Make Your New Years Bright with Craisins® Baked Brie Recipe

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Although the end of the year often comes with stress and struggle (at least it does for me), I always seem to look forward to the NEW Year. It’s a great way to re-focus and re-organize and re-do everything that wasn’t exactly working in the previous year. In that respect, I go all out cleaning up the house, stocking up on firewood, piling up the DVD’s we’ll be binge-watching and preparing great snacks for all of us to enjoy. We don’t do the normal fare in our house, we tend to venture into the gourmet and nothing screams New Years Party to me more than Baked Brie. I discovered a great way to have all that goodness in one tiny bite-size package using Craisins® Dried Cranberries.

We usually make a big shopping trip to Walmart at the beginning of the week where we stock up on everything we’ll need for the holidays. I like to have everything in the house so I don’t have to put on shoes and go anywhere once it’s a few days out from Christmas and New Years. I’m not a fan of fighting the crowds.

I wasn’t a brie cheese fan when I was younger, but when I got up the nerve to try some baked brie at a party one year, I couldn’t believe what I had been missing. It’s a great appetizer to serve at a party, but I hate how it ends up looking like one big pile of cheesy mess after it’s been dug into a few times. I like finger foods, so this individual baked brie with Craisins® recipe is perfect… for a party, or for anytime.

Ingredients:

• Pastry Dough (thawed if previously frozen)
• Craisins® Dried Cranberries (I used original, but they also come in a variety of flavors)
• Wedge of Brie Cheese
• Butter

This is such a simple recipe to make and doesn’t take much time. If you have the ingredients in your home (and I recommend you always have some cheese, Craisins®, and Pastry Dough hanging around) it’s something that will really wow your guests… as in, “WOW! I had no idea you were such a fantastic cook.”

If you like a nuttier and crunchier pastry, you can also use the Craisins® Fruit Clusters. I purchased the Cranberry Almond, but they come in Cranberry Granola too.

You’ll want to prepare everything ahead of time to make it easy to assemble. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. I cut up the brie wedge I had into bite sized pieces. Take the white stuff off… you can eat it, but it’s hard and tastes bitter and I want a burst of flavor, not a “what was that I just ate?”

Melt some butter over the stovetop or the microwave (personal preference).

Lay out your pastry dough on a non-stick surface. Definitely make sure your dough is thawed if it was in the freezer. I always forget this step and then I have to wait around trying to keep myself busy while the dough gets soft enough to work with.

Take your sheet of pastry dough and cut into squares and then triangles. The size is up to you, depending on whether you want small, bite-size pieces or larger, meal size pieces. Coat each triangle with melted butter using a pastry brush. If you don’t have one… go get one. They are inexpensive and so incredibly useful to have in your kitchen.

Put a piece of cheese and some Craisins® in the middle of the triangle and fold like in the picture below. Finish the rest of your dough and lay out on a cookie sheet or baking pan. Brush the outside with melted butter and pop into the oven until golden, about 10 – 15 minutes.

You’ll want to serve these shortly after they are baked… before the cheese gets cold and hardens up again.

The Craisins® Dried Cranberries are a MUST because they will bring a zing to any recipe you make. They are perfect for topping salads, creating your own trail mixes, and I love using them in cookies and cakes as well. Okay, really… I also tend to just eat them out of the bag because 1/4 cup of Craisins® provide 1/2 cup serving of fruit. Take them with you when you travel since they don’t have to be refrigerated. You can find them in the dried fruit aisle at Walmart.

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Tell me what you would make with Ocean Spray® Craisins® Dried Cranberries. Better yet… post your recipe in the comments if you have one.