Mac and Cheese Grilled Cheese

It's finally time.  After two wildly successful samplings of a mac and cheese grilled cheese here and here, I decided I needed to have a go at making one myself.  I know it may seem excessive to try what is essentially the same sandwich three times, but let's get serious-- this is a grilled cheese with mac and cheese in it!  This will never get old! 

But where to begin?  Obviously a killer mac and cheese recipe is the key to success for this sandwich.  A brief online search yielded me the modestly titled "World's Best Mac and Cheese."  This recipe had two things working in its favor: 1) It was from Martha Stewart's website (to quote my friend Caroline, "Martha hasn't let me down yet!") and 2) It's culled from Kurt Beecher Dammeier's cook book (of Beecher's handmade cheese fame, see here and here).  These positives were enough to sell me on using this recipe for my sandwich.  So let's get down to business:

The first thing you may notice about this picture is that there are FOUR different packages of cheese.  Looks like I definitely found my killer mac and cheese (literally, my arteries were already scared). 

Step one was making the cheese sauce, which would serve as the key ingredient in the mac and cheese equation.  You can follow the recipe here, but I'll talk you through it as per usual.

Starting ingredients:
* Milk (3 cups)
* Cheddar (16 ounces)
* 1/2 stick butter
* Flour (1/3 cup)
* Jack (1/2 cup)
* Salt, chili powder and garlic powder as needed

I started out by making a roux with the flour and butter. 

Once that was sufficiently blended I started adding the milk gradually. 

The recipe's directions seem to indicate that you can pour all of the milk in at once, but I opted for a more gradual process so I could make sure that the milk was fully blended with the roux before adding more milk.  I wanted to make sure it mixed together evenly.  Once everything was combined in the pot I let it cook for 10 more minutes, all the while stirring regularly.

While I was doing this, sous chef was working on grating the cheeses.  We had two 8 ounce bricks of cheddar.  One was Cabot Seriously Sharp and the other was Lucerne Sharp.  I love Cabot cheese, but Lucerne was on sale, so I figured a blend of the two would provide a little extra dimension to the cheese sauce.

Once the cheese was all grated and the milk mixture was thickened a bit, I removed the milk from the heat and added in 15 ounces of cheddar cheese (saving 1 ounce for later), 1/2 cup jack cheese, and dashes of chili and garlic powder (just eyeballed this).

Even though the burner wasn't on anymore, the milk was still warm enough to melt the cheese as I stirred the two together.

This photo actually makes it look like I was stirring much faster than I actually did, so just picture a nice slowish/even stir.  Anywho, once that was mixed together I couldn't resist trying a bite.  And once I had one bite I had a hard time resisting the urge to dunk my head in the pot and slurp up all the sauce.  I was instantly sold on this recipe regardless of how the macaroni and sandwich portions turned out (sacrilege, I know)!

Once Colin pried the tasting spoon out of my hand I was able to continue.  The official mac and cheese recipe calls for penne pasta, but that's penne and cheese, not mac and cheese, so I decided to use good old elbow macaroni.  However, since it's so much smaller (AND WE HAD SO MUCH CHEESE SAUCE) we doubled the quantity we prepared-- probably closer to 12 ounces than the 6 that were called for by the recipe.  Per instruction, we cooked the pasta for 2 minutes less than the suggested cooking time on the package.

Once this was cooked, strained and ready to roll it was time for the macaroni to take a bath in the cheese sauce.

Oh macaroni, how I envy you... wait, that sounds really creepy.  Revision: MAC AND CHEESE, GET IN MY BELLY!  But sadly it still wasn't quite time to chow down.  We still had to bake it.  Not gonna lie, there was still a very high cheese sauce to macaroni ratio, so you probably could do with making more pasta, but when has too much cheese ever really been cause for concern?  Answer: Never. 

Correction, maybe there is one exception:

But I digress.  After greasing my standard 13"x9" baking dish I poured in all of the macaroni and cheese.

Add to that a topping consisting of the remaining ounce of cheddar, an ounce of Gruyere and another dash or two of chili pepper and it's ready for the oven.

