If you’re a grilled cheese fanatic or just plain want to make a delicious sandwich, you’ve come to the right place. Knowing what your options are for the best bread for grilled cheese can change your world. There are two main ingredients in grilled cheese, being the bread and the cheese and using the best can take your sandwich from ho hum to amazing. We’ll show you how.
Why the Bread Matters
The bread in a grilled cheese sandwich matters because it’s one of two main ingredients. If the bread fails you, then your sandwich fails you. If your bread is too flimsy, your sandwich will crumble. If it’s too thick, then your cheese likely won’t melt. If it tastes off, then your whole sandwich will taste off. Getting the bread right is important.
Qualities To Consider When Choosing a Bread For Grilled Cheese
There are a few main qualities to consider when choosing a bread for grilled cheese to ensure that you choose the absolute best. Let’s look at each one as our goal for making the perfect toasted cheese sandwich.
Texture
The texture of the bread you choose is of utmost importance. Choose bread that is nice and sturdy and that has a medium thickness.
If your bread is too thin or too flimsy, when you try to flip it over to grill the second side, it will crumble into a mess.
If your bread has too many holes or isn’t dense enough, the cheese will melt all over the place, and you’ll end up with a mess.
If your bread is too thick, it will burn before the cheese gets melted.
Instead, choose bread that’s a medium thickness, is nice and sturdy, and that will hold the cheese well when it’s melted. We’ll list out some of the best bread for grilled cheese below.
The 13 Best Breads for Grilled Cheese
Below are our thirteen top picks for the best breads for grilled cheese. Each of these breads have good texture, are sturdy enough for the job, and won’t let cheese seep through their cracks and pockets.
Sourdough Bread
Sourdough bread is one of our absolute favorites and we consider it one of the absolute best breads for grilled cheese. It has a good sturdy texture that performs well when grilled, flipped, and holds the cheese in.
Sourdough is a slow fermented bread made from starter that is healthier than some of the other bread options available. It contains higher levels of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants than other breads. It’s perfect for grilled cheese. And if you can find it with an everything seasoning it’s even more delicious for toasted cheese sandwiches.
Brioche Bread
Brioche bread has a bit of a sweeter flavor that comes from the fact that it’s made from an enriched dough. It’s known for its famous texture that’s a little soft, golden in color, and rich in flavor. It’s the best bread for grilled cheese because it’s dense in texture.
Brioche bread traditionally has a braided top and is even considered a dessert element by some. Along with being perfect for grilled cheese, it’s also used for French toast, trifles, bread puddings, and churros.
Pullman Loaf
Pullman loaf is a bread frequently used for sandwiches. It’s known for each of its four sides being square, rather than having a rounded top like many other styles of loaves of bread. It’s one of the best breads for grilled cheese because it has a dense crumb that is fine and a good flavor.
Pullman loaf bread is made in a bread loaf pan that has a lid on the top to give it its desired four-square sided shape. Its name came about because of its use in the kitchens of Pullman railway cars.
Baguette Bread
Baguette bread makes some of the best grilled cheese because of its sturdy structure. If you’re looking for a bread that’s closely connected to France, but is an essentially lean, yeast leavened bakery product, this is the one. Medium to thin sliced baguette bread is perfect for one of the best breads for grilled cheese.
By law in France, French baguette bread can’t have added oil or fat. Therefore, it’s made with just water, flour, yeast, and salt.
Ciabatta Bread
Ciabatta bread is one of the best breads for grilled cheese because it’s really sturdy. The chewy crumb also makes a delicious sandwich.
The thing that makes ciabatta bread different from a plain loaf of bread is that it’s cooked at a higher level of hydration, making the noteworthy holes in the dough that it’s known for. Ciabatta is baked with a much stronger flour too.
Focaccia Bread
Focaccia bread is similar to pizza dough but is thick enough and so delicious that it meets our expectations for best bread for grilled cheese. It’s made with flour, water, yeast, salt, and oil.
The quantity of yeast is greater than that of pizza dough, so it rises to a greater thickness and becomes fluffier and more bread like. Focaccia is usually punctured before it’s baked, which helps preserve more moisture.
Potato Bread
Potato bread is similar to white bread and other bread types, except potato is added to replace some of the flour. And what’s the point of using potato in the bread, rather than just straight flour? It’s to make the breast stay soft much longer than traditional bread.
Potato bread is a good flavorful bread that perfectly soft, yet sturdy for some of the best bread for grilled cheese.
