Today is gonna be a good day.
How do I know? It’s National Grilled Cheese Day!!! What could go wrong when we’re sandwiching our lives between buttery carbs and melty, gooey cheese?!
This is one of the food holidays I can get behind 100%. Every single day there is a new food holiday. I rarely participate. Not because I don’t want to, but because there is no way I could stay on top of them all. But THIS one?
Oh yes. I am so on it.
Today’s grilled cheese recipe is epic. It’s incredibly decadent and feels fancy, but is really simple to make. Just like grilled cheese should be.
We’ve got sourdough bread topped with copious amounts of fontina and jack cheeses (Don’t hold back. Embrace the cheese, people), a thick slather of blackberry jam, and a few fresh blackberries. YUM. Then! The whole shebang gets crisped up in a little thyme-infused melted butter. Your life will be made after eating this.
Dan can be a little wary sometimes of recipes like this. This is so not his thing. He would much rather me make a gluttonous pulled pork or short rib grilled cheese. But berries? It’s not something that he is going to be super excited about. Not that he doesn’t love berries (because he does!), but he doesn’t necessarily think they belong in a grilled cheese sandwich.
Well.
If you’re in his camp, prepared to have your mind completely changed. His was. He FLIPPED over these. He couldn’t stop eating them. In true food blogger style, I made them in the middle of the day and then set them aside at room temperature for the remainder of the afternoon. Dan got home from work hours after they were made, and two steps in the door, immediately started housing one. With abandon. It was quite a thing to watch.
Despite the fact that my poor hubs hardly ever gets to eat any of my food when it’s freshly prepared, and these were no different, he still lost his mind over them. He declared them one of the best things I have ever made. EVER EVER.
That’s big, coming from him.
So! If you can’t wrap your head around berries in your sandwich, give these a try. I promise you will love them. I mean, how could you not? Just LOOK at that glorious cheese.
The cheese and the berries are that perfect salty-savory-sweet combo, and the thyme butter!!!! OMG, the thyme butter may be the dark horse in this recipe. You don’t think it’s going to do THAT much, but then it totally steals (or makes!) the show. It adds this herby, interesting, and completely delicious note to things. Gives it that little extra somethin’ somethin’. It really makes this INTERESTING. In a good way.
No, scratch that.
In an AMAZING way.
Fontina & Blackberry Grilled Cheese with Thyme Butter
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Ingredients
For the Thyme Butter:
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 bunch of fresh thyme
- Salt and pepper, to taste
For the Grilled Cheese:
- 8 slices bread (I love sourdough for this)
- ½ cup blackberry jam
- 4 oz fontina cheese, shredded
- 4 oz Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
- 1 cup fresh blackberries
- Salt and pepper
- The thyme butter
- Honey, for drizzling (optional)
Instructions
For the Thyme Butter:
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.
- Add in the thyme and reduce the heat to low. Stirring frequently, cook the butter and thyme together for a few minutes, being careful to not let the butter get too brown.
- Remove from heat and season with a pinch each of salt and pepper.
For the Grilled Cheese:
- Heat a large skillet or griddle over medium heat.
- On each piece of bread, spread roughly 1 tablespoon of the blackberry jam. Top four of the bread slices with roughly 2 oz of the cheese and a few fresh blackberries. Season with a little salt and pepper and top with the other bread slices to create sandwiches.
- Brush the bread liberally with the thyme butter and then place in the skillet/on the griddle.
- Cook for a couple minutes per side, or until golden brown and crisp on the outside and gooey and melty on the inside.
- Slice and serve while warm with an optional drizzle of honey.
Stephanie says
I made this today and my fiance had a similar reaction! Thanks for the awesome Saturday brunch recipe! 😀
Molly says
Awesome! Thanks, Stephanie!