11 Unexpected Uses For Blue Cheese

A popular choice for crumbling over salads, mixing into creamy dressings, and topping on seared steaks, blue cheese has paved its Penicillium path to garnishing greatness. Steaks and salads aside, though, blue cheese has massive potential for other uses in the kitchen. With so many different styles of blue cheese to love, from sweet and creamy to salty and pungent, you have boundless opportunities to update a range of recipes with some fun funk. But if you're stuck figuring out how to spread the spores beyond Cobb salads and wing night dips, I will happily offer my expert services to you right now!

As a Certified Cheese Professional, a title I gained resulting from my years of working as a cheesemonger and specialty foods buyer, I have developed a profound appreciation for blue cheese as both a standalone item on a cheese board as well as a unique ingredient used in sweet and savory recipes. As you'll learn reading through each of my unexpected uses for blue cheese, you need to strike the right balance between combining ingredients with thoughtful discipline and embodying a touch of experimental playfulness.

Cheese and crackers? Been there, done that. Cheese and cookies? Now we're onto something! Pairing sweet cookies with salty cheeses is not as unusual as it may seem. Salty and creamy cheeses play a strategic role in serving as a direct contrast to sweet and crisp cookies. You can build a cheese board with them each as their own separate elements, like a wedge of blue cheese with a Tagalong Girl Scout cookie, but I like going one step further in my kitchen by incorporating the cheese into the cookie recipe.

Update classic thumbprint cookies by placing a thin layer of a creamy blue cheese before the jam in the indentation. Many fruity spreads will be delicious here, from juicy raspberry to acidic apricot. For a cakelike option perfect to serve with port at the end of a meal, make tender madeleines mixed with Roquefort and candied nuts.

A place blue cheese does not frequent all that often is in a sandwich. Never one to limit any cheese's potential, I have a couple succulent suggestions for how blue cheese can cozy up nicely between two slices of bread.

Now, you might be a classicist when it comes to a crispy and gooey perfect grilled cheese sandwich. You might prefer nothing more than good ol' fashioned American cheese slices every time. But if you like to experiment occasionally with your dairy lineup, don't shy away from blue cheese as a suitable option. You can use it in combination with other cheeses, or try it on its own for a bold and potent interpretation. Cambozola, a soft-ripened hybrid of Camembert and Gorgonzola, would be an excellent choice for a gooey grilled cheese.

And for another unexpected delight, add another letter to a BLT to make a BBLT: a blue, bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich! A bright and acidic blue cheese like Point Reyes Original Blue is my usual choice to make this handheld.

I enjoy exaggerating the creamy textures of risotto and soft polenta by whisking silky blue cheeses into the mixes. Not only does this move enhance the substantial indulgence of these recipes, but it also adds flavorful personality and just the right amount of complexity to grain-based side dishes that tend to be on the milder side or, at their worst, slightly bland and a little boring. For the purpose of this application, I choose fatty blue cheeses that aren't too dry and crumbly. Creamier, nearly spreadable blue cheeses such as Bleu des Causses, Saint Agur, Gorgonzola Dolce, and Cashel Blue are decadent choices.

Even though you are including an additional creamy ingredient, you should not decrease the amounts of any of the other ingredients in your recipe. You still want all of the rich fattiness from ingredients like olive oil, butter, milk, half-and-half, and heavy cream.

Move over, mozzarella. Blue cheese has a rightful spot sprinkled on top of flatbreads and pizzas. While blue cheese could work with tomato-based classics, there is even more versatility of flavor combinations if you introduce blue cheese to white pizza options. Whether the pizza is topped with a rich cream sauce, spread with a thick smear of ricotta, or brushed with an infused olive oil, blue cheese will totally work on all of these options for a hint of piquancy. For a meaty bite, add some cooked and crumbled sausage, slices of cooked bacon, or thin slices of meat like salami, capicola, or mortadella.

On busier week nights, skip the pizza dough and make quick flatbreads instead. I love the ease of broiling a halved loaf of Italian bread topped with slices of creamy Cambozola and sliced pears. A little drizzle of a sweet and tangy balsamic glaze and roughly chopped salted pistachios are the perfect finishing touches for a fast and filling dinner.

Blue cheese can either be an extra addition or a total substitution to the usual lineup of ingredients in macaroni and cheese. If you want the strongest flavor for the biggest punch of funk, use exclusively blue cheese to melt into the creamy base. And save a few large crumbles to dot throughout the casserole if you're baking it. Really let that stinker shine all on its own. For a more subtle experience, ideal for those who don't wish to fully bask in the blue's bold ripeness, use a blend of cheeses. Combine your chosen blue with a mixture of milder melters such as shredded Fontal, cheddar, Monterey Jack, or a young gouda. You can increase or decrease the ratio of the blue cheese to the other cheeses in order to control the intensity level and satisfy your diners' flavor preferences.

Don't limit yourself to strictly mac and cheese. Savor the culinary freedom of upgrading all kinds of carb-loaded casseroles with blue cheese. Try it in other pasta bakes like baked ziti, or use it in a breakfast bagel casserole for a zippy brunch offering.

One of my more devilish tricks to nudge dinner guests outside of their cozy nest of food complacency is to introduce unexpected flavor combinations during dessert. When I'm feeling fiendish at the end of the evening, I like to serve blue cheese with only sweet accompaniments on a dessert cheese board. This one-cheese board is a brilliant idea to highlight and honor a single cheese, and gives you focus when deciding on pairings. While there might be a couple guests who need a little convincing, they'll understand soon enough once they have a few shy nibbles.

