GRILLED CHEESE GOES SWEET

Do you remember the first time you tasted a grilled cheese sandwich? I do – and it wasn’t pretty. My childhood experience consisted of two cellophane-wrapped slices of that ubiquitous neon cheese, sandwiched between white bread, all of which was promptly nuked in the microwave for a handful of seconds until the cheese had melted. What resulted wasn’t quite a “grilled cheese” as it was a soggy, gooey mass, bordered by a rigid crust that only a superhero could munch through.

It had my mouth watering every single time.

Of course, back then, I was easier to please. Anything made with processed cheese was welcome to my hungry belly. But when I eventually tasted a real grilled cheese, there was no turning back to this microwaved monstrosity. That crisp, buttery bread; the way the warm, creamy cheddar sticks to the roof of your mouth when you take your first bite. In those lunchtime or dinner moments, there are few things in the world that are simpler and more satisfying than a classic grilled cheese sandwich. Unless, of course, you have one for dessert.

This dessert grilled cheese still has all of the typical grilled cheese components, though in different forms: Angel food cake stands in for regular bread, brie takes the place of American cheddar cheese, and balsamic strawberries are added to sweeten the sandwich up even more. If you’re not making angel food cake from scratch, you can buy it pre-made from your local supermarket. Some markets will carry “angel food bars” which are essentially loaves, and these are easier to slice into uniform pieces than the characteristic ringed cakes. Angel food cake also grills beautifully, and because of its small crumb, yields an even golden-brown crust. Flexing your creative muscles can be very, very delicious.

For this recipe, you’ll need is a nonstick frying pan, a non-metal spatula and a pastry brush, the latter to use with the melted butter. If you don’t have a pastry brush, you can always blot the butter onto the cake with a paper towel. Just be gentle, and make sure you cover the slice’s entire surface.

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As a kid, I’d spent some serious time in the cupboards spooning heaps of brown sugar into my eager mouth. I preferred brown over white, mainly because I believed its flavors were more interesting (and because I believed I got more of a sugar high).

As I got older, I slowly lost the taste for cloyingly sweet things like Big Stick popsicles, Gushers fruit snacks and Pixy Stix. The desire to fit all 6 feet of strawberry Bubble Tape in my mouth at once also went with it. But brown sugar? Not a chance. To this day, I’ll still sneak a little bit here and there. (more…)

Puff pastry has to be one of the seven wonders of the culinary world. For me at least, it’s right up there with caramelizing sugar and emulsions. I know how it works, I understand the science, but doggonit if it doesn’t make my head shake when I watch the magic happen.

In a nutshell, puff pastry is made by folding the buttery dough over and over and over onto itself so when its baked, it expands like a blowfish on steroids. Traditionally, it was time-consuming to make, but now we have all these shortcuts and even frozen versions, which I hate to admit, I LOVE to use.  When unexpected company drops by to say hello, one can take a thawed sheet of puff pastry, shove in some chocolate chips, cover with coconut flakes and bake it all in the oven for quick sweet appetizer or mini dessert.

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