Preparing for tomorrow

Considering it's the weekend (when I particularly enjoy baking) I thought I would go ahead and make something a little more involved time wise. Intelligentsia (a favorite coffee shop in Silver Lake) is conveniently located next door a wonderful cheese shop, that aside from selling some seriously delicious cheese also has great prepared foods from retailers such as Ricks Picks, Little Flower Candy Co, Vosges, and many more favorites (here's the link: http://www.cheesestoresl.com/). Its hard not to get distracted, or end up buying way more than you intended. I went in today with the singular purpose of looking for a cheese that would be good on grilled cheese, but not the usual gruyere. I was recommended Pilota, which is a creamy sheep/cow's milk cheese from the south of France. When you taste it, it literally melts in your mouth (perfect for melting on bread!), it's mellow and slightly sweet, but well balanced with the salt content. It smells (and tastes) like a mixture of butter and roasted nuts, though still manages not to be too rich or overpowering. She suggested that this cheese would pair better with sweet, as opposed to savory additions to the bread. So, what would be better than homemade strawberry jam? I've never made jam before, but the technique seems simple enough.

Now, for the bread the ultimate pairing for a sweet grilled-cheese (or any grilled cheese really) is of course, brioche. This very enriched bread is the staple to many new-style dishes lately (new-style eggs benedict to brioche french toast). And its no wonder, it tastes incredible. And as soon as I started making the dough for the overnight rest it became evident why this bread is so decadent; it is almost 1:1 flour to butter ratio (by weight). Essentially, consume with caution. Though brioche is also often made with lower ratios I figured if I'm going to do this, I may as well do it "right."

Since I'll have jam, I also think I may try a dark chocolate truffle plating I've been thinking of...

More on that tomorrow.

I have all of these ideas constantly running through my mind, and I'm trying to come up with something new, some twist on a classic, or entirely different. I've got a starting point, and according to my research/general knowledge, this hasn't been done. This could either be because no one has thought of it, or its a terrible idea. We'll see!