The grilled cheese croutons are very easy to make if you have an electric panini grill, but of course you can always make them the traditional way in a skillet.–Ina Garten
LC As Easy as One, Two, Three Note
Step one: Make a childhood favorite. Step two: Cut it into squares. Step three: Dunk, drop, or plop them into a bowl of easy tomato soup, as everyone’s darling, Ina Garten, demonstrates in the following how-to video.
Grilled Cheese Croutons Recipe
Ingredients
- Four 1/2-inch-thick slices country white bread
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 4 ounces Gruyère cheese, grated
Directions
- 1. Heat a panini grill or place a skillet over medium heat. Place the bread on a cutting board and lightly brush each with the melted butter, being sure to butter the corners. Turn the slices over and pile Gruyère on 2 of the slices. Place the remaining 2 slices of bread on top of the Gruyère, buttered sides up.
- 2. Grill the sandwiches on the panini grill or in the pan for about 5 minutes total, flipping once if using a skillet, until nicely browned. Place on the cutting board, allow to rest for 1 minute, and cut into 1-inch cubes. Dunk into soup, being mindful that if you don’t care for soggy grilled cheese, you’re going to want to add just a couple croutons at a time to your bowlful of steaming tomato goodness.
Hungry for more? Chow down on these:
- Parmesan Crusted Grilled Cheese from Two Peas & Their Pod
- Sourdough Garlic Croutons from Pinch My Salt
- Hog Island Grilled Cheese from Leite's Culinaria
- Torn Croutons from Leite's Culinaria
Grilled Cheese Croutons Recipe © 2012 Ina Garten. Photo © 2012 Quentin Bacon. All rights reserved.
[Jackie G.] Would genius be too strong a word for creating croutons out of a grilled cheese sandwich? Definitely a bowl (or 2) of comfort food, to not only satisfy your hunger, but to make you feel better.
[Anna Scott] The grilled cheese on white bread, slathered with butter and Gruyère cheese, was outstanding. I don’t have a panini maker, but I just used a skillet and another smaller skillet on top of the sandwich to sort of smoosh it down—worked just fine!
[Caroline Chang] I didn’t have a panini press so I made the grilled cheese croutons the old-fashioned way. They still tasted delicious, although some fell apart in the soup (I didn’t mind).
[Mary Kate Morgan] I used only 1/2 of the Gruyère, which was more than enough, and my sandwiches were nicely browned in 1 1/2 minutes. Maybe my panini grill runs hot? This is a keeper.
Love the new header, definitely has a “culinaria” feel to it. Bright and inviting is the red. I like that the links to Twitter, FB, Pinterest etc., are way up at the top instead of somewhere on either side of the page. I like the grilled cheese crouton idea. Seems more than perfect for a great homemade tomato soup.
Lauralee, thank you kindly. And such a good eye you have, dear friend, noticing that the social media buttons moved to the right. So much better placed, I think.