The Bread Swap That Gives You A Fall-Inspired Grilled Cheese

Breads, roughly speaking, canbe said to fall into two different categories: quick and yeast. The latter type of bread is typically used for sandwiches since yeast breads are sturdier, less crumbly, and won't fall apart when you pile on the fillings. While most pumpkin breads are quick breads with a texture similar to muffins, it's possible to make pumpkin-flavored sandwich bread by stirring pumpkin puree into the dough. Once you've baked your pumpkin bread (pumpkin pie spice is optional), it can turn plain old grilled cheese into a seasonally appropriate sandwich.

What kind of cheeses work with pumpkin bread? Just about any melty ones, depending on your tastebuds. Sharp cheddar can help offset the sweetness of the pumpkin, while mild Monterey jack or mozzarella would allow the pumpkin flavor to take center place. Nutty gruyère also makes a perfect pumpkin partner, which is why we picked it for our cheese-stuffed roasted pumpkin recipe.

A few well-chosen add-ons can also help to enhance your pumpkin grilled cheese. Pepper jack sprinkled with pepitas would make a tasty southwestern-style sandwich. Or you could pile pumpkin bread with leftover turkey and cranberry sauce and add a layer of melted gouda for post-Thanksgiving snacking purposes. If you really wanted to get cute with your sandwiches, you could even shape them with fall-themed cookie cutters.

If you prefer to bake homemade pumpkin bread using a standard un-yeasted recipe or buy it in the store, you'll have a soft, crumbly loaf; but you can still use it to make a sandwich if you take a few extra steps. For starters, you don't want to keep the pumpkin bread moist, since dryer slices tend to hold up better. You could also toast the bread to help stiffen it a bit or even use a sandwich maker or waffle iron.

Pumpkin quick breads tend to be on the sweeter side and some (like Costco's gigantic pumpkin spice loaf) even come with a sugary cream cheese frosting. Sweet and savory flavor pairings have been all the rage in past years, though, so don't let that stop you from cheesing things up. Since there's no rule that says grilled cheese cheeses must be sliceable, you could also lean into the sweeter side by using a cream cheese or mascarpone filling (or, in the case of the Costco loaf, cream cheese frosting scraped off the top).