Mozzarella Stick Grilled Cheese

At long last work has calmed and I'm back and cooking with gas (ba dum ching)!  I'm grounded on the travel front until May, which means ample uninterrupted grilled cheese time :-)  Since it was my first time back in my home kitchen in quite awhile I decided I needed to return with a bang.  While GGC rarely steers me wrong, I didn't see anything jump out at me to indicate that it was appropriately exciting for my triumphant return; so I turned to the interwebs and found Martha Stewart's recipe for Grilled Mozzarella Sandwiches.  They basically look like some sort of cross between french toast/grilled cheese/mozzarella sticks; but they sounded mighty tasty and there was even a video of her making some with Mario Batali, so with two expert recommendations I decided it was definitely worth a go.

This recipe actually reminds me of one that I was really into one summer back in my elementary school days (in fact, maybe it's the same recipe).  I was hooked on making this sandwich, or one very much like it, all summer both because it was tasty and because the ingredients were so easy to come by:

White bread, 2 large eggs, 1 lb fresh mozzarella, 1/2 cup heavy cream, 1 tsp. thyme leaves, and a pinch of salt.  The recipe also calls for a grinding of nutmeg, but that sounded kind of weird to me, so I skipped it.

The first step was to slice up the fresh mozzarella and distribute it evenly over four slices of bread and then complete the sandwiches with another four slices of bread. 

This is all you need to make the actual sandwich, but the recipe also suggests that you cut the crusts off of each sandwich (this reminded me of PB&J sandwiches for little kids-- look how cute they are).

Once the sandwiches were ready I mixed up the "batter" to dip them in.  First I whisked 2 eggs together.

Next came the half cup of heavy cream and the teaspoon of thyme.

While I was mixing up the batter I had been letting the pan heat up with 2 Tbsp of olive oil in it.  Once I could see the oil starting to smoke I added 1 Tbsp butter (the model of a healthy meal, right?) so that the pan was fully ready for the sandwiches.  I coated the first sandwich in the batter (making sure to fully cover both sides) and dropped it into the pan.

That first instant in the pan made me think of a deep fryer-- the oil and butter had gotten so hot that the sandwich started hissing as soon as it made contact with the pan. 

The recipe says to cook the sandwich for 2 minutes on each side and the beauty to me was that, since the bread was so saturated with the batter mixture, it was hard to burn the sandwich-- so even if I left it on one side for a little too long it was no big deal, it just made it a little crispier. 

There wasn't really a need to cover the sandwich while cooking because the cheese was literally right up to the edge of the bread and was prone to getting melty and starting to ooze out.  Watching this happen did leave me wondering why the recipe advised me to cut off the bread crusts.  I'm not sure I really see an advantage to doing so.

The cooking process is what really sealed the deal in my mind that this is basically a mozzarella stick in sandwich form.  Wouldn't you agree?  I do love mozzarella sticks, so I couldn't wait to try this one!

Taste Review:

The first bite tasted like a very creamy and salty piece of mozzarella cheese meaning the cheese is definitely the star of this sandwich.  But, while the cheese itself tastes salty, the rich egg/cream batter gives it a hint of sweetness to balance things out.  Add to that the subtle flavor of the thyme and you have a relatively complete, albeit mild, flavor profile.  The recipe was definitely simple, but not in a bad way. 

Colin, as usual, wasn't satisfied by the simplicity of the sandwich and opted to dip it in marinara sauce.  I tried this as well and must say that marinara sauce on the sandwich solidifies the comparison to a mozzarella stick.  In fact, with the marinara sauce it was virtually impossible to distinguish the sandwich from a mozzarella stick.  One minor difference, though, is that the crust on a mozzarella stick is crispy and crunchy, but the bread on the sandwiches was mushy no matter how long the sandwich had been cooked (some were in the pan for longer than others).  Not to say either way is bad, they're just different.  I like the softer texture for a sandwich, so I was happy.

One complaint we had was the consistency of the cheese.  It ended up being stringy and rubbery instead of gooey and smooth.  As you tried to eat, full chunks of mozzarella would come out with each bite if you weren't careful.  Part of me wonders if this could've been avoided if I had heeded my own usual advice and grated the cheese rather than slicing.  Oh well, lesson learned for next time.

Action shot of the stringy effect.

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Mozzarella Stick Grilled Cheese
Gooey-ness:	4.5 (stringy, not gooey)
Aroma:	2 (smells like frying, but sandwich doesn't have its own aroma)
Appearance:	Looks like a mozzarella stick.
Taste:	B+

While gooier cheese would have been better, overall I can't complain-- this was a winner (but definitely on the fattier end-- I recommend eating sparingly)!