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    Home / Appetizer / Southland Cheese Rolls

    Southland Cheese Rolls

    Southland cheese roll recipe: toasted white bread around a molten cheddar and onion filling. New Zealand’s most loved comfort snack, best with tomato sauce.

    ⏱ 15 minPrep time
    🔥 30 minCook time
    🍽 4Servings
    🏷 AppetizerCategory
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    Southland Cheese Rolls

    Cheese rolls are a proud Southland specialty, born in the region’s home kitchens and school tuck shops in the mid-1900s. They’re so beloved that the town of Gore has hosted an annual cheese roll competition, and Southlanders get genuinely territorial about the correct filling recipe.

    The filling is a simple, cheesy white sauce spiked with onion, spread on fresh white bread, rolled up, buttered on the outside, and toasted until crisp and gooey. They’re the ultimate after-school snack, served warm with tomato sauce.

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    Step by stepInstructions

    1. Melt the butter in a small pot, add the flour, and cook for 1 minute. Whisk in the milk and simmer until thick.
    2. Remove from the heat and stir in the cheese, onion, and salt until smooth. Cool until spreadable.
    3. Spread the filling thickly over each bread slice and roll up firmly.
    4. Butter the outside of each roll and toast in a frying pan or under the broiler, turning, until golden on all sides.
    5. Serve warm with tomato sauce.

    💡 Chef tips & storage

    Use day-old bread — fresh bread tears when rolled. Keep the rolls seam-side down in the pan so they don't unroll as they toast.

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    Recipe details

    Prep15 min
    Cook30 min
    Servings4
    CategoryAppetizer
    PublishedAugust 17, 2026
    Emily — the cook behind My Comfort Recipes

    Hi, I'm Emily 🧡

    Hi, I'm Emily — the cook behind My Comfort Recipes. Simple, tested comfort food for real weeknights, written down the way grandma would. Pull up a chair. More about me →

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