Brie, Pastry Wrapped, With Pepper Jelly

Here’s a simple, wicked tasty way to bring the festive to your winter festivities: baked brie, sliced in half and spread with pepper jelly, them wrapped in crescent roll dough, brushed with a bit of egg, and baked.

The original recipe, from the nice folk at Pillsbury, calls for wrapping the Brie in the entire packet of crescent doll dough, but I much prefer using half the dough and baking the rest as rolls to scoop up some of that luscious baked brie – oh, and my added secret on the road to yum: pepper jelly.

INGREDIENTS
•1 round (8 oz) Brie
•1 can (8 oz) crescent dinner rolls*
•Pepper jelly (a couple of tablespoons)
•1 egg, beaten

*Mebbe two – see below.

Heat your oven to 350°.

Open the crescent roll can and press half of the dough into a rectangle (form the other half of the dough into four rolls, arrange on a parchment lined baking sheet, mebbe with another can of crescent rolls, and bake according to package instructions.

I used a brie baker we’d picked up on special at a shop just after Christmas – an advantage to having a gathering just after the holidays – so used that; if you don’t have a Brie baker (a round, ceramic baking dish to hole the cheese), line a baking sheet with parchment paper and arrange the squared out half of the dough in the center.

Cut the Brie in half through the center and set aside.

Arrange the dough in the baker, or in the center of the parchment lined baking pan, and place half the Brie, cut side up, in the center.

Spread with pepper jelly to cover, then place the second Brie half, cut side down, on top.

Fold the dough over the Brie, pressing to bring together in the center, then brush with the lightly beaten egg. You could get a bit fancy and gather the dough points into a kindofa crown flourish in the center in honor of Brie’s appellation as the “queen of cheese,” but I just kept it simple and trusted to the egg wash and warm oven to make some magic all by themselves.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the dough is golden brown.

Slightly crusty, golden brown dough filled with warm and rich, creamy cheese – and that surprise element of the pepper jelly in the middle – who needs fondu? I served ours with crackers and a cheese knife for spreading; I did not have the foresight to think to bake a that half can of crescent rolls along with another can to serve warm with the Brie until I was editing the images and recipe for this post, bummer.

Still, I have another wheel of Brie in the fridge, plenty of my pepper jelly** in the pantry, a coupon for crescent rolls, and another dinner party coming up.

Sounds like a plan.

**My pepper jelly really is pretty tasty – sweet and spicy at the same time, and a snap to make – but many markets and most good specialty food stores carry a variety of pepper jellies to suit anyone’s taste (one of my nephew’s gave me a jar of habanero jam for Christmas)… of course, after seeing what some of those places charge for pepper jelly, you may want to reconsider making your own; so it’s a good thing you have my recipe.