Spanakopita Grilled Cheese Recipe on Food52 (2024)

FAQs

Do you put butter on both sides of grilled cheese? ›

Butter bread – Slather both sides of each piece of bread with the butter (yes, all 4 sides!). Light toast – Heat a heavy-based skillet or frying pan over medium low heat (no oil or butter). Pile on cheese – Flip one slice of bread, then pile on the cheddar cheese followed by the mozzarella.

Place sandwiches in skillet (in two batches, if needed). Reduce heat to medium-low; gently top sandwiches with a lid slightly smaller than skillet for even cooking. Cook, flipping once halfway through, until crisp and golden on both sides and cheese is melted, 7 to 9 minutes. Serve immediately.

For good measure: While most recipes today call for unsalted butter, often so the cook can control the amount of salt in the recipe, the grilled cheese sandwich is clearly one place where salted butter belongs. It adds more flavor and helps turn the bread more deeply golden.

For each grilled cheese, you'll need two slices of bread, at least 1 tablespoon of butter, and 2-4 slices of cheese (depending how gooey you like it). American, Cheddar, Swiss, muenster or Gouda all work well—feel free to mix and match your cheeses.

Deli meats: They're easy to add, salty, meaty... basically just what you want in a grilled cheese. Jams, chutneys, and other condiments: Anything that would work well on your cheese plate will work well in a grilled cheese. I particularly like sweet, jammy things like guava paste, cranberry relish, or fig jam.

Once the bread slightly bronzes, flip the sandwich and grate another layer of cheese on top. Let this side fully brown, 3-4 minutes. Flip once more to develop a quick, crispy parmesan crust, around 1 minute. Transport sandwich to a plate, cut, and enjoy.

Starting your grilled cheese (slathered in mayo, obviously) in a cold nonstick skillet, then slowly and gently heating it up is the trick to achieving evenly golden brown, supremely crisp exteriors, with molten cheesy interiors.

Add enough butter to coat the bottom of the pan. Then, add the sandwich, and COVER the skillet. The lid will trap steam in the pan, helping melt the cheese as the bread toasts. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown.

On the outside of a grilled cheese sandwich, mayonnaise is more convenient and yields a nicer texture. However, the taste is not ideal. We still prefer traditional butter, but, if there's no butter softened on your counter, do reach for the mayo. You'll be pretty happy with the results for sure.

Both butter and mayonnaise produced sandwiches with crisp, well-browned exteriors. Unsurprisingly, the sandwiches made with butter tasted more buttery, while the mayonnaise versions had a slight but discernible tang. But both samples were deemed entirely acceptable.

Is it healthier to use mayo instead of butter? ›

Mayonnaise does have lower levels of saturated fat, but the type of saturated fat found in butter may not be as unhealthy as we once thought.

Both butter and mayo are almost 100% fat, so both have about the same number of calories (around 100 per tablespoon). But mayonnaise is much lower in saturated fat, which may be better for your heart.