Alicia P's Baked Brie and Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Written by Alicia P.

I made baked brie and a grilled cheese sandwich around the same time. I hate frozen/refrigerated bread, so I bought a loaf of sourdough to use between them.  I used Chow’s Garlic Fries Melt for the ingredients, but it has no recipe.

I love garlic, so I chopped up almost half the garlic for the baked brie.  I also have no patience to make it into a paste, so chopped it was.

The rest of the garlic was devoted towards becoming roasted garlic!

Above, it is drizzled in olive oil, and below is it all wrapped up to go into the oven.

Meanwhile, the garlic got put on the brie wheel, and honey got put on top of the garlic.  At home, I use a ramekin, and cut out the brie that doesn’t fit inside.  I should invest in a brie baker, but for now, this oversized pyrex thing did okay.

Getting the Comox Brie wasn’t the best idea for a solo venture.  It’s one of the bigger brie rounds.

But that got shoved into the oven, along with the aluminum-covered garlic.  It came out well enough for me.  I dumped honey back on top of the round in the picture below.

I also chopped up the sourdough into halves, because I was lazy.  I left the roasting garlic inside the oven while I heated up the sourdough.

My thumb looks really ugly in the picture where there’s cheese on the bread, so I didn't include that.  I shut off the oven but left the garlic inside, because I didn't want to waste electricity. It came out well enough, so it worked out!  Anyway, instead of doing that potato slices thing, I decided to make the sandwich with duck-fat smashed potatoes instead. So, I boiled potatoes.

I suggest getting nugget potatoes from Granville Island, so you can pick how many you want.  I went with potatoes in a bag from Whole Foods because I had a week off where I didn't have to be at Granville Island on a Saturday.  I didn't want to go if I didn't have to be there, you know?? :|

Here’s a red one smashed.  I found that the purple ones kinda cook the quickest, so that was a mushy mess.  I didn't really like the one I cooked for this, but the fried part tasted great when I made hasselback potatoes with my remaining baby potatoes a week later.  One blog I read suggested chopsticks on either side of the potatoes.  I sort of cut into some of the good wooden ones, so if you make hasselback potatoes and go with the chopstick route, I suggest cheap sushi ones on either side instead...

And then I fried them accordingly.  It was leftover duck fat from about half a year ago. Apparently you can keep it for awhile, and I’m writing this over a week later with no ill effect.  I got it from Oyama Sausage on Granville Island way back when.

They kinda got drained.

I did the rest of the grilled cheese sandwich stuff, with the butter and the white cheddar in this case.

I had about three mini-potatoes to a sandwich.  That stray potato in the pan was to reheat, and because I accidentally missed one.  I smeared the garlic around the bread...  I could've done a better job, but I was getting hungry, and it was for myself, so smear it was.

The finished product! 

Supplies-wise, I wouldn't have had to buy a frying pan or a container to bake the brie.  I have honey laying around, too, along with garlic, and I know some people have various cheeses and bread, or potatoes. Normally, I’d just have to buy the cheeses, the bread, and the baby potatoes.

With cooking the potatoes, they cooked in the order of the purple ones, then the yellow ones, and then red ones.  I don’t need my potatoes totally mushy, so they cooked fine.  I didn't really time how long it took; I kept poking at random ones with a fork until they were to my liking, and they got taken out at the same time.  The purple one could have been taken out sooner, on hindsight.

I also suggest not eating them on your own, but I ate them in two days, so it could be done!