Sweet Naughty Beginning - Hot Sandwich Heaven

Meal 48 - June 2nd - Sweet Naughty Beginning

There's a shop in the UK called Lakeland, which some people (specifically their marketing/branding people and Lolz, who bought a fancy citrus zester from them the other day) say is the home of creative kitchenware. Others would say it's home of pointless crap which clutters your kitchen. I stand somewhere in the middle, but some five years or so ago I came across, via Lakeland, a toastie bag which at the time I thought was the most genius invention ever. It meant you could basically make a regular sandwich, put it into the bag, and then toast it in a regular toaster to create an authentic toastie! Genius. My awe of the product was however mitigated by the fact that I had not had a toastie prior to this for a good ten years. Back then we used to have cheddar and pineapple toasties, which I seem to remember being a formative part of my upbringing. The reality is these toastie bags merely toast the bread and heat it's contents - a lazy man's replica of the genuine article.



And so today I was extremely excited to be reverting back to the traditional "Breville" method as I attempted the first of four toasted sandwiches in the 15 minute meals book. The first job was to buy a toastie maker. Prices ranged from a fiver up to about £50. I plumped for a mid range Breville from Argos for about £20 and, upon getting home, Lolz made a cheese and tomato toastie to test it out. Memories came flooding back - using a cheap, medium sliced, own brand white loaf. Buttering the wrong side of the bread. The delicious greasy chewiness of the toasted bread. The contents being hotter than the surface of the sun. It was so good.

And so the following morning we made this chocolate and banana number - interestingly called "Sweet Naughty Beginning" in the book. In my excitement I may have overfilled the sandwich and attempted to cut it before allowing it to cool sufficiently. Melted chocolate and banana was everywhere. The picture does not look appealing in the slightest. It did taste better than it looked but overall it was a bit of a gooey mess. I'm expecting better from the savoury offerings.

Lolz, with her bananaphobic tendencies, gave it 1/10.