Grown Up Grilled Cheese with Brie and Truffle Oil

Okay, so I love Brie cheese, that's no secret.

I also love truffle oil. I could drink it straight.

I first tried truffle oil while living in Italy and it was love at first tastebud.




On an amazing trip (back) to Florence, I visited my professor's new restaurant he had just opened, and he gave my friends and I a meal to remember. It was five courses, and each course had truffle in it. Truffle oil...truffle cheese...and just plain shavings of truffle.

Quite possibly the best meal of my life, but that could have also had to do with the wine that was flowing like water and the perfect ambiance of the dark little restaurant.

Since then I've loved truffle oil. However, I don't eat it very often for two reasons: my husband doesn't like it, and it's super high in calories, not to mention EXPENSIVE.

But every once in a while you just need to splurge and that's where I came up with this recipe. A perfectly grilled brie cheese sandwich, with sliced apples, a drizzle of honey, and of course, truffle oil.

 This sandwich is seriously an explosion of flavor in your mouth. I'm not kidding. If you want to impress some guests, make this. Impress them even more with some homemade french fries and arugula and parmesan shavings.



Ingredients: Makes 1 sandwich

2 slices of bread from whole grain artisan loaf
several slices of brie cheese (enough to fit on sandwich)
4-6 thin slices of apples
1 tsp honey
drizzle of truffle oil
1 tablespoon butter

Slice the bread and load up with brie and apples. Drizzle 1 tsp of honey evenly over cheese and apples, and top with other bread slice. Butter outsides of sandwich and grill on medium low heat for 1-2 minutes, or until golden. Flip and repeat.

Serve with a drizzle of truffle oil on top, and around the plate if you're going for looks.

Croissants, how I love thee.

Have you ever squished a giant glob of cold butter through your hands? I can now say that I have. My new baking book has inspired me to make new and exciting things; things I never even thought of making before. Well, maybe I thought of making them, but the task seemed to great for me to comprehend. All that changed yesterday when I decided to make croissants. Delicious, flakey, buttery croissants. They were a lot easier than I thought, however very time consuming. About 24 hours to be exact, possibly more. I prepped the dough yesterday and kept it in the fridge for 12 hours (because I read the dough is better when it rests, though you can let it rest for 3 hours and still have great results). This morning, while enjoying my coffee, eggs with cheese, and toast with almond butter, I waited for the dough to proof (rise).

Then I popped them in the oven, and magically my apartment filled with the sweet aroma of baked goods. My apartment smelled like a bakery. In fact, my roommate said she could smell the croissants baking from outside of our apartment and down the hallway. If only this could be my lifestyle everyday. Baking all day long sounds like the perfect job...

if only I knew that before I spent thousands and thousands of dollars on a degree!

Croissant Recipe

makes 12 croissants

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups flour

1 cup barely warm water

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

1/3 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon of salt

1 tablespoon sugar (my own addition)

1 3/4 cups cold butter

Combine 1 cup of flour with the water and yeast just long enough to break up the lumps of flour, and let rise for 1 hour.

Stir in the remaining flour, the cream, salt, sugar, and knead for 1 minute. Cover and let rest for 20 minutes. Knead the mixture by hand for about 10 minutes or with a stand mixture with a dough hook for 20 minutes. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Work the butter with the heel of your hand or the paddle attachment until there are no lumps. Shape and roll the butter into a 8 x 8 inch square, using plastic wrap. Roll the dough into a 9 x 17 inch rectangle and place the square of butter on one end. (see picture)

Fold over the dough so the butter is encased in a square. Press together the edges of the square to seal in the butter. Press gently on the square with one hand while firming up the other sides to even out the square. Gently hammer the square of dough with a rolling pin to stretch the dough and the butter in it.

Now roll the dough into a 9 by 18 inch rectangle. Fold the rectangle into thirds as though it were a letter. Starting with a narrow end, fold the bottom thrid up and fold the opposite end down. If the dough is difficult to roll, refrigerate for 30 minutes.

When the dough is ready to work, turn it so that the large single fold, like the spine of a book, is on your left, roll it out into another rectangle again, and fold it in the same way. Your dough has now had two "turns", and it needs four in total.

Cover the dough and refrigerate for AT LEAST 1 hour. Continue in this way until you have given the dough 4 turns total.

Refrigerate for at least 1 hour again (I did 12 hours). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll the dough into two 6 1/2 by 20 inch rectangles from 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch thick. Trim any uneven edges and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

For each rectangle, cut the dough in triangles, like pictured below (I forgot to take pictures of my own!). Then make a small 1 1/2 inch long slit in the middle of the triangles.

