maker. It’s as simple as grabbing a tortilla and slicing it in half, then grabbing all the fillings your heart desires. 😍
Go for this order: bottom tortilla, spread/sauce, fillings, lots of cheese and top tortilla. This works great because the bottom and top crisp up at the same time unlike in an oven or grill, so you don’t get a soggy bottom and your cheese melts nicely over all the fillings. You might have to cut it again into quarters and adjust the angles to make it fit in the machine, depending on the size of the tortilla. Your toastie maker is also a great place to heat up your Bianca’s quesadilla, you know when you were rudely interrupted by that remote-working conference call. 🙄
Omelette & Frittatas
Not many people know this, but the toastie machine cooks up eggs quite well. 🥚
Beat your eggs in a bowl and season well, and add any other ingredients. Try out this combo for a loaded delicious omelette: green onions, peppers, mushrooms, and chunks of ham; or go for it with a Maltese twist: Maltese sausage, onions, tomatoes and cheese. The outside will be golden and crispy while the inside will be light and fluffy. ☁️
For an extra addition to this, add pre-cooked spaghetti and you have yourself a quick and easy frittata. Make sure to load it up with cheese in the centre! 🍝
Grilled halloumi cheese
This is a very specific yet very useful hack. For those lovers of Halloumi, it’s hard to get that perfect grill that leaves the cheese with a nice char and bite on the outside, but chewy on the inside. 👍
The toastie maker does just that, and with a light spray of oil or just buffering up your machine makes it a great substitute to frying. 👌
Halloumi makes a perfect salty addition to your avocado and eggs on toast in the morning, and since it doesn’t melt and holds its structure it can be used as a meat substitute in burgers, stir frys and salads. 🍔
Top tips for the Toastie Pros
To get the perfect toastie experience, make sure your machine is non-stick - you can use olive oil spray or some butter on a napkin to grease it in order to let your food crisp up nicely. 🤤
If you like it extra crispy, butter the outsides of your slices of bread too. Don’t forget to give the machine ample time to pre-heat. If you prefer a mess-free toasting experience, grab two pieces of parchment paper to lay under and over your food, and that way you won’t even have to clean the toastie maker - this will however compromise the crisp factor, but another pro is it prevents burning when heating for long periods of time. ⏱️
Let us know your favourite way to toastie - we already told you, we’re quite the #toastieaddicts!
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