Drizzle and Dip is a favorite food blog of mine. And don’t you just love the name?! Sam Linsell is “a professional food stylist, trained chef, recipe developer and food photographer hunting down the delicious things in life.” As soon as you see her photos, you’ll know she’s professional. Check her out on Instagram – drizzleanddip – and you’ll see what I mean.

I got this recipe from her blog and have been waiting impatiently for cherry season! This recipe was all I hoped it would be. Sam serves it as an appetizer in the summer, but also during the holidays.

I’ve made another one of Sam’s recipes from one of her cookbooks. It’s Dutch Baby with Mushrooms and Eggs, which was really fantastic. There’s more information about Ms. Linsell on that post.

The only difference with this recipe is that I used hot honey instead of balsamic vinegar. The color of the balsamic drizzle is gorgeous, but I adore hot honey. You can make it from scratch using the recipe from this post – whipped feta and honey. But Mike’s hot honey is very good! I also used hazelnut oil instead of olive oil. Just because.

Roast Cherries and Whipped Goat’s Cheese Dip

9-10 ounces fresh cherries, pitted
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
1 tablespoon hot honey
4-6 sprigs of thyme
Salt
Pepper
6 ounces full fat cream cheese
3 1/2 ounces creamy goat’s cheese (I used 4 ounces)
Zest from 1/2 a lemon

To serve:
A drizzle of hot honey
A sprinkle of fresh thyme leaves
Salt and pepper (I used salt and cayenne pepper flakes)
Toasted baguette slices

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Remove cherry stems and the pits.

Place the cherries in a small baking dish. Drizzle on the olive oil and hot honey. Add the thyme sprigs and toss to combine. Season the cherries with salt and pepper.

Roast for 20 minutes until the cherries are blistered and starting to burst. Remove the baking dish from the oven and set aside to cool to room temperature. Remove and toss the thyme sprigs.

Place the cream cheese, goat cheese, and lemon zest in a small food processor and blend for 2 – 3 minutes, or until smooth. (I simply folded the cheeses together with the zest.)

To plate, spread the whipped cheese over the base of a flat serving plate. Swirl to make grooves on the surface.

Spoon the roasted cherries and the liquid over the cheese.

Drizzle with hot honey and sprinkle on the fresh thyme leaves.

The addition of the salt and cayenne pepper flakes really added to this appetizer. I will be making this again for Christmas!