Toasted cheese sandwiches are part of our traditional Christmas Eve supper. Kids love them and served warm, adults can’t say no either. Two secrets to these world famous (just kidding) sandwiches; butter both sides of the bread and use a flat crepe pan or griddle for cooking.

Ingredients for this recipe are fairly obvious – bread, butter and sliced cheese. I serve these with soup and one sandwich each seems to be enough.

It’s okay to use good quality store bought white bread for this recipe. Might seem like heresy from someone who makes all her own bread but home made bread is denser and it’s difficult to get even slices. You want good quality white bread because it needs to carry a fair amount of butter without tearing.

Put good quality salted butter out to soften well before you’re planning to make the sandwiches. It’s Christmas so I like to use butter from Normandy ‘Isigny Ste Mere’; but any good quality salted makes a difference. Do not use margarine or ‘spread’. It’s a crime against sandwiches and you’re reading the wrong blog if you’re afraid of butter.

The eternal question for toasted cheese sandwiches: what type of cheese? If you’re feeding a crowd, then I recommend aged medium cheddar but most cheeses will do. If you’re feeding a few close friends (grown ups) it might be worth investing in some Comté or Jarlsberg. You can use hard or crumbly cheese if you want; grate it in advance and apply to the bottom half of the sandwiches once they’re on the pan.

Ingredients: sliced white bread, sliced or grated cheese of your choice and room temperature butter.

1. Put your pan on the heat to warm up. No need to apply butter or oil.
2. Put your oven on to warm, say 100C, prep an oven proof plate with a clean tea towel.
3. Butter both sides of each piece of bread. It’s a bit messy but absolutely worth it.
4. When the pan is hot, carefully place pre-buttered bread slices on the griddle and apply cheese to each slice. Place another pre-buttered bread slice on top of each. When the bottom is golden brown and toasted (3 to 4 minutes), flip each sandwich. The second side takes about half the time so keep an eye on it. The cheese might not be completely melted but don’t worry.
5. Transfer the sandwiches to the plate in the oven and cover them with the tea towel and leave them in gentle oven. They’ll be perfect by the time you’ve finished making all the sandwiches and are ready to serve up.

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Get busy toasting! Thank you for reading the blog, cooking the recipes, sharing and commenting. Tag me @mamadolson on Instagram and Twitter if you’re posting photos.

Merry Christmas.