The Ultimate Appetizer: Baked Brie
My aunt’s always said everyone should have one signature dish per meal that they know they can knock out of the park. One that generally looks more impressive and time consuming than it is. The one you can guarantee delight dinner guests of all ages.
Baked Brie with Apricot Preserves
Baked Brie is my go-to appetizer. I love making it when I host but it’s also a great dish to bring when other people are hosting as well. After all, if you do all the prep at home you can pop it into the oven wherever you’re going!
Is it incredibly easy to make? Yes! Does it take a while to make? Also yes! But most of that time is you waiting on the food to do it’s thing so you can go do other things and come back to it.
What You’re Going to Need:
One sheet of puff pastry (I like Pepperidge Farms)
One wheel of brie cheese
One Egg
Fruit preserves of your choosing (apricot is my favorite)
Start with frozen puff pastry. Pull it out to thaw. That’ll take roughly 40 minutes. Go find something fun to do while you wait.
This is what the Puff Pastry will look like when you take it out of the box. Leave it to thaw until the dough feels flexible but is still cool to the touch
Next step is to slice your wheel of Brie in half. If you’ve just pulled it out of the fridge this will be much easier than if you’ve left the cheese sitting out.
Place one half of the cheese onto the fully open and unfolded puff pastry.
Liberally cover the entire wheel with your chosen preserves. I prefer apricot but use whatever floats your boat!
Make sure to cover the entire wheel all the way to the edges
Place the second half of the cheese wheel on top of the preserves like a giant cheese sandwich.
Beat one egg in a bowl. This is going to be your egg wash. Use a brush, or your fingers, and coat the entire visible surface of the puff pastry with the egg wash.
Fold one corner of the puff pastry over the brie. Use more egg wash to cover the newly uncovered corner of puff pastry.
The egg wash is going to be the glue that holds your entire pastry together so make sure you put it on every available surface of the pastry as you continue to fold
Continue folding the puff pastry over the brie, adding egg wash to the pastry as you go, until the entire cheese has been covered by puff pastry and all visible sections of puff pastry have been covered by egg wash.
Transfer the entire thing onto tin foil.
At this point you can do one of two things, you can place the foil on a pan and pop it in the oven for 30 minutes (preheat at 400 degrees Fahrenheit) or use the foil to wrap it up to go to whatever dinner party you’ll be attending.
Baked Brie fresh out of the oven
If you’re not going to bake it right away make sure you put it in the freezer! Raw eggs shouldn’t be left out!
When you arrive at your destination simply preheat the oven and bake when ready!
Let me know how it goes!
xo,
Kate