Name: Oven Grilled Cheese Sandwiches for a Crowd
Total time: PLACEHOLDER
Ingredients: 16 slices high-quality white sandwich bread; 8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1-stick), melted; 1 pound mild cheddar cheese , shredded (about 4 cups)

Yield

Serves 8

Ingredients

16 slices high-quality white sandwich bread

8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1-stick), melted

1 pound mild cheddar cheese, shredded (about 4 cups)

Ingredients

16 slices high-quality white sandwich bread

8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1-stick), melted

1 pound mild cheddar cheese, shredded (about 4 cups)

Ingredients

16 slices high-quality white sandwich bread

8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1-stick), melted

1 pound mild cheddar cheese, shredded (about 4 cups)

Why This Recipe Works

We developed our Oven-Grilled Cheese for a Crowd recipe to perfectly cook multiple grilled cheese sandwiches at the same time. To ensure the cheese melted quickly and smoothly, we used shredded mild cheddar. We toasted the buttered slices of bread before assembling the sandwiches, then cooked them in a very hot oven. We covered the grilled cheese sandwiches on the baking sheet with aluminum foil to ensure that the cheese melted before the bread dried out.

Instructions

Adjust the oven racks to the upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 475 degrees. Brush each side of the bread slices lightly with the melted butter and spread them out in a single layer over two baking sheets. Toast the bread in the oven to a light golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets from top to bottom halfway through the baking time.

Assemble eight sandwiches, each filled with 1/2 cup of the shredded cheddar, making sure that the more toasted-looking sides of the bread are facing outward. Lay the sandwiches on a baking sheet and press lightly on each of them. Cover the baking sheet tightly with aluminum foil and bake until the cheese is thoroughly melted, 5 to 10 minutes.

To Make Ahead: The bread can be toasted, wrapped tightly with plastic wrap, and kept at room temperature for up to 24 hours in advance.