Baked Brie should win some kind of prize for Most Impressive Looking Appetizer that Took Almost No Work to Prepare.

Seriously.

(When they come out with that kind of food award, let me know. I’ll be sure to enter this sumptuous hunk of easy, cheesy goodness.)

This is a great appetizer to throw together when you have unexpected guests. Once you have a wheel of brie (the little ones are just fine), you can put it together with stuff from the pantry (frozen puff pastry, nuts, jam).

Customize this recipe to suit your tastes—and what you have on hand

After you get the basic method of how to make one of these, you can really put your own stamp on it with different flavors and ingredients. Basically, the only requirement is that you start with a brie that has an edible rind. (Because, after all, you’ll be eating it rind and all…)

Make your own combination. Try different bries. Swap in different nuts and jams. Fig and pecan would be great. So would peach and almond. You get the idea.

I made this with an earthy and delicious black truffle brie that I got at (you guessed it) Sam’s Club! It was perfectly ripe and had a good mushroom-y flavor.

For the puff pastry, I used Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry. I love frozen puff pastry. It’s such a life saver to have on hand. You can do so much with it…turn it into cookies, cheese straws, tarte crust, etc. in a pinch. If you don’t have any, grab a box in the freezer section the next time you’re at the grocery store. Toss it in the freezer, and forget about it. It’ll be there when you need it.

Baked Brie

For the brie
1 sheet frozen puff pastry
flour
1 wheel brie
1/2 cup raspberry jam
1 cup whole walnut halves
1 egg, beaten
dark brown sugar

Serve with
Crackers
Sliced French bread
Sliced granny smith apples

Serves 10-12 as an appetizer

Thaw your puff pastry

Grab your puff pastry out of the freezer. Unwrap it and let it sit on the counter for about 30 minutes to thaw. You’ll need one piece for this recipe.

Assemble the baked brie

Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and set it aside. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

When your puff pastry is thawed (it’ll be soft enough to unfold without cracking), grab your brie. Unwrap it. You’re going to use it just like this, without cutting it or doing anything else to it.

Sprinkle a little flour on a board. Unfold the piece of puff pastry.

Roll it out a little to smooth out the fold lines, which will make it easier to tuck around the brie.

Check the pastry for size. Put your brie in the middle of it.

Loosely fold the pastry over the brie, making sure that you have enough to completely envelop it. If it’s too small, roll it out a little more. If the sheet of dough is ridiculously bigger than the cheese, trim a little off the edges. (How will you know if it’s too much dough? Trust me, you’ll know. It’ll be like putting an elephant-sized sweater on a little kid.)

Once you know your dough is the right size, transfer it to your parchment lined pan.

Set the brie in the center of the pastry.

Put the jam on top of the brie.

Spread it to cover the edges of the brie.

Top with a layer of nuts.

Fold the dough up over the whole thing.

You want to wind up with a nice little bundle, like this. Basically, fold it however you like, just don’t poke any holes in it, or your cheese/jam might ooze out and your pastry might not poof up as much.

Now, I left my bundle alone. If you like, however, if you have extra puff pastry (scraps or from another sheet), you can cut little strips and stick them on with egg wash to make a pretty pattern.

Beat up an egg.

Brush the top of your puff pastry bundle with the beaten egg.

Decorate the top with a few nice walnut halves (hit the tops with a little beaten egg).

Sprinkle with brown sugar.

Bake the brie!

Pop the swaddled brie into your preheated 350-degree oven. Bake for about 30 minutes, until golden brown and poofy.

When it’s done, remove it from the oven.

Transfer to a platter. Serve hot, with crackers, sliced French bread, sliced granny smith apples, etc.

Enjoy!

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Be still my heart. I think I would eat these every day if I could.

This is the first of my trio of holiday appetizer recipes that I developed for Sam’s Club. It’s definitely my new favorite munchy type thing.

These h’ors d’oeuvres are really easy to throw together on the fly. Basically, you take slices of goat cheese, dip them in beaten egg, then coat them in seasoned panko breadcrumbs, then fry in a little olive oil until crispy.

