Turkey Strawberry Sandwich with Brie

I mostly wanted to make this sandwich because the picture I found on chindeep.com via Pinterest looked delicious.

Normally, I will try to adapt recipes from what I already have in my house, but all these ingredients sounded so essential that I made an unecessary detour to the grocery store on the way home from work to get them.  The only thing I didn’t have was raspberry jam and fresh jalapeno (see the original recipe).  Fortunately, I had a delicious hot pepper spread that worked nicely.

Ingredients (adapted from chindeep.com):

• Thinly sliced country style bread
• brie
• thinly sliced deli turkey
• fresh basil
• strawberries
• hot pepper spread
• fig and walnut spread (optional)

Directions:

Stack the sandwich parts in this order:

1. Bottom piece of bread.
2. Thin slices of brie.
3. Turkey slices.
4. Layer of basil.
5. Sliced strawberries.
6. Spread the spread(s) on the other slice of bread, and place on top of the strawberry layer of the sandwich.

From here you can do one of two things:  1) Grill the sandwich like a panini or grilled cheese (maybe pre-butter the outsides of the bread; 2) Heat the sandwich in a toaster oven (~350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 5 minutes or until cheese looks gooey).

I did the latter because I didn’t have access to a panini press or stovetop (I had this for lunch at work), but I did manage to find a toaster oven.  I’ve recently preferred to “grill/toast” my sandwiches, including grilled cheese, to reduce my delicious butter intake, and this sandwich did not disappoint.   The first time I made the sandwich, I only used hot pepper spread and not the fig/walnut spread (which we randomly had in our refridgerator).  My husband thought the strawberries made the sandwich a bit too sweet, and suggested a more tart fruit would compliment the turkey better.  That said, he did enjoy the sandwich almost as much as I did.

For my second try (this post), the fig and walnut spread added a nice tartness.  My husband liked this much better.

Unfortunately, I was not able to get a post-toasted picture because I didn’t have my camera handy.  -5 intelligence.