Baked Brie with Cranberry Currant Sauce

Warm, velvety Brie bakes until it’s molten underneath a sauce highlighting seasonal cranberries and holiday spices. Served with crisp crackers or fruit slices, it can be a fun appetizer or a festive after-dinner cheese dish. This is a recipe perfect for when friends gather together for cheer and comfort as the days grow shorter and the evenings cooler. 

The cranberries arriving at the market announce that fall is in full swing.  Their beautiful color and tart flavor make them a great addition to a range of dishes, both sweet and savory.

I found this recipe in a column titled “Still Crazy for Cranberries” by Abby Mandel in the November 1989 issue of Bon Appétit.  Mandel points out that because of cranberries’ versatility, “it’s a shame to relegate them to a single appearance at Thanksgiving.” She’s right.

The cranberry currant sauce is quick to put together and cooks Ian about 10 minutes. It can be made days ahead of when you plan to serve it atop the Brie (and is tasty on its own or as an accompaniment to another dish). I appreciated that it uses less sugar than a typical cranberry sauce.  The dried currants, which are more tart than raisins and small enough to blend into the background of the sauce, deliver a note of surprise.  If you wanted to substitute a different dried fruit, I think dried apricots would also work, cut into small pieces.

After rinsing the cranberries, you combine them with brown sugar, currants, and a pinch of five different spices. 

Soon the cranberries are popping within liquid on the stove, creating a thick sauce.

I decided to add finely chopped pecans to the sauce to give another dimension of texture and provide a nutty element to the dish. Toasting the pecans briefly before chopping them keeps them crunchy.  To maintain that crunch, I added them to the sauce right before topping the Brie.

As the cooked sauce cools, it’s time to attend to the cheese.  Instead of baking the Brie as it comes out of the package, Mandel suggests lifting off most of the top layer of the bloomy rind.  Removing a circle of the top rind helps in two ways. It makes for a milder taste when guests scoop into the baked Brie, and it also holds the sauce in place during the baking time. The oven time with this dish is quite brief. You want the Brie to soften and melt a bit inside, but not collapse on the baking dish before serving.

Mandel wrote this recipe to serve 12 and so suggests using a large two-pound wheel of Brie. I opted for two smaller wheels and since I only cooked one at a time, I refrigerated the leftover sauce for use with the second baked wheel a couple days later.

When the Brie emerged from the oven, it was soft to the touch and smelled of spices. The garnet color of the cranberry currant sauce invited us to dig in. As we spooned some of the warm cheese and sauce onto a cracker, it spread evenly.  The tart flavors of the fruit sauce–with whole collapsed cranberries set against crunchy nuggets of pecans– blended with the velvety Brie, creating a pillow of flavor atop the crisp crackers and apple slices.  

Beautiful, seasonal comfort food will make any fall or winter gathering a lot more special. I vote to stay crazy for cranberries!

Baked Brie with Cranberry Currant Sauce

Sunnyside Cook

Dawn Dobie

Warm velvety brie topped with a tart yet sweet cranberry sauce makes for an easy and elegant holiday offering.

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 45 minutes mins

Servings 12

Ingredients

  

Cranberry Currant Sauce

• 3 cups whole raw cranberries 12 ounce bag
• 3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1/3 cup dried currants
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup pecan halves or pieces
• 1/8 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

Cheese

• 2 5- inch diameter Brie cheese wheels or 1 8-inch diameter Brie cheese wheel at room temperature

To serve alongside

• Crackers
• Apple slices
• Pear slices

Instructions

 

For the cranberry currant sauce

• Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Place the pecan pieces in a small baking pan in a single layer and bake for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
• Finely chop the pecans and place them aside in a small bowl.
• Pick through the raw cranberries, removing any spoiled or mushy ones. Rinse the cranberries in a colander and allow to drain.
• Transfer the cranberries, sugar, currants, water, and spices to a medium saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat for 5-10 minutes, stirring often. You’ll hear the cranberries begin to pop during this time. Once most of them have popped and the sauce has thickened a bit, remove the sauce from the heat. Transfer the sauce to a small bowl and allow to cool to room temperature.
• Add the chopped pecans to the sauce right before spooning the sauce onto the cheese.

For the cheese

• Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
• Using a small sharp knife, make a shallow circle about 1/2 inch from the outer rim of the cheese. Using the knife blade at a very shallow angle, remove the top rind inside this circle, taking care not to pierce the outer rim of the rind.
• Once the top circle of rind has been removed, place the Brie either in a shallow ceramic baking dish or on a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet.
• If using two wheels of Brie, divide the cranberry sauce between the two wheels and spread to the outer circle of the rind. If using the larger wheel, spoon the sauce into the single circle and spread to the edges.
• Bake the smaller wheels for 7 minutes, or until the cheese is soft but not oozing. Bake the larger wheel for 12 minutes. Remove from oven.
• If using the cookie sheet, transfer the Brie carefully to a serving dish using a large spatula to support it. Allow to cool a bit.
• Surround the wheel(s) of Brie with crackers and fruit slices. Delicious warm or at room temperature.

Notes

The cranberry currant sauce can be made up to 4 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate it until it’s ready to use.
If making ahead of time, keep the chopped pecans covered and separate from the sauce. Add to the sauce right before topping the Brie and baking it.

Adapted from Abby Mandel in Bon Appétit (November 1989)