Brie & Hot Pepper Jam Grilled Cheese

What’s better than a warm and gooey grilled cheese that bursts with flavor as you bite into it? That’s what happens when you take a chance and use up some of the left over cheese from the charcuterie board from the holidays. Looking at what I had left, there was a lot of brie and hot pepper jam, raspberry to be specific. I hadn’t had a grilled cheese in some time and it sounded good so I thought that I would try using these ingredients. I knew that the combo worked on crackers so that was a pretty good inkling that it would at the very least make a decent grilled cheese so I gave it a go and boy, it did not disappoint!

First step was analyzing what else I had around the kitchen to add in, I didn’t want to throw too much extra in as the basic pairing of the brie and jam were already a good combination. I opted to add some onion into the mix and slightly caramelize them to bring out the sweetness but allow them to still have a bite.

What you need:

• Fresh loaf of bread

• Brie

• Onion

• Hot pepper jam

• Rosemary

Directions

1. Slice onion and in skillet, partially caramelize onions with small amount of butter. Once done, remove and set aside in bowl.

2. Cut brie into 1/4 inch thick slices.

3. Brush the outside of each slice of bread with butter. On the inside half of the slices, brush with the hot pepper jam, evenly layer the brie and caramelized onions on top. Chop up a few sprigs of rosemary and sprinkle over. Add the top piece of bread.

4. Heat 1-2 tablespoons olive oil in large skillet over medium heat. Place the sandwiches in the skillet and cook until golden on each side, about 3-5 minutes per side. EAT and ENJOY!

Timing is everything to make sure you don’t burn the grilled cheese, unless you like that! And if that is they case, go for it! When I cooked this, I slightly let one side go a little long but it didn’t impact the end result, which was finger licking good. The tricky part with brie is that it has this beautiful white rind, which is edible! So don’t go cutting this off, but using the rind does make the heating process of brie a little longer to get that gooey consistency. So sometimes you might need to turn down the heat and take your time cooking this.

This was a great way to use up some of the leftover cheese and experiment with trying new ideas.