copy-crackers

So I found a recipe from Dinner with Julie for some rosemary-raisin-walnut crisps and had to try it, but I altered the recipe a little. Then I baked a little brie, threw in some very shoddily caramelized onions, and the resulting product was magical. It's a not-too-sweet and savory treat.

You'll need:
1 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cups butter milk
1/8 cup sugar
1/8 cup honey
1/2 cup raisins
1/8 cup sesame seeds
1/8 cup flax seed meal (ground flax seeds)
1 tsbp. chopped fresh rosemary

2 wedges of brie (a medium or large wedge)
2 medium or large sweet onions
2 tbsp sugar

To make the bread

Preheat the oven to 350. In a large mixing bowl, stir flour, baking soda and salt together. Add the buttermilk, sugar, and honey, and stir a few times. Heartily. Add raisins, seeds, and rosemary, and whatever else you want in there (pears, cranberries, blueberries, walnuts, almonds, etc.) and stir until it's blended together.

Spray down a loaf pan, 8x4" at the largest, and pour the mixture in. The mix should only fill about a third to a half of the pan. Definitely DO NOT fill the pan. Slide that guy into the oven and bake for about 35 minutes, until "golden and springy to touch."

So you can freeze these for a while or overnight or for weeks or whatever, or just let them cool overnight. However, you've got to slice them really thin, so freezing is probably the best way to go.

When the loafs are ready, slice them as thinly as possible and lay them on an ungreased baking sheet.
Set (or re-set) the oven at 300 and bake for 15 minutes, and then flip 'em over and go for another 10. They should be a dark gold or light brown.

For the Brie

Caramelizing onions is a slow and delicious process. One way to do it is to just put a little olive oil in a large pan, enough to cover the bottom, and a tbsp or two of butter is fine. (If you want, you can do dry white whine and butter. About two tablespoons of butter and a 1/4 cup of dry white wine. Use half of the white wine to cook with the onions til it almost cooks out, then use the rest.) Cut the onions to however thick you want them, and once the oil has heated a little on medium heat, add the onions in.

Let 'em cook for about ten or fifteen minutes before putting a little salt on them. If the pan burns or gets sticky, put a little water in. The more water you add, the more sugar I'd suggest you add so it doesn't wash out the natural sweetness of the onions.

Some recipes say to stir onions frequently, and others kind of forbid stirring, so just assess the situation and go with your gut. If the onions seem to be sticking, stir them. If they're only getting transparent and not browning, don't stir them. The onions should start to brown and some syrup should star to gather. If it's not very syrupy, you can add sugar. I like to add some either way, but theoretically, the onions can be pretty sweet if cooked well.

You can bake the brie while this is happening, but if you're only using a wedge or two (some recipes call for an entire box, who has that kind of idle spending money?), you won't need to bake it for long. Set the oven to 350 and let the brie heat for about 10 minutes or longer, until it's melted. Keep an eye on it and don't let it burn!

There's a few ways it could go from here. I like to add some onions immediately and really mix it up, and then refrigerate some more of the onions, maybe a few spoonfuls, and add them (still cold!) later if you end up re-heating the brie.

SO.

At this point you may have some crisps, and you may have some brie with some delicious onions. I think you know what to do. JSYK, the brie is delicious with tons of stuff, especially a nice, lightly toasted bagette (pro-tip, add some brie to the slices as they finish toasting in the oven). The crisps are also delicious with a multitude of toppings, even plain, but good grief, are they ever fantastic together.

Enjoy with beer and friends. Hot apple cider for the non-alchys like me. Or water, if you're playing it cheap (also like me).

Bon Appetite!