The outside crust is unbelievably crunchy and flavorful. The inside cheese is warm, creamy, and really smooth. The combination makes for a killer app.

The best part? Because goat cheese is more of a dry, crumbly cheese, it won’t melt and ooze all over as it cooks. (Granted, it’s in and out of the pan in a flash…)

You could also serve it as more of a main dish (say, for brunch), over a salad with some good garlic bread and a glass of red wine.

Tips for slicing goat cheese

• To make the cheese a little easier to slice, pop it in the freezer for about 15 minutes before cutting to firm it up.
• Use a sharp, non-serrated knife and wipe it down with a paper towel and warm water in between slices.
• Try cutting it cheese-shop style, with a piece of clean stainless steel wire—or unflavored dental floss.

This recipe is easy to scale

This is one of those recipes that’s easy to scale up or down, depending on how many people you’re feeding. Once you get the basic technique down, it’s simple.

Because this is holiday season, I included a recipe for a whole pound of goat cheese, so you can feed all your hungry friends.

If you wanted to get really fancy, you could also mold the cheese into different shapes before frying.

Crispy Fried Goat Cheese

16 oz. goat cheese log
1 cup panko bread crumbs
2 tsp. dried parsley
1 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 tsp. granulated garlic
1/2 tsp. ground white pepper
pinch of kosher salt
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup of flour
olive oil

Yields about 8 pieces of fried goat cheese, depending on how thick you cut the cheese

Chill your cheese

Grab your goat cheese. I used Laura Chenel goat cheese, which comes from Sonoma County. Pop it in the freezer for about 15 minutes to firm it up so it’s easier to slice.

Prep your dredging station

While your cheese is chilling, put together the stuff you need to bread the cheese. Grab your panko bread crumbs.

Panko are extra crispy Japanese bread crumbs, made from crustless white bread. You can find them at most major grocery stores these days. If you can’t find panko, you can order them online, or substitute regular breadcrumbs in a pinch.

Put the panko in a medium-sized bowl. Add the parsley, thyme, granulated garlic, ground white pepper, and kosher salt.

Stir to combine well.

Crack the eggs in a bowl. (I made a big batch, hence the extra egg in my picture.) Beat to scramble them.

Line a sheet pan or plate with wax or parchment paper.

Put the flour on a plate or in a shallow bowl. By now, your counter should look something like this.

Slice & bread the cheese

Grab your cheese out of the freezer. Slice it into 1/4 – 1/2-inch pieces. Use a sharp knife.

Wipe the knife off with a warm, wet paper towel in between cuts.

Now, your slice may crumble a little. If it does, don’t fret. It’s cheese, after all: Just smoosh it into a rough round shape and keep going.

Put the cheese in the flour. Flip it gently to coat on both sides.

Drop the floured cheese into the beaten egg. Flip it gently to coat with egg on both sides.

Lastly, put it into the seasoned panko breadcrumbs. Flip it to coat on both sides.

Your finished cheese should look like it’s wearing a crunchy little sweater by the time you’re done.

Put it on your lined pan or plate.

Repeat with the rest of the cheese. You could do this maybe an hour ahead of time and keep them in the fridge.

Fry the cheese

(Sigh. Those words just make me happy…) Put a little olive oil in a nonstick pan. Use just enough to coat the bottom of the pan. Set it on the stove over high heat. When the oil shimmers, you’re ready to fry.

Grab one of your slices of breaded goat cheese. It’s going to sound silly, but I pick them up like this. It helps keep the coating on, and helps keep them from falling apart when you lift them.

Set the cheese down gently in the hot oil. It should start to bubble around the edges immediately. Repeat with the rest of the cheese. Depending on the size of your pan and how many pieces you’re frying, you might need to fry in batches so you don’t crowd the pan. (A crowded pan means your food will almost steam, instead of fry, and you’ll wind up with soggy cheese….and nobody needs that.)

Keep an eye on your cheese…it cooks fast. When the cheese is brown on the bottom (this will happen very quickly), flip it over carefully with a spatula.

