Baked Goat Cheese
This baked goat cheese recipe is ultra creamy and swirled with honey. It's an easy appetizer to make at a moment's notice!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 27, 2024
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Friends coming over? Make this baked goat cheese! It’s warm, creamy, tangy but lightly sweetened with honey, and a touch savory.
This irresistible appetizer comes together quickly in a food processor with simple ingredients. We’ll whip the goat cheese with cream cheese, honey, garlic and seasonings. Once baked, this dip is your favorite restaurant-level delicious.
I modeled this recipe after the lovely goat cheese dip at Rye, a restaurant in Kansas City. We visited a couple of times to research the French Blond Cocktail (reportedly Taylor Swift’s favorite!) and I remembered how much I love their goat cheese appetizer.
I asked about the ingredients and came home determined to recreate it. I’ve simplified the ingredients a bit, but this dip is just as nice. I hope you’ll try it!
How to Make Baked Goat Cheese
You’ll find the full recipe below. Here’s a brief preview with additional notes:
1) Blend until whipped
In a food processor, combine goat cheese, a lesser amount of cream cheese, honey, garlic, and basic seasonings—salt, pepper and optional red pepper flakes.
The goat cheese and cream cheese will blend just fine even if they’re coming straight from the refrigerator, but the blending process is smoother and quieter if those ingredients have come to room temperature beforehand. This dip is made predominantly with goat cheese (10 ounces), but a small amount of cream cheese (2 ounces) yields a significantly more luscious and creamy dip.
2) Transfer to a baking dish
Transfer the dip to a small oven-safe baking dish with a 3- to 4-cup (1 quart) capacity. We used a small cast iron skillet for these photos, which was barely large enough. Pyrex or stoneware baking dishes also work well.
3) Drizzle and bake
Before baking, drizzle the dip all over with a little more honey. Bake on the upper rack for 13 to 15 minutes until the top is lightly golden.
4) Drizzle and serve
Give the hot dip at least five minutes to cool before serving. Drizzle it once again with honey, and serve as desired.
Baked Goat Cheese Serving Suggestions
This baked goat cheese recipe is an easy, impromptu appetizer. It’s the perfect recipe to make when friends are on their way and your refrigerator is low on fresh produce. It’s also a great starter for almost any special dinner, from traditional to Mediterranean feasts.
Serve your goat cheese with a vehicle for dipping. Try toasted slices of sourdough bread, pita chips or toasted pita wedges. For a gluten-free option, try sturdy crackers or carrots cut on the diagonal.
For a full appetizer spread, serve with fresh berries, crudités like carrot or cucumber, olives or tapenade, or nuts. You could serve this dip with a fresh salad for contrasting textures—try my Easy Tomato Salad or Roasted & Raw Carrot Salad with Avocado.
More Creamy Dips to Enjoy
- Baked Feta Dip with Cherry Tomatoes
- Creamy Spinach Artichoke Dip
- Green Goddess Tahini Dip
- Pimento Cheese
- Pomegranate Salsa
- Spicy Red Pepper & Feta Dip
Please let me know how your baked goat cheese turns out in the comments! I love hearing from you.
Baked Goat Cheese
This creamy, honey-swirled baked goat cheese recipe is easy to make at a moment’s notice! Recipe yields a scant 2 cups, enough for 4 to 6 appetizer servings.
Ingredients
- 10 ounces goat cheese
- 2 ounces cream cheese
- 1 tablespoon honey, plus 2 teaspoons more for drizzling, divided
- 1 small-to-medium garlic clove, cut into several pieces
- ¼ teaspoon fine salt
- 10 twists of freshly ground black pepper
- ⅛ teaspoon red pepper flakes, to taste (optional)
- For serving: Crusty sourdough or crostini or toasted pita wedges, berries, olives or tapenade, etc.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit with a rack in the upper third of the oven.
- In a food processor, combine the goat cheese, cream cheese, 1 tablespoon of the honey, garlic, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes (if using).
- Process until the mixture comes together completely and is lightly whipped, about 2 minutes, pausing to scrape down the sides and base as necessary. The mixture will ball up in the food processor and eventually smooth out. If in doubt, process a little longer.
- Taste, and adjust as necessary—add another pinch of red pepper flakes for more heat, or another teaspoon or two of honey if you’d like it sweeter (we will drizzle it with more honey next, so the finished dip will be a little sweeter than you’re tasting now).
- Transfer the dip to a small oven-safe baking dish with a 3- to 4-cup (1 quart) capacity. Spread it evenly across the base of the dish, with some texture remaining on top. Drizzle it with 1 teaspoon of additional honey.
- Bake the dip on the upper rack for 13 to 15 minutes until the top is lightly golden in places, and bubbling and puffed around the edges. Drizzle it with another teaspoon or so of honey, and let it cool for about 5 minutes (it’s hot). Serve with your desired accompaniments.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
Sounds delicious, and a great opportunity to substitute goat cheese for cow dairy – except – what does 2 ozs. of cream cheese look like, and can we use a vegan cream cheese instead of cow dairy?
Love your creativity – thanks!
Lynn S.
Can you make a suggestion for making this cow’s milk free?
I find this recipe is best as written, sorry!
I love the way this goat cheese appetizer looks! Since I have a 6& 1/2″ ci pan, I can’t wait to try it. Will report back, but can’t fathom how it could anything other than delicious!
Love goat cheese can’t wait to try this. Would love to see your version of La Bodegas goat cheese with roasted red pepper and fig for a savory option.
Absolutely delicious, would not change a thing. I let the goat and cream cheese come to room temp in the processor before mixing. Baked it in my very old and well seasoned No 5 cast iron skillet. Served with Stacy’s multi-grain pita chips.
Sounds wonderful! Thanks so much for letting me know, Kris!
I was so excited when I saw this as my son cannot have cow dairy (he ends up in the hospital.) Then I saw that it has cream cheese. Can non-dairy cream cheese be used?
Also, can maple syrup be used instead of honey? (I get migraines from honey.)
Lots of food issues in our family!
Thank you.
Hi Zelda! I believe you could use non-dairy cream cheese. Please let me know how that turns out! You can substitute maple syrup as well (or even omit the honey for a fully savory dip). Maple will just change the flavor profile. You might not want the last drizzle at the end (just depends on how much you love maple!).
Thank you so much! Hoping to try this soon! We love maple syrup, so hope we like the flavor profile.
Cannot wait to try!
We love maple syrup! Thank you so much for responding!
Another Cookie and Kate winner! Thank you for the delicious recipe. Made exactly as called for and there wasn’t a bite left! My family and those we host so appreciate all your work to keep eating well interesting. We joke that we would starve without you!
Haha! Thank you, Jenny. You made my day.
This looks delicious! Is there any problem with putting everything together, keeping in the fridge for a few hours before bringing to room temp, and then baking? Thank you!
Hi Kathleen! I think that would work very well!
Another winner. I made the recipe exactly as written and it was delicious!
That’s great to hear, Claire!
Made this exactly as called for, & served it with toasted sour dough bread. An easy and delicious recipe, looking forward to adding it to my next cheese board!
Awesome! Thank you, Stephanie!
This dip, made exactly per the recipe, was a fabulous addition to our martini party last night! I served it with warm baguette slices and pita chips. We also enjoyed it with the bell pepper slices that were part of the crudites I set out with your kalamata white bean dip! I made this dip in the morning and refrigerated it until it was time to bake it, and it worked beautifully.
I found your site quite by accident and now have it saved. This Goat cheese and Philly cream ch. recipe was very good. I used measured ingredients as recommended and cooked in a 6.5 cast iron skillet. I would serve this again.
Great to hear, K!