Encased in a delicious puff pastry shell, our recipe for baked Brie in puff pastry is a lightly sweetened recipe that will make a perfect appetizer for any party. Our recipe takes advantage of the mild flavor of the cheese to create a nutty, delicious treat that everyone will love.
One of the more difficult kinds of pastry dough to create, puff pastry is made with a method of baking called lamination. In this technique, a large block of butter is wrapped in pastry dough. The dough is then repeatedly rolled flat with a rolling pin and then folded. The baker repeats the folding and rolling process multiple times until the pastry consists of layer after layer of thin, flaky pastry layers alternating with butter.
Baked Brie in Puff Pastry Recipe
With a creamy, mild flavor, Brie is a cheese that almost everyone loves to eat. With a soft middle and a bloomy rind, Brie ripens from the inside out and is a great choice for cheese platters because it lacks a strong, pungent flavor. Our recipe for Baked Brie with puff pastry is a perfect appetizer for any kind of party. Wrapped in a pre-made, refrigerated puff pastry and paired with brown sugar and pecans, this treat is simple to prepare and even beginner bakers can make this elegant recipe.
Equipment
- Baking Sheet
- Small Skillet
- Spatula
- Small bowl
- Fork
Ingredients
- 1 sheet Puff Pastry thawed if you purchased it frozen
- 8 ounces Wheel of Brie Cheese If you do not care for the flavorful rind, you can trim this away before using the cheese
- 1 tbsp Butter
- 1/2 cup Pecan Pieces
- 1/4 cup Brown Sugar
- 1 pc Beaten Egg
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment pastry. Set this aside.
- In a small skillet, melt the tablespoon of butter over medium heat.
- When the butter is melted and bubbly, add the pecans to the butter and saute them, stirring them often.
- After about five minutes, the nuts should be lightly browned and fragrant. Remove the skillet from the heat.
- Unroll the thawed puff pastry onto the parchment paper and cut off the end to make a square shape, rather than a rectangular shape.
- Place the cheese wheel in the center of the puff pastry. Use a spatula or a spoon to put the pecans directly on top of the Brie. Sprinkle the brown sugar on top of the nuts.
- Gather the edges of the puff pastry over the top of the cheese, sugar, and nuts, folding the pastry increases. Try to press the edges of the pastry together to try to encase the cheese in a single piece of pastry with no holes.
- Crack the egg into a coffee cup or a small bowl and beat it with a fork until it is fully beaten. Use a pastry brush to brush the pastry all over with beaten egg.
- Bake the Brie for about 20 minutes or until it is golden brown all over.
- Remove the Brie from the oven and serve on a tray while still warm.
Notes
When the pastry is baked, the water in the butter hidden in the pastry layers evaporates, puffing up the pastry into the light, crispy layers. Some bakers do indeed craft their own puff pastry from scratch, but the process is time-consuming, and it can be a little difficult. Therefore, for this recipe, we call for refrigerated puff pastry.
Refrigerated puff pastry gives you all the goodness and texture of those distinctive crispy layers of homemade puff pastry but without the complication of rolling out layers of dough on your countertop. Generally, you just have to unroll the refrigerated dough and then use it however your recipe calls for it.
Sometimes, puff pastry is found more easily in the frozen food aisle. If your puff pastry is frozen when you get it, just follow the package instructions for thawing it before you start preparing this recipe. Most of the time, the manufacturer recommends that you thaw frozen puff pastry in the refrigerator for about four hours.
Brie is a soft, creamy cheese that is made through the magic of a specific kind of mold, a variety of penicillin. Brie is a cheese that originated in France near the town named Brie, from which the cheese got its name. At the Congress of Vienna in 1814, Brie was named the “King of Cheeses” because of its superlative flavor and texture.
Some people do not care for the flavor and texture of the rind of this soft cheese. True cheese aficionados know that it is considered improper to scoop out and eat the middle of the cheese while leaving the rind behind. However, since this is your Brie, you can eat it however you prefer. If you do not care for the flavorful rind, gently trim away the outer edges of the cheese. This is not necessary by any means. You can definitely leave the rind intact and create this dish with the rind on the cheese.
While other recipes featuring Brie may add savory ingredients like garlic, herbs, or onions, our recipe is a sweet recipe that takes advantage of the milder flavor of the cheese. With toasted pecans and brown sugar, the Brie takes on a sweet, nutty flavor. However, this recipe is not overly sugary, so don’t worry that it takes on a dessert-like flavor. You can simply slice up the pastry encrusted wheel and eat it with a fork. Alternately, you can serve this appetizer on a tray with sliced, tart-sweet apples, and crackers for dipping and scooping the melted cheese.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
April Freeman enjoys creating all kinds of recipes for her friends and family from her country kitchen in Middle Tennessee. She and her family raise beef cattle, chickens, and all sorts of fruits and veggies on their farm, and she specializes in featuring farm-fresh foods in the recipes that she creates and serves. April says that her slogan is “Are you hungry?” and she feels that one way of showing love and connecting with others is to serve delicious favorite foods to others. Her favorite thing to cook is pies of all kinds.
