Sweet Cherry Pepper Bruschetta with Thyme Mascarpone and Brandied Honey

Serve right away or they get soggy and the cheese dries out

Makes 24 brushcettas
30 minutes total prep time
Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 loaf fresh French bread or 24 ½ inch slices
1 8 ounce container Mascarpone cheese, room temperature
3 T fresh thyme leaves
½ C honey
1/3 C Brandy
8 to 12 cherry peppers or Papadew peppers as they’re called, drained and sliced into thin strips
Coarse sea salt for garnish

Direction:

• Mix the Brandy with the honey and set aside. Remove leaves from Thyme sprigs and set aside. Cut bread, and get your tray out so that all the prep can happen at once.
• Put bread slices on a cookie sheet, doing one batch of 12 at a time and toast under the broiler on each side. Nice golden brown but not overdone. Toast second batch. Set aside and work on them one by one with your serving tray nearby. First slather each piece of toasted bread with a generous layer of cheese and finish with the cheese so all toasted pieces have cheese. Then sprinkle with only a few leaves of thyme on each one. Now lay the peppers atop the cheese, piling in a nice arrangement and being generous with the peppers. Right before guests arrive, drizzle each with a ½ t or more of the Brandy honey. Sprinkle a few sea salt granules atop each and serve.