Spiced Apple-Cranberry Baked Brie

I'm in love. For decades, it was staring me right in the face - sort of - but I was blinded by prejudice.

I'm in love with Brie.

In my youth, I served an LDS (Mormon) mission in France, the land of cheese lovers and producers. But I steadfastly refused to try Brie when I was there in the 80's as well as on more recent trips. I suppose it is possible that, at some event or another during my legal career, I ate some Brie in puff pastry. But if I did, I wasn't aware of what I was eating. Brie and I just ran in different circles.

All of that changed last Tuesday night.

We had family and friends visiting with us the first part of last week, so we wanted to prepare something a little special (by our standards). Mark and his brother-in-law Neil cooked a couple of racks of pork chops on the grill, his sister Deb helped out with the candied yams, and I prepared a caesar salad, roast brussels sprouts (on which more in a future post) and, as an appetizer, baked brie. As soon as I tasted the brie, I knew my relationship with the cheese had gone from indifference to something approaching passion.

I had run across the recipe for the brie while researching cinnamon and subsequently discovered that the recipe is actually from Pampered Chef. So, with due credit where credit belongs, here is my somewhat altered recipe.

Spiced Apple-Cranberry Baked Brie

Ingredients:

1        11 oz. round of Brie cheese
3/4     cup chopped apple
3/8     cup chopped slivered almonds
3/8     cup dried sweetened cranberries
1-1/2  tbsp brown sugar, packed
1/2     tsp Saigon cinnamon
1/4     tsp nutmeg
1        tbsp salted butter, melted
1/4     tsp vanilla

Preparation:

Preheat over to 350F.

Chop apple in food processor/chopper. In a small bowl, combine apple, almonds, cranberries, brown sugar and spices. Mix gently. Stir in butter and vanilla just until ingredients are moistened.

Cut Brie in half horizontally. Place one half of Brie, rind side down, on pan/baking dish. Spoon half of the apple mixture onto bottom half of Brie, spreading evenly. Top with remaining half of Brie, rind side up, then spoon remaining apple mixture over top. Bake 15-17 minutes, or until cheese is soft and just begins to melt. Serve with toasted French bread, apple wedges or assorted crackers.

Yield: 10-11 servings.

I used Fuji apples that were locally grown. 

Notes and Comments:

The original recipe called for an 8 oz. round of Brie. Because Costco, Whole Foods and other stores usually carry an 11-oz. round, I altered the recipe for the larger round. 

The original recipe also called for Korintje cinnamon, but I decided to use Saigon cinnamon because of its more robust flavor. When I opened and smelled Vanns Saigon, the aroma was powerful and sweet. When I smelled the small container of Korintje I bought at Whole Foods a week or two ago, I could hardly smell anything. Interesting lesson.

The Pampered Chef recipe did not call for nutmeg. I decided to add some and used 1/4 tsp, but it was nutmeg that I bought at Whole Foods. When I smelled it, I experienced the same underwhelming experience I had with the Korintje cinnamon. Next time, I'm going to use freshly ground nutmeg.

I also put in 1/4 tsp vanilla, which the original recipe did not call for.

The original recipe pointed out that dried cherries or Golden raisins could be substituted for the cranberries. Next time I make this, I will try dried cherries.

Opening the Brie round. The recipe points out that the rind should be left on. The entire cheese is edible, including the rind.

Bottom half of the Brie round

Half of the cranberry-apple mixture between the two halves, the other half on top.

The finished product

As I mentioned above, the original recipe suggested serving this with apple slices, toasted French bread or assorted crackers. We used apple slices and crackers the first time I made this. Last night, Mark and I set up a small table next to our hot tub, placed the baked Brie and some apple slices on it, and enjoyed it while sitting in the tub. The only thing that was missing was a nice complimentary wine. Any suggestions?

I have discovered that there are a jillion recipes on the Internet for Baked Brie. I look forward to trying some of them.