If my Mom & Dad ever heard me say “OMG I am in LOVE with my Caramelized Sweet Onion Jarlsberg Spread!” I would have my mouth washed out with soap for fibbing! Wait.. how many you over experienced that as a child? Okay seriously that was the WORST punishment EVER! Not the belt, not the time out chair (which I think is stupid by the way) but soap. $1.99 soap in your mouth held there for even 20 seconds. WORST PUNISHMENT EVER!
See as a child there was no way in hell you would ever, EVER catch me putting an onion of any fashion in my mouth let alone saying that I loved it. OMG no way I would have rather eaten the entire bar of soap between 2 slices of bread than endure that nastiness. Funny though how our taste buds change as we grow up and learn to expand our mind and our pallet. Now granted there are some out there that still live by the PB&J only mantra and hey if it works for you, cool but dude.. you are so missing out on an entire culinary world of awesomeness! If me, the girl that would take an hour to eat a plate of pasta because “OMG! There are ginormous chunks of tomatoes and onions and chunky-thingamabobs on my plate” and I had to pick every single thing out so literally there was only sauce and mangled noodles left. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m still not down with the chunks (as I will puree my Italian Gravy) but something magical happens when onions are slow cooked. They caramelize and become super, SUPER sweet that you literally forget they are an onion. No really, you forget they are onions. Swear!
Remember my telling you about how the Fantabulous in-laws came up last weekend and I needed to make a simple but yummy light lunch? Well I made the Chicken Prosciutto Roulades (which are AWESOME!) and needed something on the side. OMG seriously this was so good I was secretly hoping they hated it as I wanted the entire bowl for myself! Actually I had some left so I heated this up, toasted some more of those most adorablest party rye breads and took the left over pieces of Prosciutto and ate it like that for breakfast. DON’T JUDGE! There was protein and dairy and carbs – full balanced breakfast… right?
But this… oh dear sweet baby Jesus I just want to make a giant kiddie pool full of it next time and sit outside of it scooping it out BY MYSELF as in I’m not sharing! LOL Well okay I’ll share – you can toast my party rye and layer the Prosciutto on it. HAHA
With football season winding down and hockey season FINALLY underway, you NEED to make this! Or seriously… make this Friday night movie night and have this as your most awesome snack! I’d make 2 bowls though as you really won’t want to share. No really, you won’t want to share! I predict if you don’t make 2 bowls, someone will be getting their hand smacked away after you dive in for your first bite. Cries of “GET YOUR OWN” will be heard all around the world as you hear the slap of hands when someone tries to take some of YOURS!
Now if you’ll excuse me, there is a container of this ‘hidden’ in the back of the fridge that is going to make an AWESOME pre-dinner snack!
PrintCaramelized Sweet Onion Jarlsberg Spread
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Ingredients
- 2 large Vidalia sweet onions, cut into 1/4” slices
- 1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil (more if necessary)
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 cups plus 3 tablespoon grated Jarlsberg Cheese
- 1 1/2 cups Mayonnaise
- 12 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1/2–1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 6 slices cooked, chopped bacon *OPTIONAL (lord knows how much you people love bacon!)
- Toasted Party Rye
- Crackers
- Vegetables
- Corn Chips
- Prosciutto
Instructions
- Melt the butter and oil in a cast iron pan over medium heat.
- Add in the onions and stir occasionally for 5 minutes.
- Once the onion begins to brown, reduce the heat to low.
- Add in the sugar and cook for 20-30 minutes stirring every 3-5 minutes until the onions reach a golden brown. If necessary, add a small trace amount of oil if the pan gets dry.
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- In a bowl, add in the 2 cups Jarlsberg cheese, cream cheese, paprika, mayo and ground black pepper to taste.
- Add in the onions and mix to combine.
- At this point you can add in the bacon.
- Mix well and pour into a buttered baking dish.
- Sprinkle with remaining cheese.
- Bake uncovered for 25 – 30 minutes.
- Garnish with smoked paprika if desired.
Notes
I served this with toasted Party Rye breads but you could easily serve this with corn chips, vegetables, crackers, etc…
My favorite way to shovel this in my mouth is to toast some party rye, put a thinly sliced piece of prosciutto on and then put a heaping slather of this amazing spread on top!
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