This Goat Cheese Prosciutto Lingonberry Jam Bruschetta is the perfect fall appetizer because lingonberry is similar to cranberries, just less tart — and less known.

For more ideas of what to make, check out all of our recipes.

Thanksgiving is a marathon meal. I always think about skipping breakfast on Thanksgiving to save my stomach for dinner, but then my dad usually makes us his famous pancakes and all bets are off.

We always skip lunch. That’s a given. But appetizers come out around lunchtime and dinner starts at 2 pm and ends around 10 pm when everyone is done with second dinner (which comes after first dessert).

You know what I’m saying.

But maybe, if you get some of your Thanksgiving flavors in early, you can skip them during the meal.

Like cranberry sauce. Do you really need a slice of that canned monstrosity? Not me. That’s just space on my plate that I can fill with my dad’s famous stuffing.

My dad makes a lot of famous things on Thanksgiving.

If you need room for stuffing (or whatever famous side dish your family makes), get your cranberry flavors out of the way during appetizers. And honestly, just skip the cranberry and go with lingonberries instead.

We’ll get more into lingonberries later, but for now, just know they’re tart red berries that are the perfect replacement for cranberries.

And they work perfectly in this Goat Cheese Prosciutto Lingonberry Jam Bruschetta.

Goat Cheese Prosciutto Lingonberry Jam Bruschetta Recipe

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Goat Cheese Prosciutto Lingonberry Jam Bruschetta Ingredients:

You can get the full list of ingredients with measurements in the recipe card below.

• French baguette – This will be the base of your bruschetta.
• Olive oil – You need this to drizzle on the French baguette before you bake it.
• Goat cheese – You want the log of goat cheese, not the crumbles, so you can spread it.
• Prosciutto – You want the thin sliced prosciutto, not the chunks.
• Lingonberry jam – This tart jam is the perfect balance for the tangy goat cheese and salty prosciutto.

How To Make Goat Cheese Prosciutto Lingonberry Jam Bruschetta:

Set the oven to 350 F.

Slice the French baguette into equal 1/4-inch slices. Set them along a cookie sheet.

Quick note: If you want to save yourself a little bit of time, you can actually ask the bakery at the grocery store where you’re buying this to cut it for you.

Use a pastry brush to brush olive oil on one side of the bread. Flip the bread over and brush olive oil on the other side.

Toast one side for five minutes.

Flip the bread so the toasted side is down. Toast on the other side for an additional four minutes.

Spread a dollop of goat cheese on one side of each slice of bread.

Top slice of bread with a tiny scoop of lingonberry jam. Use the back of the spoon to spread the lingonberry jam over the goat cheese.

Cut each slice of prosciutto into six equal pieces.

Roll one of the prosciutto pieces and put it on top of the lingonberry jam.

Continue until you top all the slices.

Can I make Goat Cheese Prosciutto Lingonberry Jam Bruschetta ahead of time?

The problem with making this bruschetta — or really, any bruschetta — ahead of time is that the bread will eventually get soggy. Any toppings, from tomatoes in traditionally bruschetta to the goat cheese in these, will eventually soften the bread and make it soggy.

To prevent this, you want to top the bread as close to eating time as possible. So I wouldn’t make this ahead of time.

The only way it would really work to make it ahead of time is if you toasted the bread, set it aside, and then made a bruschetta bar, putting the toppings in separate containers and having everyone make their own bruschetta when they’re ready to eat.

How do you reheat Goat Cheese Prosciutto Lingonberry Jam Bruschetta?

Pete came up with a brilliant idea. He put the Goat Cheese Prosciutto Lingonberry Jam Bruschetta in the air fryer on 330-degrees for 90 seconds. It wasn’t long enough to melt the goat cheese and change its consistency, but it was long enough to bring the baguette back to life.

What can I substitute for prosciutto?

Prosciutto has a really great salty taste that works perfectly in this Goat Cheese Prosciutto Lingonberry Jam Bruschetta. But, if you can’t find prosciutto in your stores, a really thin ham would be a good substitute. Just sprinkle the ham slices with a pinch of salt because ham isn’t as salty as prosciutto.

Capicola is a dry cured pork, just like prosciutto, just from a different part of the pig. If you can get capicola sliced thinly, you can use it instead of prosciutto in this.

What are lingonberries?

Lingonberries are red berries that grow on evergreen shrubs. In their natural state, lingonberries are really bitter. Lingonberries are edible raw, but not great.

Generally, lingonberries are cooked with sugar and turned into jams and served that way.

Lingonberries are similar to cranberries, so you can use lingonberry jam as a substitute in recipes that call for cranberry jam.

Where do lingonberries grow?

Lingonberries love cold weather. They’re native to the boreal forest (where there are freezing temperatures for 6 to 8 months a year!) and the Arctic tundra, from Europe and Asia to North America.

That sentence just made me super cold.

In the United States, you can actually grow your own lingonberry bush … as long as you’re between Massachusetts and Alaska, according to garden.org. So it doesn’t seem like I’m gonna grow these in North Carolina.

Lingonberries that are grown in the US have one crop annually while the European version can be harvested twice a year.

Honestly, I’ve never seen raw lingonberries sold in supermarkets near me, but maybe you have in the Pacific Northwest or Northeast. You can buy fresh frozen lingonberries online, but once you see that price, you might stick to purchasing pre-packaged lingonberry jams.