My First try at Baked Brie

I love cheese. Most people like cheese. Cheese is good and it enhances a lot of dishes, but my husband and I truly LOVE cheese. While he likes his stand by cheeses, he will be cheese-venturous if I nudge him. Of the two of us, I am more likely to try this random type of cheese we’ve never had before and make it into a meal centerpiece.

At a restaurant a few years back, I ordered a baked brie appetizer. Did I know what brie was? Sort of. I knew it was a cheese and that’s really all that mattered. Over the next few years, I had the opportunity to try brie in a couple different ways, including on some grilled sandwiches that combined the sweet with the savory. Brie is hard to describe because it’s very mild, yet it has a flavor all its own. All cheese is different, but I feel like brie is a bit apart from the rest.

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I’m not even sure where I first saw this idea, but people would either wrap brie in crescent dough, or place it in the center of bread and bake it to make it melty, like a dip. Sometimes, they even added sauces, jams, fruit, and/or nuts. I decided I really wanted to try it, however, the price of brie was a bit off putting. It’s not insanely expensive, but it’s more than I wanted to spend knowing there was a chance it would not turn out.

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Fate smiled upon me, because on a grocery shopping trip I took with my mom, I discovered a wheel of brie for $3 and a roll of crescent dough for 79 cents. I could handle ruining that! Frankly, my curiosity was getting to me so much that I would have broken down and gotten the full price wheel eventually.

You’d think I would try to be conservative when making something for the first time, or at least try an actual recipe, but I was baking with my stomach. Some of my best baking is done when I get hungry and put everything I’m hungry for in a bowl, and eventually, the oven. Unfortunately, some of my worst baking is done this way too, I just don’t usually share those rough times.

This was more on the success side, but there was a small hangup. I decided I wanted baked brie with raspberry and caramel cashew sauce. Yeah, that’s not bizarre. Weirdly enough, the flavors worked fine, it was my decision to make my own sauce that was my tiny downfall. I made a toffee instead of a caramel, and it hardened in the center of the wheel.

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If I had used a caramel sundae sauce, it would have worked perfectly and saved me some time and mess, so for the purposes of this blog post, I’m going to give you the easy pre-made sauce route. If you have a homemade caramel sauce recipe that will stand up to baking in the oven, feel free to try it, but I’m going to cut my losses and go with the easy route next time!

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I did watch some YouTube videos for reference on ways to split the brie if you choose to stuff the center and for how to wrap it, as well as standard baking times. The main thing I learned is that it’s insanely versatile! Puff pastry, philo dough, crescent roll dough. Whatever pre-made bakeable dough you have. Maybe not pie crust, but in a bind, I’d probably try it. The same goes for the jam, sauce, or filling. You can go sweet, savory, or both, as long as you think you could stand the flavors together.

Also, my brie is ugly! I almost didn’t share it, but it was so tasty I decided to share it anyway. So if yours isn’t gorgeous, it’s okay. It’s still gonna be cheesy and awesome!

If you’ve tried it or want to, please share your flavor combinations with me! I love to see what other people create.

Raspberry Caramel Cashew Baked Brie

• 1 wheel of ripened brie cheese
• 1 can of refrigerated crescent dough (Philo or puff pastry dough will work too!)
• 3-5 T. raspberry jam
• 3 T. cashew halves and pieces
• 5-6 T. caramel sauce

NOTE: Feel free to substitute the jam, sauce, and nuts for your favorite flavors! Raspberry is one of my favorite flavors and this made an amazing combo, but I am sure there are tons of other delicious combos out there! Also, the “amounts” I listed are really kind of however much your heart desires.

NOTE 2: I left the rind on the brie, which is traditional, but it’s totally up to you.

Preheat the oven to 425.

Start by placing slightly over half of the dough onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. If you’re using crescent roll dough, you can press the seams together with your fingers and mold one of the extra pieces onto the bottom part to make it bigger since you’ll need less to cover the top.

Set your top piece of dough aside on a plate in the fridge and slice your brie in half lengthwise so you have two wheels. Some people make scores all around the wheel and then use the string trick to cut it in half, but I used a knife, going around and around it slowly until I had cut the wheel in two.

Place the bottom half on the crescent roll dough with the rind side down. Press your cashews or other nuts evenly into the center and then carefully pour the sundae sauce over it. Cover it with the other half of the brie, rind side facing up, and then top it with the jam.

Now you’re ready to wrap it. Get the top piece of dough from the fridge and press it firmly around the wheel, remove any excess, and then bring the bottom part up around the edges and slightly over the top, wrapping it in “pleats” and pinching it together so that it stays. Feel free to trim excess dough at this step too.

If you’re artistic, you can use the leftover dough to cutout shapes to decorate it.

Now, you’re ready to bake it. Place it in the oven for 20-35 minutes, paying attention to the color of the dough. When it’s nice and golden, you’re ready to remove it. Bonus points if the cheese leaks a little!

Once it cools a bit, cut into your warm, gooey masterpiece and serve it to your loved ones with small bread slices, crackers, or apple wedges.