Baked Brie

I volunteered to bring an appetizer to Thanksgiving at the Alway's this year, and I decided to try Baked Brie. Brie cheese wrapped in pastry and baked until it has thoroughly melted inside is one of the world's easiest yet tastiest appetizers. I had never actually made it before, but my friend made it for book club last weekend and it was so delicious I decided it was definitely what I wanted to make for Thanksgiving. In this recipe the brie is topped with raspberry jam, surrounded with pastry and drizzled with maple syrup.   

Baked Brie 

• 1 large sheet of puff pastry dough
• 1 round of Brie cheese (do not remove rind)
• Raspberry jam
• Brown sugar
• 1/4 cup of maple syrup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. If you want, start with chilled brie and use a sharp knife to carefully cut off the thin top rind of the cheese. This may help the crust stay with the cheese when served. The rind is edible so you don't have to do this step if you don't want to. On a stick-free cookie sheet, lay out the puff pastry; put the brie round on top. Spread jam on brie, fold dough over top, cutting off excess dough. Drizzle maple syrup and place a handful of brown sugar on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes; pastry should be golden brown. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving. Serve with crackers and apple slices.

If you can't find puff pastry dough you can also use one tube of refrigerated crescent dinner rolls, and you can use any kind of sweet jam you want. I used seedless raspberry. You can also use a wedge of brie if you can't find rounds, but I think that would take away from the presentation a lot. According to the recipe, the whole thing can be prepared in 30 minutes or less, which means you will still have ample time for other more fun Thanksgiving activities like watching football, playing board games, and arguing with siblings.

As per usual when I attempt cooking, I ran into some problems. Since brie was buy one get one free at QFC I decided to just make two and put them in the oven with the Thanksgiving ham, which was set to cook at 325 degrees. I figured no big deal and added 10 minutes to my cook time. But when I checked on the brie, the dough was still completely raw and the topping wasn't melted at all. It took another 30 minutes before it was ready to come out of the oven, so over an hour total in the oven and I'm still not sure the dough was entirely cooked through. So next time I'll try making just one and putting it in all by itself at the correct temperature, I guess. Two ended up being way too much for 10 guests, but everyone seemed to like really like it and I got lots of compliments, so a moderate success, I guess.  

Bon appétit!