Bombaybrie

Good baking must come down to genetics. My mom was never much of a baker, and I’m the furthest a person can be from one. In fact, I dread making desserts. The cups, the teaspoons, the “baking times may vary” seem more like a science experiment than the joy of cooking. So, being the impatient person that I am, I try to find shortcuts in desert-making, but this just ends in disaster…
(The other day I tried to make date pudding cupcakes and had just put the batter into cupcake tins when I realized I forgot to add eggs to the batter. So, unlike any normal person, I figured I might as well beat up some eggs in a bowl and add a little to each cupcake and mix it around a bit with my fork. Apparently you can’t do that…because they ended up looking like..well you can judge for yourself).

Now that you know never to trust a true dessert recipe from me, I will say that I enjoy pseudo-desserts, meaning when I make desserts, I try to combine the sweet and the savory. My favorite types of desserts involve cheese and fruit, so in line with that this is a recipe for baked brie…the Indian way. I know you are probably thinking….Brie and Indian? Trust me, try this recipe and you will love it. It combines the traditional baked brie with an apple-cranberry Indian-style chutney.
Baked Brie with apple-cranberry chutney. Served with pita triangles.

For Recipe (Click Read More)

What you need:

Baked Brie:

1. 1 wheel brie
2. 2 eggs, beaten.
3. Puff pastry - 2 sheets

Apple-Cranberry Chutney:

1. 2 medium apples - 2 cups, peeled and chopped (I use a mix of Empire and Gala, but you can use Granny Smith if you want something a little more tart)
2. Fresh cranberries - 1 cup (You can also add some cherries)
3. Red onion - 1/2 cup, chopped 
4. Cider Vinegar - 2 tbsp
5. Brown sugar - 1/2 cup
6. Orange juice - 1 tbsp
7. Fresh ginger - 1 tbsp, freshly grated
8. Cinnamon - 1 tsp
9. Ground clove - just a pinch

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Throw all the chutney ingredients in a medium saucepan on medium-high heat. Once it starts boiling, cover and cook for 15-20 minutes. Take the lid off and allow to cool.
3. Using a very sharp knife (or unflavored dental floss), cut the brie in half horizontally - We need to create a top and bottom half to stuff the brie.
4. Spead a couple of tablespoons of the apple cranberry chutney on the bottom half of the brie.
5. Replace the top and add some pressure so the two halves are back in place.
6. Roll out the 2 sheets of puff pastry on a floured surface.
7. Sprinkle them both with some brown sugar.
8. Place the brie wheel in the middle of one of the puff pastry sheets and fold the excess pastry around the wheel. Turn in it over and cover the other side with the other puff pastry sheet.
9. Using a pastry brush, brush the egg wash on top of the puff pastry.
10. At this point you can be fancy and do cut-outs and pull out all the stops to make your brie pretty.
11. Put the whole thing on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 20 minutes or until the pastry is golden-brown.
12. Turn the heat down to 325°F and bake for another 20 minutes.

Done! I usually have quite a bit of chutney left over, so I use it as a condiment on the side along with roasted garlic, toasted pita/french bread triangles, and olives.