Brioche Grilled Cheese Sandwich 3 Ways

A Brioche Grilled Cheese Sandwich is hard to beat! The soft richness of the Brioche bread compliments the smooth nuttiness of Irish Cheddar and mellow mozzarella. But what is the best way to grill a Brioche Grilled Cheese Sandwich? This post includes how to cook a Brioche Grilled Cheese Sandwich in 3 different ways, noting pros and cons with each cooking style.

Included also is a recipe for quick Easy Creamy Tomato Basil Soup AND a recipe for a Smash Brioche with Grilled Blue Cheese.

3 Ways to Cook a Brioche Grilled Cheese Sandwich

I chose the following 3 ways of cooking a Grilled Cheese:

1. Cast iron skillet, stove top.
2. Air Fryer.
3. Panini press.

Getting a Perfectly Crispy Grilled Cheese Sandwich

To do this, you have to toast both sides of the bread. Mayonnaise is the best spread to induce crispiness, its better than butter.

With each one of the cooking methods below, both sides of the bread were given a thin spreading of mayonnaise and cooked first on one side and then flipped to cook the other side. This meant the grated cheese was placed onto already toasted bread. So 4 sides of bread were toasted.

The only slight exception is with the air fryer method. Due to the nature of air frying food, the bread did not need to be flipped as both the bottom and top of the bread were toasted.

Testing the 3 Ways of Cooking a Brioche Grilled Cheese.

With each style of cooking, the same ingredients were used in the same quantity. The only difference being that butter was used as the cooking medium for the stove top skillet method. Both the air fryer and panini press did not need butter, but it can be mixed with the mayonnaise for added flavor.

What is the Best Way to Cook a Grilled Cheese Sandwich

The results are in:

Type of Cooking Method	Pros	Cons
Stove top skillet	* this is the trusted default method of making Grilled Cheese. * no special equipment needed. If a cast iron skillet is not available, any frying pan will work. * you can see cooking progress easily as the sandwich is not enclosed in an air fryer chamber or under a panini press.	* flipping the grilled cheese sandwich over is problematic. There is a high risk it will disassemble in the pan.
Air fryer	* both sides of the bread were toasted at the same time. * this speeded up cooking time. * no flipping involved. * overall easier method. * consistent cooking of bread and melting of cheese.	* air fryer is needed.
Panini press	*makes flattened pressed sandwiches that don’t fall apart when eating. * easy to pack for a lunch.	* panini press is needed. * sandwiches are pressed to cook them leading to a flatter sandwich being produced. * leakage of filling happens due to the contents being pressed. * less eye appeal than the others.

My mind has been made up – I’m air frying my Grilled Cheese with Brioche Sandwiches from now on!

Best Bread for Grilled Cheese

There’s a list of breads, the length of your arm, that can be used when making a Grilled Cheese sandwich. Traditionally, Grilled Cheese is made with a couple of slices of plain white sandwich bread. Many people swear by this! Other breads to use include whole wheat, pan loaf, Texas toast, Challah, rye, English muffin, crumpet, farl, baguette (although if using a baguette for Grilled Cheese, it is best prepared using the panini method – see below.). Even Irish breads like Soda or Wheaten Breads will work.

A popular choice nowadays is Sourdough Grilled Cheese Sandwich. The sourdough used is from a sliced bread or a couple of pieces cut off a rustic loaf.

Is Brioche bread good for Grilled Cheese? Yes, it is excellent choice for a Grilled Cheese sandwich. It has all the usual yeast bread ingredients, such as flour, yeast, and water, but it is further enriched by the addition of eggs, butter and cream. Brioche has become more readily available and can be found in most grocery stores in the form of a sliced loaf, bun or bagel. Brioche is a good bread choice for any type of sweet or savory sandwich.

Which Brioche Bread to use for Brioche Grilled Cheese Sandwich. St Pierre brand of Brioche is becoming a household name in several countries including the United States, UK and Ireland. They not only specialize in Brioche, but they sell it in different forms, such as bagels, sliced bread, burger and slider buns, croissants and waffles.

Ingredients for All 3 Styles of Brioche Bread Grilled Cheese

• Brioche Bread: I used store bought pre sliced Brioche.
• Mayonnaise: full fat. I like olive oil based mayonnaise.
• Mozzarella cheese: pre grated or grated from a block.
• Cheddar cheese: a sharp Cheddar works best, of course it has to be an Irish Cheddar!
• Butter: Irish, grass fed is preferable. Only needed for the Pan Fried method.

How to Make the Best Grilled Cheese Sandwich at Home

Beginning Instructions for all Cooking Methods

Brioche Grilled Cheese Sandwich Air Fryer

Brioche Grilled Cheese Sandwich Pan Fried

Brioche Grilled Cheese Sandwich Panini Style

Flexibility with this Recipe

I love how easy a Brioche Bread Grilled Cheese is to assemble and how amenable it is to these different cooking methods!

What is the best Cheese for a Grilled Cheese Sandwich? I chose a combination of Irish style Cheddar for its sharp, sweet and nutty flavor and contrasted it with the mellow flavor of mozzarella. The Irish Cheddar melts easily, especially when grated and the mozzarella provides that ‘pulled cheese’ factor that we look for in Grilled Cheese.