When it’s brown on the second side, remove the cheese from the pan, and transfer to a paper towel or paper bag lined plate. If you’re fying a lot of these little guys, you could try keeping them warm in a super low (like 150 degrees) oven, so the cheese doesn’t melt.

Serve and enjoy!

Transfer the fried goat cheese to a serving platter.

Stay tuned for another fabulous holiday app!

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If you’ve ever met me in person, even once, you’re almost guaranteed to know at least one thing about me: I love cheese.

With autumn coming, I’m starting to swing into baking mode. It’s something that I look forward to every year.

This cheese bread is moist and dense, and packed with cheese-y flavor.

The wreath shape is really festive, and is an easy way to dress up any fall meal or celebration.

Sam’s Club & The Hungry Mouse

Before I get to the bread, I’m really excited to announce that The Hungry Mouse is working on a few special projects with Sam’s Club!

I’ll be doing some special recipe development, as well as hosting a bunch of awesome giveaways over the coming months. They’re even paying me for my time. (Thanks, guys!! Here’s to keeping The Hungry Mouse in cheese all year round…)

Stay tuned for more info. I’m so excited!

On to the cheese!

Sam’s Club recently sent me about 600 different kinds of of cheese and asked me to use some of them to develop a recipe. (Alright, I’m exaggerating. They sent me 14 big pieces of cheese, which is still an epic amount of cheese, especially for a mouse…)

If you don’t think that Sam’s Club is a place to buy cheese, think again.

I’m fussy (as in, really fussy) about my cheese, and I was beyond blown away by the quality of the stuff they sent me to test. I’ll definitely be heading there to pick up cheese when I need bigger blocks.

Have your cheese and eat it, too…in France!

Sam’s Club is running a contest right now, and the grand prize is a trip to France!

Check out their New Cheeses Facebook application for more info on how to enter, and to learn more about the cheeses they offer. You can also visit their Fall Harvest site.

Meet the three cheeses

So, out of all the cheeses Sam’s sent me, I picked the Parmesan, the asiago fresco, and the herbed gouda for this recipe. I wanted to use stronger cheeses to be sure my bread had really good flavor.

This asiago is actually asiago fresco, which means it’s not aged, so it’s softer and creamier.

The Parmesan is salty and nutty.

And the gouda is flecked with herbs, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and garlic.

To the ovens!

Harvest Cheese Bread Wreath

1 Tbls. yeast
1 Tbls. white sugar
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
4 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
2 cups grated cheese for dough (I used equal parts asiago, gouda, & parm)
1 cup grated cheeese for topping (I used the gouda)

Serves about 10

Proof the yeast

Take the time to do this. By proofing the yeast (i.e. mixing it with warm water and a little sugar), you’re confirming that your yeast is happy, healthy, and (most importantly) alive.

Put the yeast in the bowl of your mixer (or a large mixing bowl if making by hand).

Toss in the sugar.

Add the warm water. (You want warm water, not hot. Hot water will kill the yeast. Basically, use water warm enough to wash your hands comfortably in.)

Mix them up and let the bowl sit on the counter for about 10 minutes. After about 10 minutes, you should see that a “raft” of yeast has formed on the top. It will be opaque and creamy looking. That means your yeast is alive and happy.

(If for some reason you don’t see this, toss the mixture and try again. Either your water was too hot, or your yeast was already dead to begin with, in which case you’ll need to purchase fresh yeast.)

While the yeast is proofing, grate up the cheese.

Make the dough

When the yeast is proofed, toss the flour and salt into the bowl. (The cheese has some salt, too, so if you’re sensitive about salt intake, leave this bit out.)

I use my KitchenAid to mix the dough, so I always give it a preliminary mix by hand (well, by hook) to avoid flour flying everywhere when I turn on my mixer.

Slap the bowl on your stand mixer and mix with your dough hook until you have a rough dough.

With the mixer running on low, sprinkle the cheese into the dough.

When you’ve added all the cheese, crank up the speed for a minute or two, and knead the dough until it’s fairly elastic.

Round the dough up into a ball with your hands. (If there are crumbs of sorts in the bottom of the bowl, just smoosh them into the dough by hand.)

