Throwback Recipe: A Classic Bubbling Baked Brie with Cranberry Sauce

Ally Jane Grossan — Sun, 14 Dec 2014 10:00:04 +0000

For something extra special this holiday season, make this indulgent baked brie and cranberry sauce appetizer. Brie is a cheese platter staple. Its amazingly creamy texture makes it a perfect spreading cheese that also goes well with slices of fruit. While usually served at room temperature, I like to serve my brie hot and almost completely melted. Kick things up a notch by baking your brie until it’s molten and absolutely delicious.

Instead of a plain old cheese platter, greet your guests with a gooey, sweet and cheesy treat. Serve this baked brie with a warm loaf of sliced French bread or water crackers. Make fresh cranberry sauce up to two days before. The beauty of this appetizer is that it’s so easy. Simply slice off the top rind of the brie, slather on the cranberry sauce and bake.

This recipe works best if you have a small baking dish that snugly fits the brie. Either a mini cast iron pan or small glass baking dish will do. In a pinch, use aluminum foil shaped into a bowl on a baking sheet.

Cranberry Sauce

Makes 1 1/2 cups

Ingredients

1 bag of fresh cranberries (12 oz)
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 cup water

Directions

Combine the sugar, water and cranberries in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat.

Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes. The cranberries will start to pop, use the back of a wooden spoon to stir the mixture against the sides of the pot. Once the cranberries have released the pectin and appear gelled. It’s done. About 30-45 minutes.

Baked Brie and Cranberry Sauce Appetizer

Serves 6

1 small wheel of triple cream brie cheese
1/2 cup cranberry sauce
1 small baguette to serve

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Use a sharp knife to remove the top layer of the cheese rind so the cheese is exposed. Place the brie in a small cast iron skillet or other small metal or glass oven-proof dish.

Slather the brie with cranberry sauce and bake for 10-15 minutes until brie is almost completely melted. Serve with sliced French bread.

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Photos by Ally Jane Grossan

The post Throwback Recipe: A Classic Bubbling Baked Brie with Cranberry Sauce appeared first on EcoSalon.

Best Artisan Cheeses: 5 Professionals Weigh in on Their Favorites

Sierra Magazine — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 19:11:53 +0000

A little professional help for your cheese plate.

No matter how you slice it, mainstream cheese is inefficient fare: Almost 10 pounds of milk are needed to make a typical 1-pound wheel. But you need not forsake your favorite Gouda. Just choose a brand that takes sustainability into account. We asked five experts to name their favorites.

JEFF ROBERTS cofounded the Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese. His Atlas of American Artisan Cheese was the first book to comprehensively survey small-scale cheese makers.

“Long before sustainability was celebrated, LAZY LADY FARM in northern Vermont utilized green practices. The farm operates completely on solar and wind power, while the hillside aging caves take advantage of ambient temperature and humidity to make a diverse array of seasonal and organic goat’s and cow’s milk cheeses. La Petite Tomme, a bloomy-rind disk from goat’s milk, is a signature product. The soft surface yields to a moist interior with hints of mushroom, milk, and nuts.” $11 for 6 ounces, available seasonally at gourmetlibrary.com

Affineur WENDY WU is the cheese expert for Classified, a European-style cafe and retail chain in Hong Kong known for selling artisan foods. Time magazine named Classified one of its top five restaurants for cheese lovers.

“It’s wonderful to see production that follows the rhythms of nature and respects the land. BEAUFORT CHALET D’ALPAGE cow’s cheese, from the French Alps, illustrates how those traditions are preserved. In summer, meadows and pastures are perfect for grazing, and herds move up the mountains at their own pace. The cows are not overmilked and only produce enough milk per year for about 300 66-pound wheels. This ensures the quality of the cheese and, just as important, avoids overworking the pastures, which would harm wildflowers and grasses.” $19 for 8 ounces, available at gourmetfoodworld.com

JEANETTE HURT is the author of The Cheeses of Wisconsin: A Culinary Travel Guide and two other books about cheese.

“I’m a sucker for aged artisan cheeses, and Bob Wills of CEDAR GROVE CHEESE in Plain, Wisconsin, makes amazing organic and ecologically sensitive products. His creamery is the first — and still the only — to use a Living Machine system to treat wastewater on-site. Though I especially adore Dante, a nutty, aged sheep’s milk cheese, his fresh cheeses are equally good — and since they don’t require additional energy to age, they’re even greener. He’s opening a new sustainable plant that’ll use wind turbines for electricity.” $10 for 8 ounces

Third-generation dairyman TODD MOORE owns Lucky Layla Farms, an artisan brand in Plano, Texas. Moore is committed to keeping his products handcrafted and his cows hormone-free.

“FISCALINI‘s Vintage Bandage-Wrapped Cheddar has a beautiful earthy taste with a slight crunch from the tyrosine crystals that form during the aging process. These are true handcrafted cheeses made on a century-old, family-owned dairy farm in Modesto, California. The company is vertically integrated, which lowers its carbon footprint since they don’t truck milk back and forth. They also run their farm with an anaerobic digester, which produces fuel from cow manure and other waste products.” $15 for 8 ounces

MIYOKO SCHINNER is a vegan chef in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as an author, a natural-food developer, and a former restaurateur. Her latest cookbook, slated for publication this summer, is Say Cheese: Vegan Alternatives to Make You Smile.

“I’m a fan of BUTE ISLAND FOOD’S Blue Style Sheese, a vegan alternative to blue cheese. Though it doesn’t have the blue veins, it tastes remarkably like the real thing and is the only blue-cheese alternative I’ve found. It’s great crumbled in a salad or with fresh pears and apples. And because it’s plant-based, its production requires a fraction of the energy burned by its dairy counterpart.” $7 for 8 ounces, available at veganstore.com

–reported by Avital Binshtock

This post originally appeared in Sierra magazine.

Sierra is the magazine of the Sierra Club. Our motto: Explore, Enjoy, and Protect the Planet. Follow Sierra magazine on Twitter.

Image: CMMooney

The post Best Artisan Cheeses: 5 Professionals Weigh in on Their Favorites appeared first on EcoSalon.

artisan cheese – EcoSalon

Throwback Recipe: A Classic Bubbling Baked Brie with Cranberry Sauce

Best Artisan Cheeses: 5 Professionals Weigh in on Their Favorites