Grilled Brie, Raspberries and Chocolate Chips

It’s the week after Easter and I still have a hankering for chocolate.

This year's haul from the Easter Bunny. 

 Chocolate kisses, Kinder-Surprises, chocolate cupcakes - this was a chocolate-filled weekend! I’m usually more of  a salty than sweet snacker but I do love a chunk of  chocolate bunny with a tall, cold glass of milk. 

 I’m not quite ready to put it away yet, so I consulted the  Internet orbs and found a way have my chocolate and eat  it too – in a whole new kind of grilled cheese sandwich,  combined  with some silky, creamy brie and sweet  raspberry jam.

 Chocolate and Grilled Cheese?!

 The only thing crazier than the idea of this sandwich would  be not to try it.

 So try it I did.  A delicate balance between the sweet  chocolate and creamy cheese needs to be struck in order  to make this sandwich work and it took me two tries to get  it right. I know...life is rough when I have to eat this sandwich twice. Sigh.

I had never made such a sweet sandwich before and I went big with my first attempt. Very big and very, very sweet. It was basically a chocolate fondue sandwich, and that may not be an issue for you, but for this sandwich to really shine, the brie deserves equal time in the spotlight. I toned it down for Version 2 and the result was nothing short of grilled cheese and chocolate miracle.

It's hard to go wrong with good brie.

You will need: 

Sourdough or rye bread

Triple Crème Brie, sliced thickly

Raspberry Jam

Chipits’ Baking Chocolate, broken into pieces or Milk Chocolate Chips (or you could sacrifice bits of your Chocolate Bunny to this delicious cause)

Butter (2-3 Tbsp)

How to:

1-Spread one slice of bread with a thick layer of raspberry jam. Cover the entire piece of bread, right up to the crust.

2-Add your chosen chocolate to the jam side: either the shards of baking chocolate or the chips. For best results, use just one kind of chocolate.

3-Arrange the slices of brie on the other piece of bread and combine the two.

4-Pre-heat your skillet on low and melt the butter before grilling the sandwich 3-4 minutes per side.

5-Flip and grill until the outsides are golden brown and the insides are melted. Some oozing of chocolate or brie is to be expected.

6-Slice and enjoy!

Don't go crazy with the chocolate! Less really is more.

The result: rich, sweet, velvety and ridiculously decadent!

The chocolate and brie melt so well, they are barely contained within the bread. The raspberry jam adds a pinch of tartness and I love brie with anything.  When I just used the chocolate chips, I could actually taste all the flavours of all the ingredients instead of just tasting melted chocolate and grilled buttery bread.  The toned-down version is still plenty sweet but doesn’t overdo it.  It’s still a grilled cheese sandwich at heart.

A grilled cheese and chocolate miracle.

That said, this grilled cheese gives you permission to skip the dinner sandwich and go straight for desert. Just add a tall, cold glass of milk.

Trust me, you’ll need it.