Sometimes, you just need a mountain of grilled-cheese sandwiches. And not because you're planning on eating all of them.
Let's say a bunch of hungry kids (or kids-at-heart) are coming over. Let's say there's a pot of tomato soup on the stove. You need to become a one-person grilled-cheese machine. How do you do it?
Maybe if you have a stovetop griddle or get two skillets going at once you can do four, but it starts to get a little tricky to make more than that, and I inevitably end up turning on the oven to keep finished sandwiches warm while I knock out another round on the stove, and quick little lunch of grilled cheese for six people turns into more of a project than I'd signed up for.
But there's an easier, faster way: Cut the stove out of the equation entirely.
The flat metal surface of a heavy-duty 13x18" rimmed baking sheet (or half-sheet pan is a great conductor of heat, and my favorite tool for getting nice brown and crispy edges on roasted vegetables. So I knew I could get a nice crispy edge on my grilled cheese sandwiches on a rimmed baking sheet, but I wanted to get that griddle-seared crust on both sides of each sandwich without having to flip it. That's where a second rimmed baking sheet comes in—by stacking it on top of the grilled cheese sandwiches then putting the whole "sandwich" in the oven, you mimic the effect of a panini press, searing and crisping both sides of the sandwich at the same time.
I made about 50 grilled cheese sandwiches in the past two weeks. First I tried baking them in every possible configuration between two rimmed baking sheets: both sheets inverted, only one inverted, both right-side-up. Having the bottom sheet inverted and the top one right-side-up yielded the best and fastest melting, since hot air is able to get in on all sides without the rim in the way. But I kept getting unevenly-browned tops and bottoms on my grilled cheeses. So I tried a trick I like to use when I want to get even crispier potatoes, and preheated just the top baking sheet, since the top was consistently less browned than the bottom. Bingo!
I also tested butter versus mayo, and the mayo won on the very first round. First off, it's easier and faster to spread than butter (unless yours is completely softened), which makes a big difference when you're making six sandwiches at a time. Even more importantly, the mayo grilled cheeses came out of the oven with gorgeously browned, delightfully savory, and shatteringly crisp surfaces. Sold.
What kind of cheese do you like in your grilled cheese? I tested mine with lots of different kinds, and the only thing my taste-testers and I could all agree on was that a blend of cheeses, and a sprinkling of salt and pepper on those cheeses, is always good. You can use just one kind of cheese if that's all you've got, but you'll get a richer, more complex flavor if you mix together two or three kinds.
Feel free to mix cheeses with different textures, too. While you wouldn't want to make a grilled cheese sandwich of pure Parmesan, a bit of Parm mixed in with softer meltier cheeses like mozzarella and Monterey Jack adds deeper umami and saltiness. And while you wouldn't want to use a spreadable cheese like cream cheese, goat cheese, or crème fraîche on its own, stirring some of it into a mix of other harder cheeses helps them bind together into a creamy filling. Craving an upgraded take on the American-cheese classic—the one that creates plenty of melted-cheese strings when bitten into? Then you want a blend of grated mozzarella, cheddar, and Monterey Jack.
You might just end up eating all six yourself.
