Summer Lovin’ – Brie Grilled Cheese with Figs, Honey and Pinenuts

When I see figs start to arrive at the grocery I get super excited, not just normal excited, but more of a OMG FIG TIME!! excitement.  I don’t know what it is about these little succulent fruits but something about them makes me finally believe and feel like summer is here!  To my amusement I found my first carton of figs this week and had to involve them in a GC.
Here is the summer lovin’.

Ok so besides the obvious set up for figs as the main ingredient – here’s what else was involved.

Ingredients:

– 2 sliced figs!
– 2 tbs tupelo honey
– 1/6 wheel of brie
– 2 pads real butter
– one small loaf of fresh french bread
– 2 tbs pinenuts
– tinfoil (unless you’re brave)

The first thing I did was to cut the bread down the middle and line the brie on both sides.  This cheese was room temperture which worked out perfectly bc it sort of melted to the bread.

After that I lined the figs down one side of the bread.  Depending on the width of your bread you can line them or just randomly put them down.

Then I drizzled the honey on top of the figs so that the pine nuts would stick and not fall off.

Then it was pine nut time!

Once all the ingredients were on, I went ahead and closed up my sammie!

At this point I was a little hesitant to put it straight on to the pan because it was really big and I thought it would be impossible to flip so I wrapped it in tinfoil.  Then I turned on the burners and got my press hot and the skillet hot using medium heat.

I let it cook for about a minute and a half on each side to melt the cheese. I also put the press on the sammie to help bond the cheese to everything.

After this step I opened up the GC and it looked great.  I could have probably left it as is because it was nice and melty and crisp, but I went ahead and applied butter to each side to get it extra crisp.

Then I set it on the skillet and let it brown for about a minute on each side.  Nothing fell out because the tin foil helped everything melt and stay in place! Yay!

Once it was a pretty golden brown I took it off the skillet and let it sit for about a minute.  The figs kind of fell apart from the heat but it ended up looking like this…

Although it’s not the prettiest of the GC”s on this blog, this sammie will please your pallet and is light enough to enjoy in the sun! Happy summer!!

xoxo,

GCS