Brie en Croute

I love Brie Cheese, even if it is French and I'm Danish.  I also love Havarti cheese but I don't think it's a cheese you can fold into puff pastry and bake.  Of course I haven't tried doing that yet either, hmmm.

 I just had to say it.  I mean a lovely, luscious piece of creamy Brie on a piece of fresh bread or a cracker with some cracked hazelnuts or fresh fruit, I can make a meal out of it, and have done just  that, on many occasions.

However there is just something so over the top decadent about baking a wheel of Brie in some Puff Pastry and then digging into it, so since I had a lovely piece of Brie in the fridge, that needed to be eaten, I did just that.

Encased it in a piece of Puff Pastry and baked it.  That is.

And it was good.   So good, it all got eaten.  Luckily I managed to get a couple of bites.  I think I would have been seriously miffed if I hadn't.

To start with, I did something that the purists are going to gasp at.  I trimmed the rind off of part of the brie.  Yup, I did.  But it didn't go to waste.   Well, maybe my waist, but that's a story for another day.

I pulled some Puff Pastry out of the fridge and let it thaw while I prepared the cheese.  And no I didn't talk to it, other than telling it how lovely it was.

To start with, I cut the top of the rind off, I wanted a fresh spot to spread the Fig Preserves on.  And then I cut the sides off.   I know the rind is good, but I wanted to have the whole wheel really, really melty.

I floured my mat lightly and placed the pastry on it.  I did roll it out a little, but that was more to get the fold marks out.

I then placed the Brie right in the middle, spread about 1/4-1/2 a cup of fig preserves over the top, I really didn't measure.  I just knew I wanted a layer of preserves on there.

I then took opposite corners of the pastry and brought it to the center and pinched them closed.
I then took the corners again, and folded them up and over.  

I put it in the fridge until later, (I was so organized on Saturday it scared me.) 











I took it out and gave it a good egg wash before popping it into the oven at 400 degrees.    I also like to bake on parchment paper, as you can see in the pictures.  Saves a whole lot of clean up, and stuff doesn't stick to baking pans as easily.  Trust me on this.

 Because it had been in the fridge and cold, it took a little while, a good 20 or 30 minutes to get a lovely golden color.   I just checked the oven after 20 minutes, and it wasn't quite golden enough so I left it another few minutes.  The cheese was really melty. 

I pulled it out when I thought it was done and people promptly dove into it.    Well, it took a few minutes, but then again, there was a lot of food there, and they had to make their way over to it.    I had some little toasts set to the side, but no one ate the baked brie on them, they just cut chunks of the cheese and ate them.

OK, so that was me doing that.   But really, this was a seriously good appetizer and one I will make again.