As you begin to roll up the croissants, curl the two sides of the triangle on each side of the cut, away from each other. Continue rolling with both hands, each one on half of the triangle. Point your hands away from each other as you roll.

Arrange the croissants on the sheet pans and cover them with plastic wrap to proof (again, I know!) for 3 hours in a cool place, or 1 hour in a warm place. They should double in size.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, brush the proofed croissants with egg wash (1 egg mixed with 1 teaspoon of salt), and bake for about 35 minutes, or until puffed and golden brown.

I took the liberty of making some chocolate croissants and a cinnamon sugar "croissant" with the leftover dough. Hopefully they will be good! I'm making my boyfriend taste them tonight.

A French Feast!

WARNING, THE FOLLOWING RECIPE IS NOT FOR THE HEALTH-CONSCIOUS

I went to the movies last week with my roommates and we saw the movie It's Complicated. Not only was it funny, but Meryl Streep's character made AMAZING looking food (in particular, Croque Monsieur) and it inspired me to make French food. Croque Monsieur is a crunchy, french, sort of grilled cheese style sandwich. But in the movie it looked so much more interesting than just a plain old sandwich, so I searched until I found exactly what I was looking for. It took one glance at the cheese covered delight for me to decide that it was imperative that I make it, and make it as soon as

possible. However, after looking at the traditional recipes online I decided to tweek it and make it my own, especially because the recipe called for ham and I strongly dislike ham. Rather than using ham I used prosciutto, and rather than the traditional Gruyere, I decided to substitute mozzarella and fontina cheese instead. It was a hit...well, you can't really go wrong with bread that's covered in cheese. I served it atop a bed of arugula, drizzled in olive oil. YUM. As an appetizer I made zucchini fritters, or beignets de courgette, but I didn't use zucchini blossoms. And for dessert we had chocolate brownie pudding with vanilla ice cream on top; I didn't go "french" but it was amazing nonetheless. So

here are the three recipes!

Beignets de Courgette

2 Zucchini

2 eggs

3 cloves chopped garlic

3/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

oil for frying

Shred/grate the zucchini and put in a mixing bowl. Mix in the eggs, garlic, flour, salt, pepper (it will be a bit runny). Heat about a 1/2 inch of oil in a skillet and drop the mixture in by spoonfuls. Cook until browned on each side, about 3 minutes per side. Remove and set onto a paper towel, then sprinkle with a bit more salt!

Croque Monsieur

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 cups hot milk
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Pinch nutmeg
• 2 cups grated Fontina
• 2 cups mozzarella
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
• 1 large french bread loaf, sliced in pieces about 1/2 in. thick
• Dijon mustard (optional)
• 1 package of prosciutto

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Melt the butter over low heat in a small saucepan and add the flour all at once, stirring with a

wooden spoon for 2 minutes. Slowly pour the hot milk into the butter–flour mixture and cook, whisking constantly, until the

sauce is thickened. Off the heat add the salt, pepper, nutmeg, 1 cup fontina, 1/2 cup mozzarella, and the 1/4 cup Parmesan and set aside.

To toast the bread, place the slices on 2 baking sheets and bake for 5 minutes. Turn each slice and bake for another 2 minutes, until toasted.

Lightly brush half the toasted breads with mustard, add a slice of prosciutto to each, and

sprinkle with half the remainin

g cheeses. Top with another piece of toasted bread. Slather the tops with the cheese sauce, sprinkle with the remaining cheeses, and bake the sandwiches for 5 minutes. Turn on the broiler and broil for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the topping is bubbly and lightly browned.

Serve hot.

Recipe adapted from Ina Garten's recipe.

Chocolate Brownie Pudding, Ina Garten

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, plus extra for buttering the dish
• 4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup good cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• Seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean (I used vanilla extract instead)
• Vanilla ice cream, for serving

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly butter a 2-quart (9 by 12 by 2-inch) oval baking dish. Melt the 1/2 pound of butter and set aside to cool.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the eggs and sugar on medium-high speed for 5 to 10 minutes, until very thick and light yellow. Meanwhile, sift the cocoa powder and flour together and set aside.

When the egg and sugar mixture is ready, reduce the speed to low and add the vanilla, and the cocoa powder and flour mixture. Mix only until combined. With mixer still on low, slowly pour in the cooled butter and mix again just until combined.

Pour the brownie mixture into the prepared dish and place it in a larger baking pan. Add enough of the hottest tap water to the pan to come halfway up the side of the dish and bake for exactly 1 hour. A cake tester inserted 2 inches from the side will come out 3/4 clean. The center will appear very under-baked; this dessert is between a brownie and a pudding.

Allow to cool and serve with vanilla ice cream

We finished off the night with delicious wine. Success!