Easy Holiday Entertaining: Baked Brie

This past Friday night, my friend Maggie had a belated birthday bash.  Since it was a Friday night (and she had just finished her last law school final for the semester), the party was going to be really low-key with holiday cookie and gingerbread house decorating.  Of course, there would also be plenty of food and drinks!  I asked Maggie if I could make anything for the party and she asked if I would bring an appetizer.

Normally, I would have made something on Thursday night and planned ahead but my life has been quite a roller coaster lately.  After cooking dinner on Thursday night, I just didn't have the energy to do anything more.  I did, however, do a quick search online for quick and easy appetizers and baked brie came up on a few of my searches.  Since I had a few sheets of puff pastry in the freezer, I thought this was the best way to go and took one sheet out of the freezer to thaw overnight.

On my way home from work on Friday night, I stopped by Whole Foods to pick up a few additional items, including a jar of Stonewall Kitchen's Red Raspberry Jam and a wheel of brie.

I took the now thawed piece of puff pastry dough and rolled it out on a floured board.  I unwrapped the brie and put it in the center of the puff pastry dough with the rind on.

I topped the brie with the raspberry jam so that it covered the entire top of the cheese at about an inch thick.

I folded the dough up like I was wrapping a gift and made sure that both the brie and jam were covered entirely.

Since I was transporting the baked brie to a party, I wrapped it up in a piece of aluminum foil that I sprayed with cooking spray.  When I got to the party, I "borrowed" an egg, which I whisked up to make a quick egg wash on the puff pastry.  The puff pastry-wrapped brie was put in the oven for about twenty minutes at 425 degrees.  When it was done, the puff pastry had baked wonderfully and the baked brie had a nice golden brown crust.  I served the baked brie with Back to Nature crackers, as I've become a huge fan of Back to Nature since I went to their event at Government Center this past fall.

I've never made baked brie before but it was super easy and looks way more difficult to make in its presentation than it actually is.  The brie turned into a melted gooey slightly-salty spread and the red raspberry jam added both tartness and sweetness to each bite.  As you can tell, people dug into it straight out of the oven and I wasn't quick enough to get a picture before people broke into it.  But you know what? I think that's a pretty nice compliment when people can't wait to try a dish out!

Do you have any easy appetizers that you like to make in a pinch?  Also, voting closes in just a few days for Boston's Best Local Blogger.  It is not too late to vote here!