20 torturous minutes later it was all done!

Correction, the mac and cheese was done-- the sandwich was just beginning.  When I have a filling as decadent as mac and cheese I find it best to keep the rest of the sandwich pretty simple, so I opted to go with our tried and true friend: Pepperidge Farm Sourdough.  I buttered one side of one slice of bread and PILED on the mac and cheese.

I topped that off with another slice of bread and was ready to grill.  A few short minutes later I had a delectable treat just begging me to scarf it down.

Taste Review:

Well, I didn't have to wait for the actual sandwich to be ready to assert that the mac and cheese itself is AMAZING.  I fully endorse the "World's Best Mac and Cheese" moniker.  The sandwich had a strong aroma thanks to the fact that the filling had cooked for 20 minutes before we ate it, so that was appreciated.  One of the positives of cooking the filling independently of the sandwich is that you don't have to grill the sandwich for that long.  Since the filling is already gooey, once the bread is toasted then you're ready to go.  On the flip side, this could be a negative in the eyes of some.  The filling is so gooey that I kind of wanted something to stand up to it (like how you sometimes have bread crumbs on mac and cheese).  Colin said he thought the bread was fine though, so this is all a matter of personal preference. 

Creamy, rich and ooey gooey are the words that repeatedly came to my mind as I ate.  It was so rich I could've maybe used a slight counter-- maybe garlic bread?  Colin had (surprise, surprise) added hot sauce to his, so it hit just the right note for him.  But in general it was a delight all around.

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Mac and Cheese Grilled Cheese
Gooey-ness:	5
Aroma:	4
Appearance:	SUPER CHEESY!
Taste:	A

Yum yum-- I've yet to go wrong with a mac and cheese grilled cheese, and now I know that I can whip up a professional grade version in my very own home!

Gooey Scale	Aroma Scale
1 = still cold/hard	1 = can’t smell a thing
2 = slightly melted but still firm	2 = tender waft
3 = melted evenly	3 = makes your stomach growl
4 = melted and slightly runny (starting to get those cheese strings between your sandwich and your mouth when you take a bite)	4 = strong scent
5 = runny	5 = overpoweringly pungent
6 = sloppy mess!

Pizza Grilled Cheese

Disclaimer: This post is a day late because I forgot to bring my notes with me to type up the full post during my lunch hour yesterday.  Sorry!

When people ask me what my favorite food is, they're often surprised to find out it's not grilled cheese.  Although my favorite does involve a combination of bread and carbs, the clear winner in the favorite food race is pizza.  Shocking, I know, but there's just something about pizza that gives it top billing in my heart (and my tummy).  Taking this into account (along with the fact that the pizza grilled cheese I pinned on Pinterest is my most often re-pinned item) I decided it was high time to bring my two loves together and make a pizza grilled cheese.

I didn't want to go with the recipe I actually pinned on Pinterest because it featured pepperoni and regular bread.  I don't like pepperoni and want to see what can be done with an actual pizza crust.  So I headed to the store and got your basic pizza ingredients with the plan of improvising a recipe.

* Pre-made pizza crust (thin)
* Fresh mozzarella
* Ricotta
* Pizza sauce
* Garlic
* Home-grown basil

So I knew that pizza dough wouldn't fully cook were I to just grill it, so I opted to cook the dough first in hopes of turning it into "bread."  This, of course, involved me tossing the pizza dough in the air while pretending to actually be an Italian pizza maker.  Sadly the dough ended up looking like this:

Yes, that's me peeking through a hole in the dough.

Well, I tried.  Upon yielding these results I opted to fold the dough back together and roll it out using a rolling pin *ahem* can of corn.  This was harder than I thought it would be, but eventually I had a workable rectangle of dough. 

I figured seasoning the dough before I cooked it would be a good idea, so I drizzled olive oil on it and spread some crushed garlic on top of that.  I also gave some sprinkles of my generic McCormick "Italian Seasoning."  I imagine this consists mostly of oregano.

Now it was ready to bake!  I had preheated the oven to 400 degrees and put the dough in for 5 minutes initially.  Checking on it at 5 minutes I decided it could use more time, so I went for 5 more minutes.