Use Other Cheeses

This Brioche Sandwich lends itself to other cheeses being used, such as:

• All Cheddars and Cheeses similar to Cheddar such as Cheshire, Leicestershire, Manchego, Edam, Gouda, Swiss cheeses like Gruyère, and Emmenthal and the list goes on… This Cheeses can be mild, aged, or smoked. Here’s more information about Irish Cheddar.
• Soft Cheeses such as Boursin or cream Cheese. Simply spread these Cheeses over the toasted side of bread, and add additional grated cheeses, of your choice, on top.
• Goat cheese, replace the Cheddar Cheese in this recipe with goat cheese crumbled over the bread.
• Asiago cheese can be used to replace the Cheddar Cheese in this recipe.
• Blue cheese. Brioche bread is the perfect match for blue cheese. The salty funky flavor notes provided by the blue cheese are complemented by the sweet richness of the Brioche bread. Scroll down for a Smash Brioche with Grilled Blue Cheese.

Add Additional Ingredients

Add ins are a great way to stir up the original recipe! Add additional ingredients to the grated cheese before it is melted. I recommend adding in:

• cooked bacon crumbles to make Bacon Brioche Grilled Cheese.
• cooked slices or crumbles of Chorizo to make Chorizo Grilled Cheese.
• chutney – apple, pear, quince (the list goes on…), or even Branston pickle will provide sweetness and tang.
• leftover meats such as ham, chicken, pulled pork or beef are great add in ingredients.
• fresh fruits and veggies such as sliced tomatoes, avocado, pear, and apple.

Try Different Ingredient Combinations

If adding in different ingredients doesn’t do it for you, then try making different ingredient combinations such as:

• Apple Brie Grilled Cheese. Use brie as a substitute for the Cheddar and add fresh slices of apple.
• Boursin Apricot Grilled Cheese. Substitute the Cheddar Cheese for Boursin, spread it over the toasted Brioche and add some fresh sliced apricots before adding the other slice of bread.
• BLT Grilled Cheese. Keep all the ingredients and add cooked bacon crumbles and fresh slices of tomato. I like to serve BLT Grilled Cheese with the lettuce on the side or use spinach inside the Sandwich as it stands up well to heat.
• Garlic Brioche Bread Grilled Cheese. Slather both sides of the Brioche with garlic butter instead of mayonnaise.
• Birria Grilled Cheese (soft shredded beef / goat in sauce)- Birria is a Mexican savory, spicy, slow cooked beef or goat stew. Add some shredded Birria in between the Cheddar and mozzarella cheeses for a delicious savory Grilled Cheese alternative.

Uses for Grilled Cheese Brioche

Grilled Cheese sandwich is the ultimate 10 minute start to finish lunch or dinner option. Popular with kids through to seniors, it checks the box for most of us.

Use the basic Brioche Grilled Cheese Sandwich recipe and slip a cooked burger patty in at the same time the grated cheeses are added. This Burger Grilled Cheese takes any regular burger up a notch or two.

Easy Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

What does Brioche Bread Grilled Cheese go with? Why a tomato based soup! This is a really quick and easy, ‘throw together in a minute’ soup. I always have these ingredients on hand, in case I need to prepare a quick meal.

Ingredients for Easy Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

• Any tomato based product such as pasta sauce, tomato sauce (not ketchup), diced or whole tomatoes, even tomato purée. Any combination amounting to about 40 oz is the goal. Do not exceed 10 oz of tomato purée.
• Cream cheese: 8 oz block of fresh or frozen cream cheese. I used frozen, as I like to keep a block in my freezer at all times for soups.
• Stock: chicken or vegetable, I used about 24 oz so about half of my carton of chicken broth.
• Basil: 3 tbsps of prepared basil, you’ll find it in the refrigerator section in your grocery store. Use frozen cubes of basil or better yet fresh basil. I like to have this brand in my refrigerator to add to pastas and pizzas.

Yield is 64 fl oz of soup. Serving size is 8 oz bowl.

Instructions

Calories in this recipe of Easy Creamy Tomato Basil Soup, for an 8 oz serving is 95 kcal (according to WordPress nutritional tool).

Smash Brioche with Grilled Blue Cheese.

In this style of sandwich, the Brioche gets ‘smashed’. This means the sandwich is intentionally flattened. The best way to do this is by using a panini press, and the best type of Brioche bread to use, is a bagel.

This ain’t no ordinary Bagel Grilled Cheese Sandwich!

Ingredients for Smash Brioche with Grilled Blue Cheese.

• Brioche bagel: St Pierre brand is an excellent choice.
• Butter: salted, 1 tsp at room temperature.
• Blue cheese: I use Irish Cashel Blue, 1 oz
• Mozzarella cheese: grated, 1 oz
• Prosciutto: or any type of thinly sliced ham, 1 slice.
• Jam or chutney: I use Tomato Jam, 1 tbsp.

Instructions

When golden brown, (this will take about 5 minutes), remove from the panini press, place on a chopping board and cut into 2 halves.

When golden brown, (this will take about 5 minutes), remove from the panini machine, place on a chopping board and cut into 2 halves.

Got Questions?

I’ve got answers – hopefully!