I'm glad that someone tried it. I had the same idea, but I have a regular toaster oven at home, so never really got around to testing it. Now that I know it works, I'll have a few sheets of parchment paper at the office for emergencies.

I still feel like gravity would win. Every meal I'd want to use this with would involve cheese, and cheese is a slidy slippery heavy beast when warm. Toasters break constantly, so make nice with your purchasing dept and lobby for a toaster oven next time the toaster acts up.

This is pretty brilliant but mimee has a good point about the cheese. However, there are plenty of hard varieties that prefer to stay right where they are... this could open up a whole new world of sandwiches for me.

Wow, this is genius!! I will be be trying this soon. Who likes to dirty up a pan, if not necessary!

Paper + toaster = accident waiting to happen

I think this is a serious fire hazard (and subsequent lawsuit) waiting to happen...

I wouldn't worry too much about fire accidents, so long as you're using actual parchment paper (and not wax paper). Parchment won't burn (get all brown-black and crispy until above 425 degrees, and I regularly use it in 500+ degree ovens without ever having reached flashpoint (paper actually igniting).

On the excellent point of slippery/slidy cheese, the key is to make sure you all slippery slidy stuff (cheese, tomato, etc) has at least one contact side with something decidedly more sandpapery (bread, bacon, etc.).

You've got two things working in your favor: 1) pressure from the toaster will tend to push the sandwich layers together, and 2) the bread will always be between the cheese and the heat source, so you'll likely be moving beyond toasty goodness and into the realm of black and nasty before even brie would become so liquid that it would pool in the bottom of your folded parchment.

Hey, this is me! I keep a close eye on things due to the fire concern, but, it hasn't been an issue. Definitely use only parchment paper for baking!!

Also, you are right, the toaster squeezes the cheese into the bread and I haven't had a problem with it dripping out, even when I used shredded cheese.

I look forward to using this idea next summer when I don't want to heat up the kitchen.

Yeah, parchment paper in the toaster isn't a huge hazard. I use it in ovens all the time, and have never had a problem. The only real problem I could foresee is if it touched an actual heating element.

As for the issue of gravity, just follow Jamie Oliver's example. On ...um... one of his shows (can't remember which), he's shown making himself breakfast in the morning, and turns his toaster on it's (narrow) side to toast a piece of bread with cheese and tomato on it, admitting it's vaguely hazardous, but he's keeping an eye on it.
So to solve gravity, do that, and the paper keeps it from being dangerous.

Yeah, the autoignition point of paper is 450 F.

Fahrenheit 451, anyone?

Since your toaster probably uses some sort of thermal sensor, it would quit toasting if the temperature was much above that.

Who would we sue for this awful paper-toaster accident waiting to happen. AT?

For the life of me, I could not figure out why there was a blackened hand sandwich popping out of the toaster...

@Oven Mitzie -- Yes! Very bizarre photo.

As to the idea: For me, the best part of this is that I, hopefully, can get the toasty gooey goodness of grilled cheese without adding fat to the outside of the sando! Wow. Of course, I have a toaster oven myself so there's no compression and it would be ineffective, but next time I live/work with a toaster...!

@Oven Mitzie too funny, the blackened hand is my kids' handprint painted on the tiles on our backsplash.

In the oven, the paper wouldn't be in direct contact with heat source

Jatoha, so glad that wasn't a tarantula and blackened seaweed toastwich. Now that you've said something, I can see the tile.

@korbl tipping it on its side is genius!

Off to try...

Hey Jess,

This is a great idea (albeit dangerous!) but I would definitely not recommend you keep doing this - there is definitely a fire-hazard with parchment paper. PlanitProducts, distributes the toastabag throughout North America. Not only is the toastabag good for multiple uses (either 30 use, 50 use, 100 use, or 300 use depending on which bag you get), but they can withstand temperatures up to 550F. The toastabag is made from patented woven fiber coated with PTFE (Teflon). Up to 550F, there is almost no fire hazard, even if the bag touches the elements in the toaster. By the picture, it looks like the parchment paper is pretty burned. You won't get this using a toastabag. Plus, that parchment is throwaway, whereas your toastabag can be cleaned in the dishwasher and reused. They are sold at wholesale prices on their website www.planitproductsusa.com so you will get better pricing than on Amazon. I am sure if you started a fire, spending a few dollars on a toastabag will probably seem like a great idea....

Okay, I tried it. I cook with parchment paper alot and figured it would work very easy. Well, turned out not so easy. First attempt on medium heat it started burning through the paper. No flames but actual burning. Popped it out before flames occured. Maybe I had it too high (5 of 8 settings) so I tried it again but on a lower setting (3 of 8). Again it started burning through. Maybe its my toaster. My old toaster had wires to support the bread. This newer one has metal "bars" and that is where the burning began every time. I'll have to look for those bags because after three attempts with the same cheese sandwich, its love! The cheese never dripped out and where the bread did toast, yummy!!

I wonder if placing the sandwich in parchment—then wrapping the whole thing in aluminum foil—would work as well and eliminate the fire risk.

Wow! Two years ago and I'm just finding out about these. If you want to do this every once and awhile then parchment paper is fine but the bags are reusable. I'd like to know if that 50x's claim is accurate or even close. That's what I'd like to know. ;-)