Heavenly Baked Brie

In the world of cheese, I know very little but in the course of conversation with a friend the topic of baked brie came up. What I gathered this was, was melted cheesy goodness with some kind of sweet or savory topping. Definitely not something that I was going to pass up, so we headed over to Central Market to take advantage of their amazing cheese selection. While making our way to the cheese, we realized we had no recipe and no idea what we were doing...This was our chance to wing it and see what happened. After talking to our new friend Virginia in the cheese department (Central Market employees are so helpful!), we soon had a plan. She explained to us that to make baked Brie you have to use double cream because the triple cream will just run all over the place. We also learned how to wrap it in a bed of puff pastry and how to make it look extra fancy. It is very important to preheat your oven to 375. Then lay out one of the sheets of puff pastry and place the whole wheel of Brie on top. This is when you add your toppings. We opted for a mixture of fig butter, honey and chopped walnuts and pecans. (It was quite tasty and would have been good on crackers.) You can use whatever toppings or preserves you want, as this is your time to get creative!

Next, take the other sheet of puff pastry and lay it over the top of the cheese. Make sure that you pinch the dough together completely to seal it so the cheese doesn't ooze out. You can then cut off the excess dough or leave it on. We wanted to be extra safe so we just left the excess dough. In order to get the golden brown color, gently brush and egg white over the top of the dough. Be sure to coat it evenly as you don't want an uneven color. If you are feeling super awesome, you can take the extra dough and create a cool design for the top. Just be sure to put it on before you do the egg wash. Put it in your preheated oven and bake. Virginia said that it should bake for 15-20 minutes, but since my oven is about 5 minutes different I adjusted the cooking time. I had mine in the oven for 13 minutes total and pulled out a golden brown packet of goodness!

I couldn't wait to break into this cheese pouch to see what this baked Brie was all about. After letting it cool, I finally got to cut into it and it was heavenly! The Brie was melted and the topping had melded to the top of the puff pastry. I can say that baked Brie is now my current obsession, as it is soo delicious! The puff pastry was crispy and flaky, the cheese was melted to perfection and the fig/honey/nut combination was the perfect choice because it added sweetness and crunch. There are almost no words to describe it because it was that sinful to eat. Plus it actually turned out well that we left the extra puff pastry on their because it was really delicious. Baked Brie is the perfect appetizer (or meal in itself) and is super simple! I am fairly certain that this will now be included in every entertaining event I have. It's a little out of the ordinary and you can always play with it by changing the toppings. Come back and let me know what toppings you put on your Brie.