Baked Brie

The brie was such a hit on Christmas Eve that I had to hide a piece for Joe who was working and was going to be late getting home and I am not even sure if there was any left by the time the last guest arrived. My mom even made it again last weekend while we were watching the Giants beat the Packers and it was just as good. I think David made it for a New Years Eve party that he went to as well. Needless to say, we have already gotten some use out of this recipe.

I love brie, especially baked brie but I have always made it with berries and I wanted to try something different this time. In November, we went to our friends Chris & Carrie's wedding in Washington DC and as part of our welcome bags at the hotel was a small jar of apple butter that Carrie had made for everyone. I couldn't wait to get home and try it and it was amazing on just a piece of toast. It hit me that it would be amazing in a baked brie. Now the jar we got from the wedding was not large enough to be used in the brie and I didn't have time to make my own so I bought a jar but I hope to try to make my own apple butter in the future.

I also used cooked apples to top the brie because I wanted a bit of a texture contrast rather than everything being all soft and gooey. The apples were only cooked for a few minutes so they still retained some of their crunchiness which I think added a nice element to the dish. I served crackers on the side of the brie but most people wound up just eating the wedges of cheese, apple and pastry as it without the crackers so you could do without the crackers if you wanted.

Baked Brie
From Colleen's Kitchen Therapy

Ingredients
1 (8-9 oz) wheel of brie, slice in half horizontally
1 apple, cored and diced
1 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp brown sugar
1/3 cup apple butter
1 sheet puff pastry, thawed
Water
1 egg yolk, beaten

Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

In a small pan, heat the butter and add the diced apples and cinnamon and saute over medium-high heat for 5 minutes. Add the brown sugar and stir until combined with butter. Cook for another 3-4 minutes just until the apples begin to soften slightly but still have a bit of crunch to them. Remove from heat.

Place your puff pastry sheet on a floured surface. Place your apple mixture in the center of the pastry. Top with half of the apple butter. Place one piece of the brie, rind side down on top of the apple mixture. Spread the other half of the apple butter onto the cheese and top with the other half of the cheese wheel.

Brush the edges of the puff pastry with water and bring the sides of the pastry up and around the wheel of  brie, adding more water if necessary to seal the edges of the pastry to each other. Place the brie wrapped in pastry seam side down on cookie sheet sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Brush the top of the pastry with the egg yolk to help the pastry brown. Place in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes until the pastry is flaky and brown. Serve hot.