At this point it had cooked for 10 minutes total and was starting to crisp up, but just for kicks I decided to throw the ricotta on there for the final 4 minutes in the oven.

So total cook time ended up at 14 minutes.  While the dough was cooking I started trying to grate the mozzarella, but found that it didn't grate so much as it just came off in strips and strings (a la string cheese-- logically).  So I opted to break with tradition and pull the cheese into strips rather than grate it.

Once the dough had cooled a bit I used my pizza slicer to cut it into 8 squares and added dollops of pizza sauce to four of the slices.  On top of that went the mozzarella.  Colin decided he wanted a lot of sauce, so he also added pizza sauce to what would be the other pieces of his sandwiches.

Then we topped our pizzas according to our personal preference (and the ingredients we had on hand).  I opted for just basil, but Colin chose basil and super hot peppers.

I then made each pair of crusts into a sandwich and brushed each side of the exterior with olive oil.  Then it was time for a quick grill to help melt the mozzarella and to officially transform the sandwiches into grilled cheeses.

The sandwiches didn't spend long in the pan because I didn't want to burn the dough, so they were ready in no time.

Taste Review:

I think the combination of garlic, basil and fresh baked pizza dough combined to give the sandwich a nice aroma.  And as soon as I picked it up to take a bite the messiness of the sandwich took over.  The ricotta and pizza sauce combined to make it particularly runny, so multiple paper towels were necessary.  Conclusion: sauce on both sides was too much.  Just one side would decrease runny-ness.  But we're not here to talk about that, we're here to talk about the taste, and this definitely tastes like a pizza.

The crust is good and crispy with a little sweetness to it.  The pizza sauce is also sweet while the cheese is sort of neutral, and the basil definitely contrasts the sweetness of the sauce and crust.  At first I liked it, but by the end I wasn't sure if it was too bitter to really enhance the sandwich.  The ricotta was creamy, but didn't really bring much else to the table, so you could take or leave that (and potentially lean towards leaving it since it makes the sandwich pretty runny).  Colin voted that we grate the mozzarella next time so that it melts more evenly, but I'm not sure that's necessarily needed.  Overall this reminded me of a crispy calzone.

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Pizza Grilled Cheese
Gooey-ness:	6
Aroma:	3
Appearance:	Bright red center with a golden crisp crust.  Looks like a panini.
Taste:	A-

Colin really liked the concept of this sandwich and gives the overall idea an A, however he suggested that it could be improved by customizing the filling to each person's taste preferences where toppings are concerned (in his case, add pepperoni, more peppers, etc.) and gave this iteration of the sandwich a B, so for overall grade we decided to meet in the middle with an A-.

Gooey Scale	Aroma Scale
1 = still cold/hard	1 = can’t smell a thing
2 = slightly melted but still firm	2 = tender waft
3 = melted evenly	3 = makes your stomach growl
4 = melted and slightly runny (starting to get those cheese strings between your sandwich and your mouth when you take a bite)	4 = strong scent
5 = runny	5 = overpoweringly pungent
6 = sloppy mess!

Grilled Caprese

Including this week's sandwich, there are 20 sandwiches remaining in "Great Grilled Cheese" that I have yet to try and, in general, there's a reason I've been saving these for the end.  While roast beef with cheddar and blue cheese butter may sound delightful to many, I don't eat beef and I don't like blue cheese and thus have been avoiding this sandwich, and others like it, all along.  Fortunately, this week's selection was one of the few remaining choices that makes my mouth water. 

In general, caprese salads/sandwiches/whatever seem to be fan favorites, so the idea of putting it on a grilled cheese is, naturally, an appealing prospect.  So let's get right down to it.

