Brie en croute
A perfect treat to serve if you’re having guests for the New Year.
This is one of my go-to recipes when I’m looking to impress. It looks fancy and complicated but if you can make a deli roll, you can make brie (or Camembert) wrapped in puff pastry for your next get-together. It’s a beautiful treat to serve for canapes and is an especially nice addition to a cheese board. The cheese melts nicely and tastes so good with the pastry. Just add a bit of jam or preserves to the cheese, wrap it in the puff pastry, paint on an egg wash and that’s pretty much it.
To elevate the look, I took puff pastry strips and made a second basketweave to lay over the pastry-wrapped brie wheel; it added so much to the appearance.
This takes 5 minutes to prepare: Just pop it in the oven and voila — you have a beautiful appetizer.
I love fig preserves with brie but you can use any jam, even a savory one, as long as it pairs well with the cheese.
The rind on brie is edible. When you’re eating brie cold, you can remove the rind and just eat the soft cheese from the center. When you’re baking brie, whether it’s wrapped in pastry or not, you must leave the rind on the cheese to keep intact when it’s hot, otherwise you’ll have a glob of hot cheese spread across your baking dish.
The intensity brie’s flavor can vary depending on the maker. Some rinds have very little flavor, and some have a strong note of what I can only describe as ammonia. Some of us love stinky cheese and can’t get enough of it, but it can be an acquired taste. If you don’t care for the flavor of the cheese rind when it’s cold, then that brand won’t work for you when it’s hot. There is no way to avoid eating the rind once this is baked.
This brie en croute is easy to serve: Simply cut wedges and you get the pastry and cheese all in one bite without the need for extra bread or crackers. This is a perfect treat to serve if you’re having guests for the New Year.
Ingredients
Makes 8 pieces
1 sheet puff pastry
1 8- or 9-ounce wheel of brie or Camembert cheese
3 tablespoons fig preserves or a jam of your choice
1 egg whisked, for the egg wash
A sprinkle of turbinado or a similar coarse sugar for an optional garnish
Thaw one sheet of puff pastry according to the directions on the package. I used the Pepperidge Farm brand of puff pastry for this recipe because I like the size of pastry sheets. They come two sheets to a box so you’ll have an extra left over for another recipe.
Preheat the oven to 400 F. Place the oven rack in the middle of the oven and line a small baking dish with crumpled parchment paper.
Sprinkle a pastry board or clean countertop with a bit of flour and lay out the puff pastry sheet, sprinkling a little more flour. The pastry is in a rectangular shape. Use a rolling pin to spread the pastry sheet, increasing the diameter 1 to 2 inches all the way around, but keeping it in a rectangle.
Use a pizza cutter or a sharp knife to slice the pastry sheet in half. Slice it across the diameter, leaving two equal-sized pieces of pastry.
Spread 3 tablespoons of jam across the flat top of the cheese, then pull up the pastry from the sides and fold them over the top. There will be some extra pastry that doesn’t seem to tuck in well. You can trim it a bit if you wish to but I’ve seen no difference in the outcome by tucking that in as best as I can.
Brush the top and side seams with egg wash, which will help to close the pastry.
Take the second half of the puff pastry and slice about 10 1-inch wide slices from top to bottom. The slices will end up 1-inch wide by about 6 or 7 inches long. Take two of these slices to start the basketweave top. Lay one slice horizontally and one over it vertically, creating a plus sign shape, laying over the wrapped cheese wheel. Take a third piece and lay it top to bottom, weaving the pastry over and under, leaving as little space as possible between the strips, then continue until you have used all of the pastry.
If you’re new to weaving pastry and need a visual tutorial, search for videos online to help.
Tuck the ends of the basketweave strips around the sides toward the bottom and carefully put the pastry onto the prepared dish and parchment paper, then brush the entire thing with egg wash.
If you have coarse turbinado sugar, sprinkle a little on top but don’t make an extra trip to the store if you don’t have it on hand. It adds texture and a little sparkle but not much to the overall flavor.
Bake for 35-45 minutes, until golden brown.
Cool for 10 minutes before serving.
You can rewarm this whole if you cover the dish well in foil.
Enjoy and bless your hands! PJC
Jessica Grann is a home chef living in Pittsburgh.
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