So first of all, Zombies?! I mean, what a name!
Have you ever heard about the website www.atlasobscura.com? It is a treasure trove of food- and drink-related information and includes recipes for random goodies and videos, etc. I highly recommend it. At any rate, they just had an article about the treasures from school lunches. Now, to be fair, I did not eat school lunch every day so when I did get to, it was a bit of a treat. Anyway, I was going on about some of these goodies and my boys had no idea what I was talking about. How sad!
So I feel like I need to introduce my boys to some of these treats, but maybe slightly healthier version than what might have been served way back when.
So zombies. I’ve already told you this: if you want your kids to eat it, give it a good name. I found a number of recipes, and from our attempts, this is the end result. I have added some whole wheat, reduced the sugar and (of course) served it with a salad. Big big hit. Hope you try it with your kids.
This is also a great option for having kids helping in the kitchen. Involving them in the process of creating the sandwiches will make the eating part of them that much more enjoyable!
Cheese Zombies
Serves 6 - 8
Ingredients
2 tsps active yeast 1 1/2 cups warm water 2 tsp granulated sugar 2 cups flour (or 1 cup all purpose, and 1 cup wheat) 1 tsp salt 2 T butter, softened, plus more for the top Processed cheese (American cheese or Velveeta recommended), enough to cover your dough optional: sliced jalapenos, peppers, ham, pepperoni, etc
Directions
In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water with the sugar. Allow to get foamy and bubbly, 5 - 10 minutes. Add the flour and the salt, and stir to combine. The dough will be very soft. Set aside to proof for 10 to 15 minutes.
In the meantime, line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper.
After the resting time, scoop half of the dough onto the baking sheet, and spread as well as you can into a rectangle. This works well with lightly greased hands or a bench scraper. As soon as you’ve spread the dough as much as you can, unwrap your cheese and lay each piece end to end on the dough. You want to try to get at least one piece of cheese in even layer. Feel free to rip the squares of cheese to make the layer as solid as you can. If you are going to add any optional toppings, now is a good time to layer them on. Keep your layers thin, though, as this is not intended to be a thick sandwich.
This next part can be a little tricky: you want to spread the rest of the dough over the cheese. I find this most easily accomplished by dropping little blobs of dough and then spreading it with lightly greased fingers. If you have holes, don’t worry. Keep dropping your scoops of dough. Once you let it sit for a few minutes, you can come back to your holes and you will be able to get the dough to budge over and cover most of the holes. Stretch the other half of dough over the top. To your best ability, try to seal around the edges.
Let dough rise again to double its size, about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your over to 350. When the zombie has risen to double in size, you can brush it with softened/melted butter. Bake until lightly brown, about 25 to 30 minutes.
Serve warm. Enjoy!