The first rise

Cover the bowl with a few damp towels. Set it in a warm place to rise for about an hour, or until the dough has doubled in size.

My dough looked like this after about an hour:

Roll out the dough

Sprinkle a little flour on a board or your counter.

Punch down the dough to smoosh all the air out of it. Round it up into a neat ball on the board.

Whack the dough into three relatively even pieces with a bencher or a large, sharp knife.

Take one piece. Roll it into a tube between your palms, just like you used to when you played with Play-D’oh when you were a kid.

Now, normally, I’m not one for weights and measures, but the thickness (and hence, length) of the dough affects how long the bread will have to bake. Roll the tube out until it’s about 2 feet long.

Yep, I said 2 feet.

Repeat with the other two pieces of dough.

Make sure they’re about even in width.

Braid the dough

Line a sheet pan or a pizza pan with parchment paper and set it aside.

If you know how to braid hair, you know how to braid bread dough. If you don’t, here’s a quick walk through.

Grab the three ends of the dough.

Put them together like this and smoosh them so they stick together.

You braid from the outside in. Take the piece on the left and cross it over the center piece.

Take the piece on the right and cross it over the piece that’s now in the center.

Keep going like this until you get to the end of the dough.

Gather the ends together. Press them together and tuck them under, so they stick together.

And…voila! You should have one massively long dough braid.

And now (wait for it), curl both ends up together until they meet in a circle.

Transfer the dough to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Take a look now at the place where the two dough ends meet. Smoosh them together so they stick. Don’t make yourself nuts with this. Just get them to stick together. As the dough rises, the circle will become more secure, as long as the ends were loosely connected to begin with.

Let the wreath rise like this, uncovered, in a warm place for about an hour, or until it’s doubled in size.

About 15 minutes before you think it’ll be done, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

After about an hour, you should be looking at a nice, plump wreath.

Brush the dough with egg wash

Beat up one egg in a medium-sized bowl.

With your hand or a pastry brush, gently brush the dough with beaten egg. Be careful not to press too hard, because you’ll squeeze the air out of the dough.

Don’t be fussy…just cover the whole braid with beaten egg. The great thing about bread is that, no matter how messy it looks before you bake it, it almost always looks beautiful when it comes out of the oven.

Sprinkle the top of the bread with 1 cup of grated cheese (I used the gouda).

Bake the bread

Pop the pan into your preheated, 350-degree oven. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until lightly browned on top.

When it’s done, yank it out of the oven.

Let it cool on the pan for about 5 minutes, then slide it off onto a rack to finish cooling.

.

Slice. Serve. Inhale.

Enjoy! Happy fall, everyone!

*Please note that Sam’s Club compensated me for my participation in this campaign.

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The idea of making cheese at home is kind daunting. There’s talk of rennet and starters and thermometers and precise temperature readings.

Make no mistake, I’ll get to major cheesemaking. One of these days.

Luckily, making ricotta at home is an easy way to get your feet wet. And you’re almost guaranteed to succeed. All you have to do is follow a few simple rules. The biggest one is to use regular, pasteurized milk (see below).

Honestly, this is so simple. I don’t know why I haven’t done it before.

Much like making your own butter, making ricotta is just breaking down milk into its component parts (solids and liquids), then keeping the solids. I’m oversimplifying a little, but that’s basically it.

It’s one of those acts of culinary magic where you transform a few of the most basic ingredients into something worthy of serving to royalty.

The ricotta you make is luscious, creamy, and so sweet and clean tasting. Seriously: I don’t know why I haven’t done this before.

My friend Alyssa recently attended a weekend cheese-making course at a little farm in Vermont. She came back with a notebook full of cheesemaking wisdom. More on her adventure in a post to come soon.

I left my photocopies of the farm’s ricotta recipe at the office, so I used Bon Appetit’s recipe instead, which was similar.

How to make ricotta

To make ricotta, you just need to add an acid element to a pot of simmering milk. In this case, I used lemon juice, but you could also use white vinegar, etc.

The acid makes the curds (milk solids) separate out from the whey (milk liquid). You skim off the curd, strain it, and…voila! Ricotta!

