// Adapted from Nerds with Knives // As seen on Feed Feed: Cheese boards //
As cheese boards editor of The FeedFeed, I get to feature the best cheese boards and platters from Instagram every month. What I look for are interesting cheeses, awesome food styling, fun color palettes, new ways to cut fruit or display accompaniments.
Baked brie is probably one of the easiest dishes to serve at a party. When it comes with its own wooden dish, all you need to do is remove the wrapping paper and bake it for 20 minutes at 350 degrees F.
This will work for any camembert, brie, double creme and triple creme. However there are few key things to keep in mind before baking any kind of bloomy cheese.
- Double and triple creme cheese have way more fat than just regular brie. That means they will pool or have a more likelihood of bursting. When baking these and if they don't have a wood case, put them in a ramekin on top of another baking sheet to catch drips.
- To prevent bursting, cut a few slits in the top of the cheese like you would a pie. They're vents! Make a cross or two parallel slashes.
- Brie wedges pre-cut from the store can still be baked but remember to remove all plastic and paper labels before proceeding. Similarly to above, you need the right vessel to bake it in. If you put a wedge in a circular dish, it'll melt to fit the container--kind of like fondue!
I found a recipe from Nerds with Knives for baked brie with honey and pistachio. It acts as both a showstopper for your board but also an all-in-one pairing. It is texturally diverse: you have a gooey brie, smooth honey that only gets even more drippy when it hits the warm cheese and satisfyingly crunchy pistachio.
When I made this, I crushed the pistachios to vary the texture even more. When it is powder thin and packed together, it has almost the oily texture of a Reese's peanut butter center; and the bigger chunks provide a crunch to the molten cheese you are about to eat.
Instead of brie, I used a wheel of Weybridge from Jasper Hill Farm. Named after the Vermont town, Weybridge is a cow's milk bloomy cheese featuring Dutch Belt milk. It is taller and has a smaller circumference than a grocery store brie. It fits right into a small ramekin.
I also decided to try a new honey substitute that I found. Bee Free mint honee is completely vegan and made from apples. Creator Katie Sanchez was trying to make apply jelly and made something that totally wasn't jelly, she stumbled upon honee. It is a little thinner than honey and doesn't seem to crystallize (so far as I have seen). This opens up so many crazy thoughts about bees, honey and fruits. Like, do you know how figs are made?
Off-topic! Anyway, this recipe is great. Let me know if you try it.
Have you seen a great cheese platter on Instagram? To participate, simply add the hashtags #CheeseBoard #FeedFeed to your Instagram post, feel free to tag @Randwiches or send a DM to let me know.