Fall Brie En Croute

Here's a super easy way to make a Brie en Croute that adds in all the goodies of our fall season.  It takes about 5 minutes to prep.

Ingredients:
1 can of crescent roll dough
8 oz wheel of Brie
1/3 C chopped pecans
1 T butter
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 C dried cranberries
1/4 C brown sugar
1 egg, beaten

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Soak cranberries in water for a minute or two to take the edge off, then drain and pat dry.
3. In a small sauce pan, melt the butter.  Stir in pecans and cinnamon, toasting for 3 minutes.
4. Roll out crescent dough on a cookie sheet.  Place Brie, toasted pecans, cranberries, and brown sugar on top.  Wrap crescent dough around the goodness.
5. Brush top and sides of dough with beaten egg.
6. Bake for 15-20, or until nicely baked and browned.

Caramelized Pecan Brie

I love a good baked brie.  Here's a way to dress up your brie and still have an amazing dish...

Ingredients:
6" round Brie
1/2 C lightly packed brown sugar
1/4 C corn syrup
1/4 C unsalted butter
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 C pecan halves (chopped, if you prefer)


Directions:
1. In a small saucepan, combine brown sugar, corn syrup and butter over medium heat.  Stir until boil, then boil gently (NO STIRRING) for a minute.
2. Remove from heat, and quickly whisk in baking soda.  Then, stir in salt and pecans.  Let set for about 30 seconds.
3. Finally, mound warm nut mixture (hehe...) on top of Brie, enabling the caramel to artfully cascade down the sides.  I served it in a borl to make it easier to serve, but I'm sure I'd fine a pretty cascading picture if I looked online.  Too lazy, peeps, sorry!

My Nuts...

I have now endured three weeks of jokes about my nuts.  No worries, they're just as great as everyone makes them out to be!

Mix yo' nuts!

This is Ina Garten's recipe from how easy is that?  

WARNING: these are highly addictive.  They're slightly spicy, but also sweet.  It all balances out, and for how easy it is, it's totally worth it!

Recipe for Chipotle and Rosemary Roasted Nuts

Coat and place them on a lined baking sheet

The top is post-roasting, the bottom is about to go in the oven.  It's hard to notice when you're whipping these out at 100 miles per hour, but side by side you can tell.

Once they've cooled, spread the love!  everyone loves getting things like this for birthdays/bar mitzvahs/holidays, etc!

Plus, bonus?  No filler peanuts that everyone leaves for last anyway!!

Ready to Go!