Baked Brie

I had never tasted this delicious, creamy, combination in my 20+ years before I met a great French Canadian friend of mine.  Baked Brie was never served at my family functions back then.  It is now though!  It seemed so uppity when I first heard of it, but really it's easy and delicious.   I just had never been exposed to such rich gorgeous cheese that goes so well with the sweet butter and brown sugar combination and fruit that was served with a satisfying crunch on a cracker.

There are so many other ways to make this.  I've heard of it being served in puff pastry with more savory flavours, but I like this recipe because it is so easy and I usually have everything on hand except the cheese.  Also, I've never worked with puff pastry, so it sounds a bit intimidating.

It takes only 10 minutes of prep before you stick it into the oven.  And you look so fancy and worked so hard on it when you impress those lucky taste buds of your guests.

Ingredients:

1 wheel of Brie or Camembert cheese
butter
brown sugar
chopped dried fruit (i.e. cranberries, apricots)
crackers

Steps:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spread a thin layer of butter on top of Brie.

Spread a thin layer of brown sugar on top of buttered Brie.

Spread a thin layer of chopped fruit on top of brown sugared Brie.

Place cheese on a rimmed baking sheet; bake until softened, 15 to 20 minutes.

Transfer to a serving plate; cool about 15 minutes.

Serve with crackers.

NOTE:  If I'm going to bring it to a friend/family function, I place it in my circular cake pan and open the Brie, but not take it out of the package, just exposing the top.  Prepare a Brie with the butter, brown sugar, and half a wheel with cranberries and the other half with apricots.  The wrap it back up.   Now you can easily bring it with you and bake on location.

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