Spiked Autumn Salad Baked Brie

By ltrodrigu

Change it up this holiday season with this amazing Spiked Autumn Salad Baked Brie! Your guests are sure to love it!

Best Brie to Use:

Kunik from Nettle Meadow Farm in Warrensburg, N.Y.: a triple crème made of goat’s milk and Jersey cream, is rich and tangy as cultured butter. Serve with quince or apple preserves. nettlemeadow.com

Vermont Creamery St. Albans: a cow’s-milk cheese, is the funkiest of this bunch, with notes of buttermilk and fermenting hay. Bake it in the crock it comes in, with kataifi set directly on top. A drizzle of caramel makes a nice complement. vermontcreamery.com

Marin French Cheese Traditional Brie: hails from the oldest continuously operating dairy in the U.S. marinfrenchcheese.com

Ingredients

• BRIE:
• kataifi (aka knafeh), a Mediterranean variety often labeled “shredded Phyllo”
• Melted butter
• 1 wheel of Brie
• SALAD:
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 8 cloves
• 1 teaspoon cardamom seeds
• 1/4 cup gold rum
• 12 dried apricots, quartered
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 2 chopped apples
• 2 chopped pears
• seeds of 1 pomegranate
• cilantro, for garnish

Preparation

Step 1

BRIE:
Preheat oven to 425°F.

To work with frozen kataifi, loosen or break the strands apart, keeping unworked portions moist under a damp towel. Wrap loose clumps around the entire cheese or make a crown to perch on top. Messy is beautiful and less is more—use too much and it won’t crisp properly. Before baking, brush the kataifi liberally with melted butter. Place the pastry-topped cheese on a sheet pan lined with buttered parchment and bake until the kataifi is crisp and golden brown—10 to 20 minutes depending on the size of the cheese.

SALAD:
In a saucepan, combine water, sugar, lime juice, cloves and cardamom seeds. Bring to a boil, add rum, reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Strain out spices and add dried apricots and dried cranberries,. Refrigerate overnight. 1 hour before serving, toss in apples, pears and pomegranate seeds. Refrigerate 1 hour.

Surround baked Brie with salad. Garnish with cilantro. Serve immediately.