Cranberry Brie Grilled Cheese

cranberry brie grilled cheese

I was the girl at the grocery store at 7:30am the day after Thanksgiving. ย It was me and the dude replenishing the fresh cranberry produce display. ย We made eye contact, and I hustled away before I could register confusion and judgement in his eyes. ย To be fair… I was in the grocery (with a bit of a turkey-induced hangover) for two very specific items: ย fresh bread and brie cheese. ย I just felt like these were the best two items with which to make my Thanksgiving leftovers shine. ย I’ll tackle the stuffing and mashed potatoes later. ย First things first: ย cranberry sauce, bread, cheese, spicy mustard and go!

I could totally just eat cranberry sauce with a spoon, but bread, cheese, and mustard make most everything better.

If this sandwich looks devastatingly close to the Jalapeno Jack Grilled Cheese I made a few months ago… well, it is very similar. ย I have a deep love for edible things that melt and drip.

cranberry brie grilled cheese

Gosh.

When you start with good ingredients, it feels like nothing can go wrong. ย Here we have a whole grain sourdough (still warm from my awkwardly early morning grocery run), creamy Brie cheese, whole grain mustard, unsalted butter, and the crown jewel… leftover cranberry sauce!

cranberry brie grilled cheese

It’s a sort of smash-and-smear situation.

Oh… and I’m a person that enthusiastically eats Brie cheese rind and all. ย Get in there!

cranberry brie grilled cheese

I love the way the spicy, sharp mustard plays with the sweet, tart cranberry sauce.

Now… if you don’t have cranberry sauce, there’s a recipe here. ย Don’t fret though… a chunky cherry or fig jam would also be most lovely.

cranberry brie grilled cheese

Melty dreams come true.

This sandwich is exactly as supreme as it looks. ย The bread is buttery crisp and the insides are sweet and robust and utterly creamy-divine. ย It’s one part fancy, one part expensive, and one part leftovers. ย So much good in just one sandwich.

xo, joy

Cranberry Brie Grilled Cheese

makes one sandwich, but you should make as many as necessary

Print this Recipe!

2 slices sourdough bread

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened

1/4 cup cranberry sauce

1 heaping tablespoon whole grain mustard

a good hunk of Brie cheese

It feels silly to give written directions for a fancy grilled cheese sandwich, but let’s just work through this ritual.

Butter one side of each slice of bread. ย Place bread butter side down on a cutting board and slather one side of the bread with mustard and the other side of bread with cranberry sauce.

Generously smear Brie cheese (rind and all) atop the mustard side of the bread (it’s less messing than smearing cheese on cranberry). ย Join the two slices together, but don’t smash them together.

Head a non-stick skillet over medium-low heat. ย  Place sandwich in heated pan butter side down. ย Flip when bottom has turned a golden brown. ย Brown on each side. ย Remove from pan and allow to rest for 5 minutes before slicing. ย Slice in two. ย Serve immediately. ย 

All Comments

I Made This

Questions

106 Responses

  1. This was suuuuch a great idea! I <3 you right now! My belly is full of gooey, melty, cheesy, deliciousness! Such simple ingredients mix together to make an explosive combination, this kind of recipe makes me happy.

  2. made this.. on cranberry injected breads. Super great.. but thinking sourdough would help balance the sweetness.. so that’s for next time. thanks joy.

  3. I made these this weekend with my leftover cranberries. This was amazing. (I left out the mustard.) I will be making these after every holiday meal from now on!

  4. My goodness Joy these look ridiculous. I haven’t had a grilled cheese in a while and I think that this might just be the one that I need to have!

  5. I’m not one for sweet on any type of sandwich, but this has enough tang that I want to make it now. Thanks, for sharing a beautiful sandwich.

  6. Dear God, thank you for making Joy the Baker. She uses the gifts you gave her to make good things out of other good things, and spread happiness to everyone with eyeballs and a kitchen. She is witty and courageous, clever and cute. I am so grateful. Amen.

  7. it’s not silly to give directions for cooking a grilled cheese sandwich. when i met my husband he didn’t know where to put the butter. i had to teach him right away, because grilled cheeses are a very important part of my diet – i estimate that i’ve eaten one thousand of them in my life based on all the summers when my mom made them daily for lunch.

