Crepes with Brie & Raspberry

Brie is such a wonderful cheese. It's soft, slightly pungent, and wonderfully melty. One of my favorite party foods is Brie en croute - topped with fruit jam or compote, covered with puff pastry, and baked. The sweet fruit pairs so well with the stinky cheese - and like any good cheese, it does smell like stinky feet haha! Anyhow, I thought I would make a variation of this little appetizer by combining it with one of my other loves: crepes!

If you don't like raspberry, you could use apricot, strawberry, blackberry, or any other kind of jam.

Crepes with Brie & Raspberry
Makes: 8 crepes

2 cups milk
6 tbsp butter
3 eggs
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup flour
raspberry jam
brie

• In a small saucepan, combine the milk and butter. Heat over medium until the butter has melted but the milk is not boiling. Remove from the heat.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, and salt. Whisk until pale and fluffy.
• In a slow, steady stream, carefully pour the hot milk into the eggs whisking constantly. Once you've added about half of the milk, you can just go ahead and dump the rest in and whisk to combine. - This process is called "tempering" where you slowly bring up the temperature of the eggs to prevent them from cooking from the hot liquid.
• Now add the flour; whisk until smooth.

• Heat a saute pan over medium heat. Once the pan is very hot, add a small piece of butter to the pan; the butter should brown immediately.
• With a ladle, add some batter to the hot pan, immediately swirl the pan around so the batter spreads to all of the edges.
• Allow the crepe to cook for about one minute until it is dark brown and cooked in the center. Flip the crepe and brown it on the other side. Remove from the pan and set aside.
• Repeat with the remaining batter.
• Slice the brie into thin slices. The rind is edible so don't worry about cutting that off, just leave it on.

• Take each crepe and spread about 2 tsp of jam down the center, then place a slice of brie on top of the jam. Roll up the crepe, tucking in the ends like a burrito.
• Transfer the crepes to a lightly greased glass baking dish.
• Bake at 375° F for 10 minutes.
• Allow to cool for 2 minutes then serve.

You can make one heck of a grilled cheese with the left-over brie. Just throw some apple slices in there. Yum!

Lola is my little Art Director ;-)