Cheese toasties pretty much always make for a perfect lunch option, and contrary to what the name suggests, you don’t actually require a toastie maker to savour them at home. From air frying to pan-frying, there are countless approaches you can take to prepare these beloved sandwiches in your own kitchen.
While I do enjoy the odd cheese toastie, it’s something I rarely whip up for myself at home until lately, when I chose to discover what the optimal method truly is. Rather than alter the recipe each time, I simply used some sourdough and sliced mozzarella and cheddar, as this seemed the fairest way to conduct a taste test. For this experiment, I attempted three approaches: the air fryer, the oven, and pan frying.
View 5 ImagesI made cheese toasties using three different methods(Image: Isobel Pankhurst)
The initial method I went for was the reliable oven approach. For this, I simply placed the cheese in the bread and baked it for 15-20 minutes, turning it halfway through.
While it undoubtedly tasted as delectable as any cheese toastie, it wasn’t sufficiently crispy for my liking, as you can likely see in the photograph of the sandwich.
View 5 ImagesThe oven-baked toastie wasn’t quite as crispy as I’d hoped(Image: Isobel Pankhurst)
Even when I returned it to the oven for a further five minutes, it still fell short, and by this stage, I was rather peckish and determined it was technically toasted enough.
The advantage of this approach, however, is that you can simply pop it in the oven and then leave it be, only really needing to inspect it roughly halfway through, which takes under a minute.
Overall, while it might not produce the finest cheese toastie imaginable, the oven method is incredibly straightforward, and the end result remains perfectly acceptable.
View 5 ImagesMy air fryer was perhaps too small for the perfect cheese toastie(Image: Isobel Pankhurst)
Another approach that ought to be simple is the air fryer; though I did encounter one snag: my air fryer proved too compact to accommodate the whole sandwich in one go, meaning I had to cook each half separately.
Had I owned a larger air fryer, this would undoubtedly have been a faster method than relying on the oven. As things stood, however, it ended up taking exactly the same amount of time, with each half requiring roughly eight minutes.
That said, it came out marginally better than the oven version and was certainly crispier, albeit only slightly.
This was unquestionably my preferred method, delivering precisely the right level of crispiness.
View 5 ImagesThe pan-fried cheese toastie was my favourite(Image: Isobel Pankhurst)
The only aspect I’d alter is that I’d have liked the cheese to have melted somewhat more, although this may have been down to the quality of the cheese rather than the cooking technique itself.
While utterly delicious, this method demands a touch more attention and isn’t one you can abandon while getting on with other tasks.
So, although not the approach I’d choose on a busy weekday, if I find myself wanting a cheese toastie at the weekend, I’ll definitely take the time to prepare it this way again.