Apple Bacon Grilled Cheese Recipe

Fall is practically synonymous with soup season, and there's no better accompaniment to a comforting bowl of soup than a warm, gooey, toasted grilled cheese. While it's hard to beat the classic combination of buttery white bread and melty American cheese, the sandwich is also endlessly customizable, with different cheeses, breads, spreads, and toppings offering countless ways to reinvent any number of ingredients around the world.

This apple bacon grilled cheese takes the classic comfort food to new heights with layers of creamy Brie, smoked Gouda, and crispy bacon tucked between slices of buttery, toasted French bread. This is a rich and decadent sandwich, and the two gooey cheeses are complemented by sweet cider-caramelized onions, crisp apples, and a layer of tangy stone-ground mustard. The fresh, tart crunch of apple offers a welcome contrast between layers of creamy melted cheese and crispy, smoky bacon, giving every bite the perfect balance of flavor and texture. Packed with autumnal flavor, this grilled cheese sandwich is a delicious way to make the most of apple-picking season, whether served beside your favorite soup or enjoyed on its own.

This recipe starts with apple cider-caramelized onions. To make these, you'll need a yellow onion, olive oil, apple cider, and salt. From there, the recipe simply requires the ingredients for making the grilled cheese: French bread, bacon, butter, stone-ground mustard, Brie, smoked Gouda, and an apple.

To caramelize the onions, first heat olive oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat.

Add the sliced onions and cook for 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until very soft and golden.

Add the apple cider and salt and bring to a simmer. Cook until the apple cider is reduced, about 5 minutes longer, then remove the onions from the heat.

In the meantime, to cook the bacon, add the strips to a skillet over medium heat and cook until browned, about 8-10 minutes.

Drain the bacon on a paper towel-lined plate.

Butter one side of each slice of bread, then stack with the buttered sides together.

Spread the unbuttered side with stone-ground mustard.

Add the Brie, then bacon, then onions, Gouda, and sliced apples to the sandwiches.

Add the sandwiches to a skillet over medium heat, putting them buttered-side down and topping them with the other slice of bread, buttered-side up.

Cook, flipping once, until both sides are golden brown, about 4-5 minutes.

Serve warm.

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Smoked Gouda and Brie are particularly decadent cheeses, each with its own distinctive flavor, so it is important to balance them with an apple that can cut through the richness. Apples that are mostly sweet and just a little bit tart are the best choice; so I'd recommend avoiding green Granny Smith apples entirely, which are just a little too tart for this recipe. There are still many common varieties of apples to choose from, though, and some pair better with this sandwich than others.

My favorite type of apple to use on most grilled cheeses is the honeycrisp, which is sweet, mild, and crunchy but not overly crisp, and a perfect foil for the richness of this particular sandwich. It's not overly tart nor overly sweet, which makes it a good balance for a sandwich with many bold flavors. Another apple that is a great choice for this sandwich is the Fuji, which is similarly crunchy and mildly sweet. Avoid softer apples like McIntosh or Gala, which may end up too mushy between the layers of cheese.

The key to perfectly melted cheese and golden, toasted bread is to keep the pan at the perfect temperature: This is particularly true of a super-stuffed sandwich like this one. Too high, and the heat will burn the bread before the cheese is able to melt — too low, and the bread will become soggy under the melting cheese. The perfect pan temperature is medium-low, a temperature at which the bread can toast while the cheese gently melts in the heat. Beyond the pan temperature, there are a few other ways to cook the perfect grilled cheese sandwich.

My first tip for perfectly melty cheese is to start with room-temperature cheese, which you can leave on the counter while working on the bacon and onions. This removes the initial chill from the cheese, making it easier to melt once it hits the heat. My second tip is to use a lid on the pan to steam the cheese after browning the bread, which helps gently cook the cheese while keeping the bread moist enough to avoid burning.

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