Salty, creamy blue cheese naturally pairs well to sweeter and/or crunchier counterparts. The combination is a perfect example of how contrasting flavors and textures actually work together to form an entertaining flavor experience. Serve an assortment of goodies like fresh and dried fruits, honey, jams, mostardas, candied nuts, toffee, crunchy sweet crackers, and crisp cookies like brownie brittle. And don't forget to walk down the chocolate aisle as you're shopping for your cheese board's components. Slightly bitter and smoky, a darker variety of a chocolate bar is mighty enough as a complementary element to stand up against blue cheese's stink and strength.

Oh, yes. Creamy blue cheese is a shockingly delightful ingredient in an ice cream base. It may sound crazy, but trust me when I argue that adding cheese in ice cream is a weird and wonderful way to show off your creative genius in the kitchen. But let's not go completely crazy here. In order to craft a unique dessert that you'll actually enjoy down to the last spoonful, make some disciplined recipe development decisions.

A rich vanilla bean custard base is exactly what the blue cheese needs to subdue its extreme power. Large chunks of salty blue cheese will be too overwhelming to eat in a treat that's supposed to be sweet. Stick to small crumbles mixed in the churned base, or completely melt the blue cheese as you make the base for a more homogenous distribution of flavor. As for what additional ingredients to include, use sweeter, fruitier components that will balance its saltiness. Fruits like pears, figs, blackberries, and cherries pair particularly well. You can make a thick compote with the fruit and marble it into the churned base, or you can choose to serve it separately as a sauce on top of the scoops of ice cream.

Serve craft cocktails with cheese as a unique deviation from the usual route of wine and cheese pairings. Blue cheese pairs well with a range of cocktails, either as a contrasting player with sweeter counterparts or as a piquant accompaniment with equally savory ingredients.

Its heavily salty, funky strength and rich texture can accompany sweet and viscous drinks with a natural ease. In that cocktail category, consider stirring up a Negroni, Old Fashioned, or Manhattan. Don't be tempted to plop chunks of blue cheese directly in one of these drinks. To avoid muddying a sweeter cocktail, I prefer to keep my blue cheese on a separate dish and leave it entirely up to the imbiber to choose how much, or how little, cheese to eat between sips.

Within the realm of savory cocktails, it's more welcoming to mingle everything together. I often serve my Martinis, either clean and crisp with gin or dirty with vodka and copious amounts of olive brine, swimming with green olives (think Castelvetrano or Frescatrano) that are generously stuffed with blue cheese. When I'm hosting a weekend brunch, or when I'm craving a brunch-style beverage on a random weekday off, I bring out the tomato juice! Let's not forget how finger-licking good a Bloody Mary is with all of the fixings in the glass, from the celery sticks to big chunks of blue cheese and everything in between.

Different styles of basic pastry dough offer a buttery blank canvas for different applications. Whether you use Danish, puff pastry, filo, choux, shortcrust, or any other type of pastry dough, you can make an impressive bite with virtually endless customizations and designs. Small individual servings of pastries are perfect finger-food appetizers for parties. Try making one-bite wonders like puff pastry squares filled with caramelized onions and blue cheese, or bake rounds of filo dough topped with blue cheese, fig jam, and freshly cracked peppercorns in mini muffin pans.

If you have the time, equipment, and patience, you can make the dough completely from scratch, but you can use premade options in a pinch for a speedy alternative. And if Ina Garten approves of using store-bought puff pastry sheets, who am I to contradict the Barefoot Contessa? With three jobs and a family to juggle, I always keep a box or two (or three) of puff pastry sheets in my freezer to save significant time and energy when I'm in charge of making food for a gathering.

Everything is better with butter. But you can raise the bar to an even higher level of fatty euphoria by bringing blue cheese into the blend. A blue cheese compound butter is a simple preparation that introduces dynamic flavors to so many dishes and serving ideas, from using as a soft and silky spread for crusty bread to slathering on corn on the cob to whisking into creamy sauces and soups.

Mixing some crumbled blue cheese into the butter base is a funky addition, a perfect option for anyone who savors going the extra mile to add bigger and bolder flavors in basic recipes. For wing night vibes, mix crumbles of a firmer and more acidic blue cheese with a few dashes of your favorite buffalo hot sauce and a few sprinkles of celery salt. And for a sweeter option, use a combo of a creamier blue cheese like Gorgonzola Cremificato with a dollop of fig jam and drizzle of honey. This is divine served with hot biscuits flaky and fresh from the oven, or dolloped on top of a rustic fruit galette or crostata.

Rather than serving bread alongside cheese as two separate components, you can combine everything together in one happy loaf. A cheesy inclusion is a tasty mix-in ingredient to upgrade basic white bread. Warm and comforting, breads and rolls stuffed with cheese are fun to get your hands on as a communal offering during casual get-togethers with friends and family. I find that a blue cheese with a firmer, fudgier texture is best for this purpose, as it will maintain its texture and won't melt completely after baking. Selections like Stilton, Shropshire Blue, and Bayley Hazen Blue are dense and stiff options that work well baked in bread doughs.

And don't be pressured into making the dough from scratch. A crowd-pleasing recipe that I make when I'm bound for time is a pull-apart savory monkey bread: I scatter and layer pieces of store-bought buttermilk biscuit dough with crumbles of blue cheese, bits of butter, roasted garlic cloves, and chopped assorted fresh herbs in a pan and bake until beautifully golden and aromatic.