Walnut crusted goat cheese log with rosemary honey

 

A couple of friends recently graduated into a special category: People for whom I will make recipes I haven't tried before. Generally I stick to things I've at least made once when it comes to non-household members, aside from a few old friends and family members. But I was pretty sure I could be fairly safe with this one, and it meant I didn't have to go to the store to get anything to take to a small gathering of friends.

Walnut-crusted goat cheese with rosemary honey
Adapted from Rachael Ray magazine, Sept. 2016

Ingredients
½ cup honey
¼ cup 3-inch long rosemary sprigs, plus more leaves for garnish
½ cup chopped walnuts, toasted and cooled
1 (10.5-ounce) log goat cheese
Crackers for serving

Method
Bring honey and rosemary sprigs to a simmer over medium heat in a small saucepan. Simmer about 3 minutes until honey is infused with rosemary. Remove from heat and let cool and steep further. Remove rosemary springs, and scrape honey from them. Discard sprigs, which will no longer be bright green and not good for garnish – although they make pretty good stir sticks for tea at that point. (Make ahead tip: At this point you can cover the infused honey and let it sit at room temperature a few hours before using.)

Spread walnuts in a dish big enough to fit the goat cheese log and with sides high enough to keep walnuts corralled. Roll the cheese in the nuts, pressing to adhere. (Make ahead tip: At this point, you can cover the dish and store the cheese in the refrigerator until ready to use.) Transfer to a serving platter; one with at least curved sides is good to keep the honey in place as it warms up. Pour honey over the goat cheese and garnish with rosemary leaves. Serve with crackers and a utensil that lets you cut and spread the cheese.

Rating: This was really, really nice, and it got nicer the longer it sat, flavor-wise, so don’t be afraid to set this dish out first if you’re deploying an array at a party. It looks reasonably fancy with almost no effort, and it’s the kind of thing you might well have ingredients for on hand already. Definitely goes in the keeper pile.

Follow-up note: I made this again recently using pecans instead of walnuts and it worked just fine. I used two of the shorter goat cheese logs pushed together since that was what was available with in walking distance and it worked fine since the nuts cover any seam. I opted for the maple bourbon goat cheese that time and it was quite nice.