My favorite Grown up Grilled Cheese - Cheddar, Apple, and bacon on Sourdough

Who doesn't love a grilled cheese sandwich?? It's one of the first foods we fall in love with as kids and that love affair never really goes away. A grilled cheese doesn't have to be just boring old melted American cheese on white bread. My favorite grilled cheese consists of nice sharp cheddar cheese with a few sweet slices of apples and salty and smokey apple wood smoked bacon. Grilled to perfection on some sourdough bread and this is the perfect grilled cheese for me.

(Ingredient quantity is per sandwich)

3-4 pieces of apple wood smoked bacon
5 slices of Cheddar cheese
About 1/2 of one apple sliced (whichever kind you like)
2 slices of sourdough bread
Softened butter

First step is to fry the bacon until it's nice and crispy. If you're making a few grilled cheese and good way to cook all the bacon at once is lining it onto a sheet pan and baking it in the oven at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes or until the bacon is crisp. When the bacon is done, remove from the pan and allow it to rest on some paper towels and pat off any excess grease.

While the bacon rests for a minute, slice your apple pretty thin and get your sliced cheddar out. If you're getting the cheddar from a deli counter just ask for it to be sliced on the thinner side or if you're cutting it by hand from a block of cheddar just do the best you can.


Now it's time to assemble the sandwich. First butter one side of two slices of our sourdough bread. I will mention here that I'm normally not a sourdough fan but when I was developing this recipe out of all the breads I tried I liked this one the best for this particular grilled cheese. Next lay down two slices of cheddar cheddar cheese on the opposite side of our buttered bread. Place our sliced apple over top, then one slice of cheddar cheese, the crispy bacon, the rest of the sliced cheddar, and cap the sandwich off with the other slice of bread with the buttered side facing you.

Place the sandwich buttered side down on a skillet that's been preheated over medium heat. Grill on each side for about 5-7 minutes or until the bread is golden brown. Remove from the pan, slice in half, and serve next to a Harvest House salad for a great Autumn time meal.