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. 

Basque-ing in Sheep's Milk Cheese

If he had told me it was sheep's milk cheese, I think I would have been reluctant to eat it. As it happened, I didn't ask about the cheese until I'd already had several pieces and had fallen in love with it.

We had been invited over to the house of some good friends of ours to share in their Christmas dinner. Kurt does most of the cooking in that family, and on Christmas his equally knowledgeable mother and sister joined him. While he worked on various aspects of dinner – including checking on the magnificent aged prime rib that he had prepared – Mark and I sat at the counter, sipping delicious champagne and eating cheese and salami.

We were fortunate indeed to be invited to share this bottle of delicious bubbly

Perhaps I should insert at this point that I, ummm, don’t know much (anything, really) about cheese. But I’d like to learn. And there’s no better place to start from than where I now am. So I asked Kurt what kind of cheese it was.  He showed me the label and proceeded to educate me. It was called Petit Basque, a cheese made from sheep’s milk in the Basque area of France at the western end of the Pyrenees Mountains. 

Our son Nathan playing with Julia's son before dinner

The cheese is made using traditional methods (which I haven't been able to learn more about), but marketed by a huge French company to North America and other markets. According to greatcheese.com, 

"Traditionally, shepherds made this small cheese from the leftover curd set aside after milking their ewes. Today Istara® P’tit Basque is still hand-made from pure ewe’s milk, using the same traditional methods established by local shepherds centuries ago ... Made with 100% pure sheep’s milk, P’tit Basque is aged for a minimum of 70 days. The Spanish influence on this cheese is noted by its resemblance to Manchego, but its flavor is milder and more delicate. P’tit Basque has a distinctive aroma of sheep’s milk, and a smooth, sweet flavor with a nutty finish. Its creaminess is unique for a semi-hard cheese."

The "discovery" of Little Basque is portrayed in this video that was made as a TV commercial. A more complete description of the cheese is available here.

I had read that natives of the Basque region where this cheese is produced like to have it with a black cherry jam that is made from local sweet cherry trees. We tried this last night, and it was a big hit.

The distinctive rind of Petit Basque

Since Basque Black Cherry Jam is not readily available at the local grocery store, I went with two options: a can of sweet cherries in heavy syrup - which my sister-in-law liked - and a jar of sour cherry jam, which we all liked. Combining the cheese and a bit of cherry jam with almond crackers was, in my opinion. delicious.

My brother-in-law also brought some of his homemade sausage to share. That was a big hit. Some of my older kids were here for the sampling, and they all liked the Petit Basque, which is saying something.

Mark, at right, with his sister and her husband, visiting from Portland, Oregon