I don’t know about you, but the best new thing I’ve found in my local grocery store in the past couple of years has been fig jam.  If you’re into jam-making, I’m sure it’s pretty easy to make but it seems that fig season flies by in an instant and I never seem to be ready for it.  So for now, I’ll stick with the stuff I can buy all year-round.  And what that means is that I can also make these bacon brie and fig jam grilled cheese sandwiches whenever the heck I want to as well.

There’s no need to complicate a grilled cheese sandwich so this one is easy: a thin layer of fig jam on one side of the bread, topped with crisp, smoky bacon and creamy brie, then grilled to perfection.  Cover the pan with a lid to trap the heat and help the cheese goo-ify itself – it’s a little trick of mine that works like a charm every time.  Served alongside a bowl of homemade tomato soup?  You may have trouble keeping enough fig jam stocked for these sandwiches!

Bacon Brie and Fig Jam Grilled Cheese
source: Smells Like Home original

Ingredients:

  • 4 slices country white bread
  • Salted butter, softened almost until it it melted
  • 2 tbsp fig jam
  • 4 slices of thick-cut bacon, cooked crisp
  • 4 oz brie, sliced about 4″ long, 1/4″ thick

Instructions:

  1. Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium heat.  Butter one side of each slice of bread.  Spread 1 tablespoon of the fig jam on the unbuttered side of two of the slices.  Place the butter side down of those two slices in the skillet.  Divide the bacon and cheese between the slices in the skillet and top with the remaining bread, butter-side up.
  2. Cover the pan with a lid or sheet of aluminum foil for about 3 minutes; this will ensure heat melts the cheese.  Remove the lid (or foil) and check the undersides of the bread with a spatula.  If the bread is lightly browned, flip the sandwiches to finish off the other sides.  When both sides of the sandwiches are perfectly browned (you know what that looks like) and the cheese is just about melted, remove them from the pan, cut, and serve hot and gooey.

Yields: 2 sandwiches