Baked Bean Sandwich

Where do I begin? I’ve always loved baked beans. There’s something very small-child comfort-food about them for me, and now as a mother myself, I know that they are the supremely easy option. A fast and nutritious meal.

I should probably point out that the baked beans in my quick-and-easy canon are very different from the ones with which most of you are probably familiar. As the author of the Wikipedia article points out, the ones I eat are cooked in a tomato base, rather than with molasses, and so are not very sweet at all, but rather, salty. This makes them a natural partner for cheese, and that, my friends, is where I am heading.

Another very important feature of my “harried mother cooking for small boys” kitchen is my toasted sandwich maker. Toasties are a crucial part of my life, or that of a starving uni student. Everyone has some kind of Jaffle maker in their lives, and a collection of suitable fillings. Popular ones include: ham; cheese; tomatoes, tinned spaghetti, and yes, baked beans. Now, the best toasties are jaffles, where the filling is sealed into the sandwich and spills out unexpectedly, scalding your mouth and chin, but sadly commonsense has prevailed and I now own something a lot less lethal.

Which brings me back to the baked bean sandwich at hand. Obviously, no-one in their right mind would try to make a sandwich with baked beans on untoasted bread. They’re just too sloppy. Baked beans on toast are a staple of cheap and cheerful cafe “big breakfasts” where there is lots of toast to mop up the delicious tomato sauce slop. But in a toastie is where I went with mine…

So I got some not particularly special wholemeal (whole wheat) bread from the supermarket and put a slice of tasty cheese on one piece. I slopped on the baked beans and then another slice of cheese to top it. Finally, the other piece of bread, and into the toastie maker it went. Another difference to be noted, is that bread here is noticeably salty, rather than having the sweet overtones of bread in the US.

As you can see, the disadvantage of using the sandwich press style of toastie maker, rather than the jaffle, is that loose types of filling spill out the side, but whatever. I find that I usually need to spin the sandwich around 180 degrees to get it to toast and press evenly (another problem not encountered with a traditional sealed jaffle)

Here it is, in all its lovely sloppy glory, beans still flopping out everywhere. Kinda hard to eat, but it’s not something that you take much time over, so really just shoving it down your gullet as fast as possible is the aim here.

*Disclaimer: This sandwich does not contain Vegemite. The jar was just on the bench, because that’s where it always is. I guess I’ll write a Vegemite sandwich post one day too. Also, I’ve just remembered that after I took the photo and before I ate it standing up in the kitchen where I’d made it, I gave it a liberal dousing of Tabasco. Again, because of the savoury nature of the beans here, Tabasco, rather than a sweeter BBQ sauce, is a natural companion for beans and cheese toasties.

Crit

I’m a mother of two boys. I work selling organic produce to gullible locals, and in my spare time I run as far as I can. Oh, and I live in Australia, married to a US citizen.