The tricky thing about conceptualizing a Christmas grilled cheese is that I couldn't easily think of savory ingredients that are Christmas specific and would prove to be tasty on a grilled cheese. Candy canes? No. Gingerbread? Hmm... actually a gingerbread and cream cheese grilled cheese would have been interesting, but maybe next year. Pine needles? Absolutely not.
Luckily a classic Christmas carol came to my aid-- who can forget the time honored classic We Wish You a Merry Christmas? It starts out happily enough, but almost immediately Mr. Crosby and company are demanding figgy pudding and threatening to not leave until their demand is met. I don't know about you, but the thought of a hungry pack of singers refusing to leave my doorstep until I provided them with congealed fig (or whatever figgy pudding is) is both disturbing and intriguing. What makes figgy pudding so tasty that these people go from house to house begging after it?
Well, since I have no idea what's in figgy pudding my only guess is that the figs are what make it so tasty, and just like that my Christmas ingredient dilemma was solved-- fig it is! I'm a big appetizer fan (yes, I'm that girl who will sometimes order the appetizer sampler as my meal), so naturally when I think fig I think of baked brie en croute. It's a simple enough recipe-- put some brie and some jam in some puff pastry and voila! So it's easy enough to de-construct the recipe and turn it into a sandwich (trust me, any time it's a BGC original recipe it will be simple if only due to my complete lack of general cooking knowledge and skill).
So, for the sake of keeping it simple my ingredients were as follows:
Milky brie, Italian pane bread and roasted figs. Ignore the fact that the brie wrapper has clearly been tampered with-- I was hungry!
Really the only variable I had to deal with was how to handle the figs. Upon first sight and touch, I realized that figs are not something I'll ever want to eat on their own.
They're slightly larger than a walnut and are very squishy and slimy. Henceforth when singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" I will now demand chocolate pudding instead of figgy pudding, but I digress. I wasn't entirely sure what the best way to prepare the figs for the sandwich would be, so I decided to just start slicing them and see where that got me.
This is where it got me. Strips of fig were good enough for me. The only kind of gross element were all those seeds! They sort of congealed together to be part of the fig, but would come off and be all grainy if you scraped them away. No. Thank. You. Oh well! I'm sure the whole will be better than the sum of its parts.
Next came a hearty slathering of brie onto a piece of the bread. I didn't do any sort of precise measuring in terms of quantity, but you can rest assured that the cheese spread was at least a half inch thick. I followed this up with a few strips of fig. The sweet smell of the figs was strong, so I didn't want to add to much and have the mild brie completely overtaken.
This is what I ended up with. I think it's pretty adequate in terms of coverage (but I think the figs look sort of like anchovies, am I right?)
I want to pause and take a moment for a quick tribute to how beautifully delicious brie really is. Let's all take a second to enjoy this photo:
Oh yummy! It's a wonder I had any cheese left to actually put on the sandwiches!
Alrighty, so you know the rest of the story-- butter on each side, cook while covered in a non-stick pan until both sides are evenly browned and the sandwiches look a little something like this:
Feasting my eyes on this culinary delight I knew Christmas had come early :-P (Cheesy, I know. Apologies).
Taste Review:
As you can see from the fact that it is literally dripping out of the sandwich in the above photo, the brie is VERY runny! Even though this particular brie was described as milky, I would say it's actually creamy like butter-- rich and creamy enough to be just right. The fig has more of a cinnamon-y taste, but isn't overly powerful, more of a nice compliment to the decadent cheese.
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| This photo looks sort of gross, but it captures the essence of the gooiness pretty well. |
The most noticeable difference between a traditional brie en croute appetizer and this sandwich is the addition of the grilled bread. The light char on actual pieces of bread are what really cement this as a sandwich and not just an appetizer. It really tastes like a grilled cheese, not just cheese and cracker; but the essence of the original dish is still there-- this is just a much heartier version of the beloved brie en croute. All in all this was a winner! Perhaps I could even serve mini versions as an appetizer one day when I magically become coordinated enough to start hosting dinner parties!
For some reason my usual "Final Results" table isn't working, so I'll just give you the skinny in a more straightforward style:
Brie and Fig on Italian Pane
Aroma: 2
Gooey-ness: 6
Appearance: Nearly bite-sized sandwiches with cheese oozing out of every side.
Overall Grade: B+
I've got a lot of business travel coming up, so posts will continue to be sporadic for a bit. I know, I know, it makes me sad too, but I gots to earn the dough to make the bread that I then put cheese on and grill and write about :-) OK-- yes, lame. I'll stop typing now.
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