  8. Thank you thank you thank you for mentioning to use medium low heat for making grilled cheese sandwiches. In my family, grilled cheese sandwiches were made on scorching heat and golden brown butter was traded for blackish edges without any hint of a proper toast. A shame! And now that I taught myself the error of those ways, I get picked on because it takes “so long” for me to make a buttery, golden, properly toasted grilled cheese/Reuben/french toast (though everyone likes mine better). It is worth the wait, many times over, to be gentle with the heat for this type of application.

  9. Never been a huge fan of cranberry sauce, but I can see doing this with sour cherry jelly…or a habenero jelly. Or, in an odd moment I can even see myself doing this with a home made grape jelly. Yeah, I know, it’s be weird, but I think it would be good too! :)

  10. Hi Joy, can you settle something for me? My American friend says that cranberry sauce is a food unto itself and isn’t a condiment, i.e. the only way to eat it is by spoon, not smeared on other foods. But I’m arguing the fact that it’s a “sauce” means it goes on things. I understand the random: “I want to taste this now” spoonful, but as a standard way of eating it? Not on Turkey? Whaaa?

    But I’m happy to report we did have a very successful turkey dinner in Sydney in honour of thanksgiving.. I think it’s an awesome holiday, and I could totally adopt it and spread it around Australia.

  11. I just made this for dinner. Delicious! I’ll be making this sandwich throughout the year. It’s too good to save just for Thanksgiving.

  12. This sounds absolutely fantastic! When I studied abroad, one of my favorite meals (at this random little diner, when our bus pulled over with issues) was a grilled goat cheese and cranberry sandwich! This totally reminded me of it! Have to try this out asap!

  13. ok — so the day after Thanksgiving has always been my favorite day to go grocery shopping! So quiet — so well-stocked — forget Black Friday … :)

  14. Made it for dinner tonight. It will now be a mandatory post-Thanksgiving meal. And an excuse to make cranberry sauce more than once a year. And to buy brie. Not that I need an excuse to buy brie. Thanks for the great recipe!

  15. Oooooh, girl. This is one SEXY sandwich. I’ve been eating some variation of grilled cheese sandwich with jam/chutney every night this week (hey, when I find a winner I tend to stick to it…) and this looks like just the thing to add to my rotation. I love, love, LOVE the gooey cheese shot. So darn messy and purdy.

  16. I somehow forgot to nab some of the cranberry sauce leftovers so instead I made a riff on this using leftover sweet potato rolls, brie, and lingonberry jam from Ikea, which is pleasantly tart, like cranberry sauce. Sooo good!!

  17. Yes!!!!! I just opened a jar of whole grain mustard from trader Joe’s and a have a ton of cranberry sauce left over because I made a triple batch! No brie in the house but I do have havarti :) gonna make this for dinner with sweet potato fries.

  18. You are right, these look supreme! What a fantastic idea for using your leftovers! Oh and don’t even worry about the embarrassing grocery store run you took yesterday, if I lived in walking distance to a Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s, I’d be doing the exact same thing!

  19. Brie.. The meltiest most gorgeous sandwich glue in the world. We don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here but for new years eve, we’ll be doing turkey legs. I scored a pack of fresh cranberries today so i am going to make cranberries, anjou pear, orange sauce. I imagine that would be the world’s best sandwich paint, alongside with the world’s best sandwich glue. Mmm..

  20. The sandwich looks great, but after all the rich food and wine and pie yesterday, what looks really good to me is that bubbly pink beverage in the background!! Refreshing and thirst quenching! What is it?

  21. Years ago, when I was in college, I visited Europe with my parents. We had one day in Paris and my mother stocked up on cheese for the overnight train ride to Austria. I’d never had Brie before and couldn’t get myself to try it then so, perhaps I can be forgiven for what happened. Through the night, that brie becamse so “odorous” that, after much complaining from us, my mother got rid of it. Now that I’ve matured a bit and enjoy Brie, I feel such deep shame in making her throw out what I know, now, is so delicious! Maybe I can make her a sandwich in atonement…

  22. Oh my gosh… My mouth is watering and I just ate a plate of leftovers. That looks tasty and beautiful. As a blogger who is currently learning tons about food photography, know that I think your photography is just amazing and inspiring. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

  23. I am a newbie to your site and am so glad we met!!! I officially speak of this blog daily, thank you! all ingredients on hand, can’t wait to get home and make this.

  24. Cranberry sauce is one of fave parts of Thanksgiving dinner. And this recipe? By far, the BEST Thanksgiving leftovers recipe I’ve found. Pretty jazzed to try this. (I am awaiting, with bated breath, what you’re going to do with the stuffing… that’s another fave.)

    Happy Thanksgiving weekend!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related Posts