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Cheese Fingers
12 slices bread 1/2 cup butter 2/3 cup grated cheese 1/4 teaspoon salt shake of cayenne 1/3 cup melted butter Remove crusts from bread, sliced 1/4 inch thick and spread with the other ingredients, well creamed. Cover with a second slice and cut into fingers an inch wide. Brush with melted butter and brown in a hot oven.
A closed cheese sandwich, buttered outside and toasted whole, then cut into strips. The original gives no oven number, no time and no yield, so those are the gaps worth filling.
- Cream the filling properlyThe 1/2 cup butter, grated cheese, salt and cayenne should be beaten to a smooth paste before it goes near the bread; the recipe specifies "well creamed." Softened butter makes it easier to spread a lumpy mixture thinly without tearing the bread.
- "Hot oven"Roughly 400-450F. At that heat the fingers should colour in about 8 to 10 minutes; watch them closely, as the melted butter on the surface browns fast.
- The breadA quarter-inch slice means an unsliced firm white loaf, cut by hand -- standard sandwich bread runs closer to half an inch and will be doughy in the middle. Day-old bread cuts thinner and cleaner than fresh.
- The cheeseThe recipe says only "grated cheese." A dry, firm Cheddar-type cheese suits the quantity best; anything soft or high-moisture will weep.
- Cut before baking, not afterThe recipe cuts into inch-wide fingers first, then brushes the cut pieces with butter and browns them. Follow that order; the cut edges take the butter and colour.
- CayenneThe quantity is left to the cook ("shake of cayenne"), so season to taste. If your cheese is already salty, taste the creamed mixture before spreading.
- YieldTwelve slices make six sandwiches; cut into inch-wide fingers, that is roughly two dozen. Serve them warm.