When Courtney (my sister) and I were on our back to back to back trips this Spring, we found a grilled cheese truck in Austin, Texas. Jackpot! Not only am I fan big fan of a grilled cheese, but it’s probably Courtney’s favorite meal. It’s her go to meal anywhere we go. If I’m the mac and cheese connoisseur of the family, she’s the grilled cheese connoisseur. We’re super fancy connoisseurs, aren’t we?!
The food truck we found in Austin was called Burro Cheese Kitchen. It’s actually more of a stationary truck and not really a truck, but a bright yellow painted shipping POD that produced some super tasty grilled cheese sandies. Courtney got their version of a caprese grilled cheese and mine had mixed, gooey cheeses and a fig preserves on perfectly crusty sourdough bread. It was heaven.
I’ve been wanting to recreate a grilled cheese inspired by Burro for Southern Sundays, especially since some of summer’s freshest ingredients would make stellar sandwhiches. I also meant to do this earlier in the summer when it was still fresh off the trip in April, but I’m glad I waited because the combo I created was well worth the wait.
Since fresh peaches are ripe and in season, I had to pay homage to our most prized August crop with a grilled cheese involving peaches. Now, just using a fresh peach on this grilled cheese could have been enough, but instead of stopping there, I took these grilled cheese sandwiches up a notch by adding peach preserves from 9 Sons Rising. 9 Sons Rising is a Greenville, SC company started by two moms that have, you guessed it, 9 sons between them. They make incredible peach, strawberry and blueberry preserves, dessert toppings and biscuits. I was given the peach and strawberry preserves in my Christmas stocking years ago and have been buying their products ever since. Not only are their biscuits and preserves to die for, I love their story and how they got started, so it’s nearly impossible to not want to buy everything they offer in support of their local company.
Now that I had gathered up the perfect interior components of my grilled cheese, I had to figure out what to melt them between. I thought long and hard about this and then decided that a waffle of sorts would make the perfect bread. The peach preserves has a wonderful warm, spicy flavor to it from cinnamon and other spices so I thought the perfect compliment would be a Rosemary waffle. And it was.
This grilled cheese makes a fantastic meal, hands down. Serve it with your favorite potato chips or french fries and you’ve got one heck of a delicious treat. But it can also be cut into smaller servings for a heavier appetizer. This would be something good to make if you’re having friends over to watch a football game early in the season before we say goodbye to peaches until next summer.
Happy Southern Sunday, friends! Enjoy!
Southern Sundays: Peach and Gouda Grilled Cheese on Rosemary Waffles
SERVES 6-8 PrintDownloadIngredients
- 6-8 oz of Gouda Cheese, preferably not smoked or too aged. Just plain Gouda will be creamy and soft and will melt perfectly.
- about 1/3-1/2 cup of peach preserves
- 2-3 ripe peaches, peeled, pitted and thinly sliced.
- butter
- 1 Tbsp dried rosemary
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon of salt
- 1 Tbsp of baking powder
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup of milk
- 1/4 cup melted butter
- vegetable oil or nonstick spray
- waffle iron
- *You can use baking mix such as Bisquick if you don't want to make the waffles from scratch. Just mix waffles according to the package directions and add in the dried rosemary.
Instructions
- To make the waffles, mix together the flour, salt, baking powder and rosemary. Mix until they are all combined. Next, add in the milk, eggs and melted butter. Mix the liquid and dry ingredients together until you get a thick batter. If it's too thick (not spreadable or pourable), add a little extra milk to thin it out.
- Heat up the waffle iron. With a pastry brush, brush on the vegetable oil and close the waffle iron allowing it to heat up. You can also spray the waffle iron with nonstick spray.
- Once the waffle iron is hot, pour about 1/2-2/3 cup of the waffle batter in the waffle iron. Gently spread it around to make sure that it cooks evenly and makes one big waffle. Cook for about 5 minutes until the waffle is done. It should be lightly browned and slightly crisp, but not too crisp since we're going to cook it again. Repeat, making 4 waffles total.
- Once the waffles are done and have slightly cooled, spread a layer of peach preserves on each waffle.
- Slice the gouda cheese and lay it on two of the waffles. Top the same two waffles with the sliced peaches. Put the remaining two waffles on top making a giant sandwich. Lightly butter the tops of the waffles.
- Heat up a large skillet to medium high heat. When it's hot, put one of the waffle sandwiches butter side down in the pan. Allow it to cook for about 5-7 minutes until the waffle is browned and crisp. While it's cooking butter the top of the sandwich. Flip the sandwich and allow to cook another 5-7 minutes until the waffle is browned and the cheese is melted. Remove from the heat and place on a cutting board. Repeat with the other waffle.
- Cut the giant waffles into 4 sandwiches each. Serve 1-2 sandwiches per person.
- If making this an appetizer, cut the 4 sandwiches from each giant waffle in half. Serve on a platter.
oh.my.gosh. This is seriously all of my favorites in one dish, definitely a must try!