Pretzel Buns
Pretzel Buns cut thinly into a nice bread like slices make a tasty bread for grilled cheese. The flavor and the texture are perfect bread that is sturdy as well as delicious.
And the holes in the crumb of the bread are tight enough to hold in the cheese. If you’ve never tried grilled cheese on pretzel buns, you’re in for a treat.
Deli Rye Bread
Deli rye bread has many nutrients including fiber and vitamin B. Some of the best cheese that goes with rye bread for grilled cheese is nutty Swiss, cheddar, Parmesan, and cream cheese. In the case of Swiss cheese, it’s often made into a Reuben sandwich or patty melt. The flavor combination is amazing.
Pumpernickel Bread
Pumpernickel bread has a dark brown color, and dense coarse crumb. It has a bit more of a nutty or spicy flavor, with a hint of sweet and slightly sour, than to that of plain bread.
Pumpernickel makes a good grilled cheese sandwich because it holds up well and is quite a flavorful combination with your favorite cheeses.
Multigrain Bread
Multigrain bread is made with multiple kinds of grains, but none of the grains have to be whole grains. The grains usually include grains such as barley, flax, millet, oats, or wheat, among others.
Multigrain bread is a best bread for grilled cheese because of its texture and the delicious flavor. It gives more of a healthy feeling to your spin on the grilled cheese sandwich.
English Muffin Bread
English muffin bread has been a long time favorite and one of the best for grilled cheese. It is similar to sourdough bread as far as its texture and structure and comes out deliciously tasty.
English muffin bread is mild in flavor and tastes just like an English muffin with nice, but not too large air pockets.
Sliced White Bread
Along with sourdough bread, sliced white bread is one of the most popular breads used to make grilled cheese. People like white bread for grilled cheese because it’s both soft and sturdy and it tastes good.
White bread browns beautifully when fried in butter or mayonnaise for grilled cheese and it becomes almost a melt in your mouth delicacy with a perfectly golden outside and soft delicious inside.
Toppings
The modern-day grilled cheese sandwich has evolved to more than just the perfectly toasted bread and cheese. It’s more than that. Load it up with all your favorite toppings to make it a deluxe sandwich that you’ll want to eat over and over again. Here are some topping ideas.
Protein Prospects:
Bacon
Egg
Ham
Ground beef
Ground Sausage
Chicken
Honey Roasted Turkey
Pepperoni
Herbs & Veggie Possibilities:
Dill
Parsley
Cilantro
Grilled onions
Avocado
Mushrooms
Spinach
Roasted tomatoes
Roasted asparagus
Green pepper
French fried onions
Fruit Options:
Figs
Raspberries
Apples
Pears
Preserves & Condiment Options:
Ketchup
Mustard
Mayo
Fruit jams
Preserves
Dijon mustard
Cheese Possibilities:
Munster
Havarti
Parmesan
Feta
Blue Cheese
Velveeta
Cheddar, sharp or mild
American
Provolone
Swiss
Colby Jack
Monterey
Mozzarella
See our best cheese for grilled cheese post here.
Tips for Making The Perfect Grilled Cheese
Now that you know the best bread for grilled cheese, we’ll teach you how to make the perfect grilled cheese sandwich. Follow our step-by-step instructions to the most perfectly delicious sandwich.
1. Pick the best bread
For the perfect grilled cheese, you’ll want to pick the best bread. Our list of 13 choices above will help to get you started.
2. Butter — or mayo — up!
Some people say, avoid butter, use mayo. But we think butter makes some of the best grilled cheese. And the butter vs mayo debate is probably a matter of preference.
If you don’t care for butter, try mayonnaise. If you don’t care for mayonnaise, use butter. Either way, choose one or the other because it will help you achieve a perfectly golden and crisp crust.
3. Pre-toast the bread
To give your grilled cheese sandwich a diner flair, pre-toast your bread. Pre-toasted bread will give you an even more of a crisp experience. Just toast it a bit though so you can leave some of the grilling for on the stovetop and effectively melt the cheese.
4. Use the right cheese
If you want to learn more about the best cheese for grilled cheese, you can read our post here. We’re talking about the best cheese for the most delicious flavor as well as for giving you that epic cheese pull. Our hint is that whatever flavor of cheese you choose, you’ll want to grate the cheese.
5. Don’t use too much cheese
When preparing the cheese, you’ll want to be careful not to use too much. Too much cheese will just ooze out on your pan and make quite the mess. Use just the right amount of cheese to make it delicious as well as feasible to eat.