Ingredients included:
* Crusty Italian bread (in this case I opted for a Wegmans specialty item-- Garlic Tuscan Bread)
* 6 ounces fresh mozzarella (in my case 8 ounces-- you know how I love the cheese!)
* 1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes
* 2 Tbsp. dry jack or Parmesan cheese (in my case Parmesan & Romano)
* 2 Tbsp. chopped basil leaves (in this case pulled from our newly acquired home grown basil plants!)
* Olive oil

Step one was letting the tomatoes sit in very hot water for 15 minutes.  I still have zero idea why this step was necessary, but who am I to question GGC?  Maybe I was supposed to get dry tomatoes (the kind not packed in oil) and use the hot water to soften them up?  No idea.  Oh well!  After I had microwaved a half cup of water for 1 minute, in went the tomatoes.

I then turned on my broiler.  Yes, the broiler.  I wasn't sure where we were going with this step, but high heat makes me nervous!  Oh well, again-- I trust GGC.

YOWZA!

Next it was time to chop the basil-- I picked about 15-20 leaves and went to work.

By the time I finished this the tomatoes weren't quite done with their bath yet, so I took this opportunity to grate the mozzarella.  Once I had finished that it was time to remove the tomatoes and chop them.

After everything was chopped and grated I mixed all of the ingredients together.  Is it sad that I'm only now realizing that caprese salads have the same colors as the Italian flag?

Now we're ready to make the sandwiches.  After brushing one side of four slices of bread with olive oil I spread the cheese mixture evenly over the bread and topped them with another slice of bread, also brushed with olive oil.

After grilling each of the sandwiches it was time to brave an encounter with the broiler.  The recipe called for cooking the sandwiches in a heavy skillet that is oven safe but, since I don't have a skillet that meets that description, I opted to use a cookie sheet.  I put each sandwich on the cookie sheet and sprinkled the Parmesan on top.

Next it was into the broiler for 30 seconds to a minute or until the cheese is bubbling and starting to turn brown.  Well, before I hit that mark I heard my cookie sheet make a loud noise as it sort of buckled in the oven.  Fearing for its safety I removed the sandwiches shortly thereafter.  The cheese had melted, but not quite browned.

Once the sandwiches had cooled briefly, I plated them and was ready to chow down!

Taste Review:

Aside from an extra hint of charred bread courtesy of the broiler, there wasn't really an aroma for this one.  The sandwich looked very appealing with some nice color to the inside and the extra cheese on the outside (a step I'll need to repeat in the future).

The mozzarella is, of course, the perfect cheese for this sandwich.  It's creamy and provides the right backdrop to blend evenly with the other flavors.  That creamy inside was set off by the crispy exterior consisting of the crunchy crusty bread and the crispy bits of cheese.  I like that the cheese on the outside gave a hint of sharpness, but just enough to compliment rather than overwhelm the milder mozzarella.

I was able to pull Colin away from "Dogs in the City" for long enough to hear that he would've liked a little more tomato from a texture standpoint.  It's true, the filling is quite creamy, but I like that.  I think we've gotten used to lots of sandwiches with "stuff" in them, so although this sandwich was a little simpler I do think that was a good thing.  But in thinking about his desire for more tomatoes we pondered whether sun-dried is really the way to go and we think that it is.  If this sandwich used regular tomatoes there just wouldn't be enough flavor.  The basil would be the one and only standout ingredient.

The garlic in the bread was just a subtle hint in the crust, but it was great.  Again, just enough flavor to compliment rather than overwhelm the sandwich.  On the whole this makes me think of a panini I'd get at Corner Bakery (which, in my world, is a compliment-- I like Corner Bakery).  My only real criticism is that towards the end the sandwich starts to feel a little dry.  Perhaps because the bread is so crusty?  I'm not sure.  Maybe this could be fixed by adding a little more filling, but who knows.  I guess I'll just have to make it again and find out!

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Grilled Caprese
Gooey-ness:	3.5
Aroma:	1.5
Appearance:	Nice and colorful with a cool cheese topping.
Taste:	A-

Gooey Scale	Aroma Scale
1 = still cold/hard	1 = can’t smell a thing
2 = slightly melted but still firm	2 = tender waft
3 = melted evenly	3 = makes your stomach growl
4 = melted and slightly runny (starting to get those cheese strings between your sandwich and your mouth when you take a bite)	4 = strong scent
5 = runny	5 = overpoweringly pungent
6 = sloppy mess!