Whether it’s for a ham-and-cheese panini or a tuna melt panini, toasted bread is an essential component of many types of sandwiches; there’s even a case to use toasted bread to elevate a PB&J with crunch. But all of these options will turn out rather unimpressive if the bread is soggy by the time it hits the plate. However, there’s a rather effortless way to keep the bread crispy before you make the sandwich to prevent these mishaps.
So before you slather on the mayonnaise, pile on the tuna salad, or wrap the bread for later, keep this step in mind: let the bread rest on the cooling rack that you might use for cookies for at least 30 seconds or up to a couple of minutes. When any type of bread comes out of the toaster, oven, or griddle, it’s hot, and when you add cold condiments or wrap it up immediately, there will be condensation build up that will cause the bread to turn soggy. A wire rack will allow the bread to cool and crisp up before you assemble the sandwiches.
More tips for keeping toasted sandwich bread crispy and ideas to use it up
There are other ways to keep your sandwich bread crispy if your home kitchen isn’t equipped with a wire rack. An easy workaround is to place the slices of bread up against each other in the shape of a tent so both sides have to cool and stay crunchy. If you want to wrap the sandwiches for later, it’s also important to let the bread cool down completely before you wrap it in aluminum foil or put it in a plastic bag or container. Another trick is to only toast one side of the bread if you don’t mind a sandwich that’s not toasted on the outside.
We’ve got some sandwich ideas if you want to test out these tips to keep toasted bread crispy. An obvious choice is a BLT, which our sweet heat BLT sandwich recipe elevates with honey and cayenne pepper on the bacon and a homemade aioli. You can apply these tricks to the English muffins in our ultimate egg sandwich recipe. Really, any sandwich that’s toasted by default or not can remain crispy with these effortless tips.
