Brown Butter Grilled Cheese

Happy National Grilled Cheese Month! I don’t know who comes up with these official food holidays, but I can’t complain about celebrating grilled cheese. Toasted bread and melted cheese is the foundation of an excellent sandwich.

Tillamook invited me to participate in their National Grilled Cheese Month Recipepalooza, and I quickly began brainstorming. Grilled cheese sandwiches are wonderful as they are, but I wanted to add something extra to make them even better. Caramelized onions, bacon, pepper jack, and jalapeños were considered, but I stuck with the basics: sharp cheddar and whole wheat bread, the flavors of my childhood. The special touch? Brown butter, which has a nutty and more complex flavor than regular butter.

Brown butter is easy to make: you simply cook the butter a little longer until it turns brown. It’s easy to burn, so cook over low heat – you’ll want that for the grilled cheese anyway, so you can melt the cheese without burning the bread. You’ll end up with a crispy grilled cheese that’s tough to beat.

Tomorrow is National Grilled Cheese day – how will you celebrate?

P.S. I know I promised 4 Nutella posts in a row in the Nutella & Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies post, but I decided to space them out. Don’t worry, you’ll see more Nutella here soon!

How to make a brown butter grilled cheese:Melt 1/2 tablespoon of butter over low heat

Occasionally stir butter as it melts

Wait until it turns brown (you’ll see lots of brown spots) – now is the time to add the bread

Add two slices of bread to brown butter

Add two slices of cheese to bread

Once bread is toasted, move second slice on top of cheese

Continue cooking over very low heat, pressing down on sandwich

Cook until cheese is fully melted

Slice grilled cheese in half

Enjoy immediately!

Recipe:

Brown Butter Grilled Cheese

Makes 1 sandwich

1/2 tbsp butter
2 slices whole wheat bread
2 slices sharp cheddar cheese

Over low heat, melt butter. Stir occasionally until butter turns brown. Add bread to pan and place cheese on top of one slice. Once bread is browned, place the empty slice on top of the cheese, browned side up. Lower heat to lowest setting. Press down and occasionally flip sandwich until both sides are browned and cheese if melted. Enjoy immediately.

Disclaimer: Tillamook sent me cheese to sample. All opinions expressed are my own.

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9 Comments on Brown Butter Grilled Cheese

Living The Sweet Life
April 11, 2012 at 2:17 pm (13 years ago)

I believe I just figured dinner out 🙂
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- Stephanie
  April 11, 2012 at 2:19 pm (13 years ago)
  
  @Living The Sweet Life – my coworker just said the same thing after seeing this! Enjoy 🙂
Peggy
April 13, 2012 at 12:29 pm (13 years ago)

Simple enough! Sounds really delicious =)
Peggy recently posted Secret Recipe Club: French Dip Sandwiches
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Steph@stephsbitebybite
April 13, 2012 at 1:33 pm (13 years ago)

Just when I thought grilled cheese couldn’t get any better!
Steph@stephsbitebybite recently posted Peanut Butter Cookie Potato Chip Bomb
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