6. Dress up your grilled cheese
Modern day grilled cheese tends to be more than just throwing a slab of cheese on a piece of bread and cooking it in a skillet. Consider dressing up your grilled cheese with all your favorite toppings to make it more gourmet. See our list above for topping or add-in ideas.
7. Go low and slow
The best way to cook your grilled cheese is to cook low and slow. Think of it like cooking a perfectly golden marshmallow on a campfire. And some of the best things come to those who wait. Using low heat will help you achieve the perfectly golden-brown color on the outside that is just wonderful.
8. Press down for a panini-style grilled cheese
If you like a panini style grilled cheese, you can make one just by pressing down with a sturdy spatula while your sandwich is cooking. Give it a try and see what you think.
Perfect Grilled Cheese
So what’s a perfect grilled cheese? The perfect grilled cheese is the one that tastes the best to you. As the saying goes, the beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and we feel like that can be true for grilled cheese too.
You Know You Want It
Who eats grilled cheese? The delicious sandwich is enjoyed by the young and old alike. It also doesn’t matter what social class you’re in. Grilled cheese can be made really fancy and it can be made quite an economical food.
The Best Grilled Cheese Recipe EVER
When you become a self-proclaimed grilled cheese connoisseur, you’re into perfecting the best grilled cheese sandwich ever. And the best one varies depending on the day or the mood for us at least.
But there are so many delicious options out there. If you’ve made what you consider to be the best, then drop us a note in the comments below and let us know what it entailed.
And the Best Cheese for Grilled Cheese is…
Here are our recommendations for the best cheese. Which ones are your favorites?
Monterey Jack
American
Colby Jack
Cheddar
Brie
Pepper Jack
Gouda
Havarti
Provolone
Mozzarella
Blue
Muenster
Swiss
Gruyere
Fontina
Manchego
Asiago
Taleggio
Emmenthal
Read our post here for more information about the best cheeses.
And the Best Bread for Grilled Cheese is…
Here are our recommendations for the best bread. Which ones are your favorites?
Sourdough
Brioche
Pullman Loaf
Deli Rye
Pumpernickel
Multigrain
Baguette
Ciabatta
Focaccia
English Muffins
Sliced White Bread
Potato Bread
Pretzel Buns
Tools You’ll Need to Make The Perfect Grilled Cheese:
We believe the perfect grilled cheese sandwich is fried in a cast iron skillet on the stovetop. It’s our go-to tool for making grilled cheese. Cooking in it just makes a toasted sandwich taste better. We’ll drop a link below to make it convenient if you find yourself in the market for the perfect pan to cook your grilled cheese.
Cast Iron Pan
Spatula
Cheese Grater
Variations On The Classic Grilled Cheese:
The thing we like about the classic grilled cheese is that it’s so versatile. You can stick with the classic traditional and choose your favorite cheese on one of the best breads.
Or, you can change things up and add some extra toppings or add-ins from our list above. Add some protein or some vegetables and herbs. Whatever the mood strikes you, there are always toppings to create a new variation.
The Best Ever Grilled Cheese Sandwich Recipe
Following is our recipe for a perfect grilled cheese sandwich.
How to Make Grilled Cheese
Achieving the perfect grilled cheese is quite an accomplishment, at least in our opinion. Creating that buttery, golden crispy crust on the outside, with the beloved ooey-gooey cheese on the inside is like no other. It’s all about the crust.
Ingredients
2 slices of bread
3 tbsp butter softened
1 cup shredded cheese
Instructions
- Spread 1 tbsp of butter on one side of each slice of bread.
- With butter side down, add cheese and then fold the sandwich closed, leaving the cheese on the inside and butter on the outside.
- In a skillet over medium heat, melt ½ tbsp of butter. Reduce heat to medium-low and add the sandwich. Cook for about 2 minutes, however the key is to attend to the sandwich closely to achieve perfection.
- Flip the sandwich to toast the reverse side once the cheese begins to melt and the down facing side begins to brown.
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Best Bread for Grilled Cheese
Equipment
- cast iron skittle
- Cheese Grater
Ingredients
- Sourdough
- Brioche
- Pullman Loaf
- Deli Rye
- Pumpernickel
- Multigrain
- Baguette
- Ciabatta
- Focaccia
- English Muffins
- Sliced White Bread
- Potato Bread
- Pretzel Buns
Instructions
- Choose the best bread for grilled cheese to make the perfect grilled cheese sandwich.
Best Grilled Cheese Recipes
More Sandwich Inspiration
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yes, the bread matters. just as much as the cheese.