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Default brie en croute / baked brie

I first started making brie en croute this summer, when it came up as
part of our Viva La France! summer camp. The recipe provided by the
cooking school was very persnickety and a pain in the butt to make.

I've made some serious modifications to my method and it seems much
easier to do it my way.

Can anyone see the reason for their using so many steps....other than
to simply keep the chilren busy with cooking related tasks?

THEIR WAY:

1. Remove the rind from a wedge of brie with a pastry bench.

2. Cut the brie into 1/4" cubes.

3. Place cubes in bowl. Cover with plastic wrap. Freeze for 30
minutes. At the same time, remove puff pastry from freezer.

4. 30 minutes later, roll puff pastry on floured board. Spray muffin
tins. Use a 3" and a 2" biscuit cutter to cut out circles from the
puff pastry. Fit each 3" circle into a muffin cup.

5. Fill pastry cups with frozen brie cubes. Then, brush a 2" pastry
circle with egg wash, place it on the muffin cup of brie cubes, and
pinch seams together.

6. Poke a steam vent in each pastry cup.

7. Freeze filled pastry cups for 30 minutes.

8. Bake at 425 for 25 minutes, then allow to stand for 5 minutes.

MY METHOD:

1. Thaw puff pastry.

2. Remove rind from brie if desired. Cut brie into chunks of about an
ounce and a half. (You should get 4 pieces from a standard grocery-
store-sized wedge of brie.)

3. Roll puff pastry out slightly. Cut 1 sheet into 3 strips about 6"
long and then cut a strip off the bottom as well so you get 4 strips
from the sheet of pastry.

4. Wrap each chunk of brie in a piece of puff pastry. Seal the seams
with wet fingers.

5. Brush with egg wash and cut steam vents. Place in sprayed ramekins
if you want them to retain a round shape, or on a cookie sheet if they
came out looking more like giant ravioli =)

6. Freeze for 30 minutes. Bake at 425 for 20 minutes.

I don't see the necessity of cubing the brie and freezing it before
filling the pastries. I've made it both ways and I was wondering if it
affected the consistency of the cheese, but ewhen I prepare them the
simpler way the cheese still melts completely, no problem. One large
chunk works fine. Any idea why they would add the extra work of tiny
cubes of cheese and then the step of freezing the brie cubes? makes it
a high=prep kinda laborious meal!

Anyways. I made these for dinner last night. I serve them over a salad
of mixed baby greens and baby spinach with red onon slivers, grape
tomatoes and toasted sliced almonds, and a dijon vinaigrette. I also
jazzed up the presentation by adding a few black nicoise olives,
several tiny gherkins, and 2 fan-sliced strawberries to each plate.
Alongside we had a big bowl of apple slices (granny smith) and red and
green grapes, and fat warm slices of sourdough baguette with fresh
butter.

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Default brie en croute / baked brie

Jude wrote:
> I first started making brie en croute this summer, when it came up as
> part of our Viva La France! summer camp. The recipe provided by the
> cooking school was very persnickety and a pain in the butt to make.
>
> I've made some serious modifications to my method and it seems much
> easier to do it my way.
>
> Can anyone see the reason for their using so many steps....other than
> to simply keep the chilren busy with cooking related tasks?


Their version makes a lot of comparatively bite-sized pieces, which could be
preferable in some situations.


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Default brie en croute / baked brie

Jude wrote:
>
> Anyways. I made these for dinner last night. I serve them over a salad
> of mixed baby greens and baby spinach with red onon slivers, grape
> tomatoes and toasted sliced almonds, and a dijon vinaigrette. I also
> jazzed up the presentation by adding a few black nicoise olives,
> several tiny gherkins, and 2 fan-sliced strawberries to each plate.
> Alongside we had a big bowl of apple slices (granny smith) and red and
> green grapes, and fat warm slices of sourdough baguette with fresh
> butter.
>


Sounds good!
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Default brie en croute / baked brie

Janet Puistonen wrote:
> Jude wrote:
> > I first started making brie en croute this summer, when it came up as
> > part of our Viva La France! summer camp. The recipe provided by the
> > cooking school was very persnickety and a pain in the butt to make.
> >
> > I've made some serious modifications to my method and it seems much
> > easier to do it my way.
> >
> > Can anyone see the reason for their using so many steps....other than
> > to simply keep the chilren busy with cooking related tasks?

>
> Their version makes a lot of comparatively bite-sized pieces, which could be
> preferable in some situations.


Um, no, it doesn't.

The cheese is cut into 1/4" cubes, but then those tiny cubes are used
to fill muffin cups of pastry. These come out to the same size as
taking a block of cheese and wrapping pastry around it. When baked,
either one is....about the size of a ramekin or muffin cup.

Remember, when baked, cheese will MELT. The oozy mess inside the
pastry is no longer a solid, so it doesn't matter if it begins as
little cubes or a big block. Still melts the same way.

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Default brie en croute / baked brie

Jude wrote:
> Janet Puistonen wrote:
>> Jude wrote:
>>> I first started making brie en croute this summer, when it came up
>>> as part of our Viva La France! summer camp. The recipe provided by
>>> the cooking school was very persnickety and a pain in the butt to
>>> make.
>>>
>>> I've made some serious modifications to my method and it seems much
>>> easier to do it my way.
>>>
>>> Can anyone see the reason for their using so many steps....other
>>> than to simply keep the chilren busy with cooking related tasks?

>>
>> Their version makes a lot of comparatively bite-sized pieces, which
>> could be preferable in some situations.

>
> Um, no, it doesn't.
>
> The cheese is cut into 1/4" cubes, but then those tiny cubes are used
> to fill muffin cups of pastry. These come out to the same size as
> taking a block of cheese and wrapping pastry around it. When baked,
> either one is....about the size of a ramekin or muffin cup.
>
> Remember, when baked, cheese will MELT. The oozy mess inside the
> pastry is no longer a solid, so it doesn't matter if it begins as
> little cubes or a big block. Still melts the same way.


Reading too quickly...I missed the 1/4" part. I was thinking more 1", and
assuming that the pastry would be proportionately small, not fill the cup.

The only thing left is to figure that they wanted to share the brie out
amongst a whole lot of kids. But pieces that small aren't worth bothering
with, IMHO.


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