Two Bries in a Pod

So if you have checked in with my blog, you might notice that I have a thing for baked Brie. It's delicious and I am not ashamed to admit that I love this cheese. For the Thanksgiving potluck we had at work I brought two different types - a sweet and a savory. This time I decided to use fillo dough instead of puff pastry. Using the fillo dough added some crunch, but not as much dough as when using the puff pastry. I chose to do a cranberry orange one and a sundried tomato artichoke one. They were both pretty delicious and it was hard to decide which one was better since they so different.

Cranberry Orange Chutney Brie

4 sheets of fillo dough, thawed

1 8 oz round of Brie

1 jar of cranberry orange chutney*

2 handfuls almonds, slivered
1 egg white 
coconut oil spray

*Note: If you can't find this, then you can use dried cranberries and either apricot or raspberry jam.

Sundried Tomato Pesto Artichoke Brie

4 sheets of fillo dough, thawed

1 8 oz round of Brie

3/4 cup of sundried tomato pesto

1/2 cup of marinated artichokes, chopped

1 egg white
coconut oil spray

Directions:

The process is the same for both Bries, the only difference was how I put on the toppings. Preheat the oven to 400F and be sure to spray the baking sheet with coconut oil. First take the fillo dough and fold the sheet in half. Place them on top of each to make a star pattern. For the cranberry orange Brie, I sliced the cheese in half. I covered the top of one half with slivered almonds and the cranberry orange chutney. I put the other half on and then on top of that one added more almonds and chutney.

I wrapped the fillo dough around the cheese and brushed with egg white to seal the cheese package and give it a nice golden brown color. I laid out 4 more sheets of the fillo dough for the pesto Brie and put the cheese wheel on top. For this one, I only put the toppings on the top of the cheese. I just estimated the pesto and the artichokes, but you can measure it out if you want. I put enough pesto on the top to cover it and then roughly chopped the artichoke. Then I wrapped the cheese and brushed the outside with egg white.

Bake for about 20 minutes and then let cool for 5 minutes. Serve with any kind of cracker and you have yourself a delightful appetizer. Enjoy!

Pomegranate Guacamole

It's that time of year the weather is cooling down which means boots and sweaters...well maybe in most other places than Texas. It's hard to find festive recipes for this time of year, but I finally found one! Pomegranate guacamole. Guacamole is one of my favorite things and I would have never thought of this flavor combination. The sweetness of the cranberries and the acidity of the onions and lime juice help create a balance with the creamy avocado. Since Tex-Mex is a huge part of the food world here, I thought that this was a really unique dish. Plus the pops of red against the green makes for a very pretty dish. It can be whipped up in a flash and doesn't require much effort.


Ingredients:

1/4 cup pomegranate flavored dried cranberries (Note*: I didn't have any but the original recipe called for pomegranate seeds so you can substitute those in)
2 ripe avocados, ripe and diced
1 garlic clove, minced
Lime juice
1/4 cup onions, diced
Fresh cilantro
Pepper and salt (optional)

Directions:

Cut the avocados in half and remove the pit. In a medium bow, mash the avocado with a fork or potato masher. Then add the pomegranate cranberries (or seeds), garlic, onions, cilantro, lime juice and pepper and salt if you wish.

Mash everything together until you reach the desired consistency. I let mine chill for an hour or so to get cold and to blend the flavors. You can serve this with veggies, pita chips, on chili or with Mexican quinoa. 

Savory Baked Brie

I am not sure what it is about baked Brie that gets me all excited, but I decided that I was going to make another one with more savory ingredients. This time I decided to use sundried tomatoes, capers and black olives. The recipe that I adapted called for phyllo dough instead of puff pastry, but I decided to use puff pastry as that's what I had on hand. It was actually good that I did because this one didn't turn out quite as well as the other one. It may have been that the Brie wasn't triple cream or that the there was too much olive oil from the sundried tomatoes, but this one was a bit more liquidy than the first one. Don't get me wrong, it was not necessarily a failure in the taste department, just a little subpar in the appearance.

Ingredients:

2 sheets of puff pastry, thawed

1 lb triple cream Brie cheese

2 tablespoons sundried tomatoes

2 tablespoons capers

2 tablespoons black olives, sliced

1 egg white

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F. Place one sheet of the puff pastry on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a Silipat.

Slice the wheel of Brie in half and top with sundried tomatoes, black olives and capers. Make sure that you drain all the liquid off the tomatoes and capers.

Top with the other half of the brie and place on the sheet of puff pastry. Take the other sheet and place it over the wheel of cheese. Make sure to seal the edges of the puff pastry together. You can either leave the extra dough on or cut it off.

Brush the sealed packet of deliciousness with an egg white and then bake for 20 minutes. Take out of the oven once the crust is golden brown and let sit for 5 minutes. Then you are ready to cut into this cheesy package of goodness! Serve and enjoy this magnificent appetizer that will be sure to please the crowd.