It’s really that simple.

How pasteurization works (and why it matters when you make ricotta)

This is important. When you make this ricotta, be sure to use pasteurized milk—not ultra pasteurized.

It’s a small detail, but it makes a big difference. Now, I’m not a cheesemaking expert (yet!) by a long shot, but here’s what I’ve gathered.

When milk is processed, it’s heated (i.e. pasteurized) to lower micro-organism counts and make the milk safe to drink. In regular pasteurization, milk is heated to 145 degrees F and held there for a half an hour.

Ultra pasteurized milk is heated to a higher temperature for a shorter amount of time (163 degrees F for 15 seconds). In terms of cheesemaking, this damages the calcium and protein that bind milk proteins together to form curds.

Oh, and those boxes of milk that you see sitting unrefrigerated on store shelves? They’ve effectively been sterilized, or heated to 285 degrees F for 1 or 2 seconds.

To make this ricotta, be sure to pick up regular pasteurized milk—not ultra pasteurized or sterilized.

Most large grocery stores in the U.S. will carry a few different kinds of milk. Just read the label carefully so you grab the right one.

In Boston, I bought regular old Stop & Shop brand milk. Of course, the better the milk, the better flavor your ricotta will have. If you can get your paws on regular, pasteurized milk from a local dairy, definitely use that.

Equipment for making ricotta

You don’t need any fancy equipment to make ricotta. Just grab a package of cheesecloth at the store. You can find it at most major grocers and at stores like Target/Walmart.

Aside from that, you’ll need a colander, slotted spoon, and a big pot.

Let’s get started! This recipe is from Bon Appetit. You can find it here.

Homemade Ricotta

From Bon Appetit

16 cups whole pasteurized milk (that’s 1 gallon)
2 tsp. kosher salt
6 Tbls. lemon juice

Yields about 3 cups fresh ricotta

Line a colander with cheesecloth

Grab your cheesecloth.

And a regular ole kitchen colander.

Unfold the cheesecloth (it’ll be really long and a little shreddy on the edges). Fold it over into four layers and set it in your colander.

Set the colander in the sink.

Juice your lemons

Do this ahead of time. You’ll need about 2 large lemons.

Simmer the milk and salt

Put the milk in a large, heavy bottomed pot.

Toss in the salt.

Bring the milk to a simmer over medium-high heat. Keep an eye on the pot as the milk is getting hotter. Milk likes to boil over when it really gets rolling. Lower the heat a little if you need to. You don’t want the milk to scorch on the bottom of the pot.

Add the lemon juice to the simmering milk

When the milk has started to simmer, toss in the lemon juice.

Give it a stir. Simmer for another minute or two. (That’s all, it won’t take long.) The milk should start to separate and get kind of chunky looking.

Skim the curds off with a slotted spoon or skimmer.

Transfer them into your colander. (If your stove isn’t right next to your sink, set the colander in a large bowl and bring it to the stove to do this.)

Keep skimming until you’ve removed all the curds. Let them drain just for a minute for really soft ricotta—or a little longer for something closer to crumbled goat cheese in texture.

My friend Alyssa, the one who went to the cheese class in Vermont (and who’s also a culinary grad, so she knows her stuff), told me to save the whey that’s leftover in the pot and use it to boil pasta. It adds good flavor.

Transfer to a bowl. Serve immediately, or refrigerate and use within 2 days.

Happy cheesemaking!

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Cheese makes (almost) everything better. It’s one of the 10 commandments of The Hungry Mouse Test Kitchen. When I made these the other night, The Angry Chef told me that, hands down, it’s my best biscuit recipe. “Even better than my buttermilk biscuits?” I asked. “Yep, even better,” he told me. Well then. I blame it on the cheese. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!

These biscuits are ridiculously easy to make. Simply enrich a handful of dry ingredients with a heavenly amount of heavy cream and shredded cheddar, and…voila! Biscuits that are light, fluffy, and dotted with bits of fragrant, molten cheese.

These biscuits are perfect for a leisurely weekend breakfast or brunch. You can use them as the base for over-the-top fried egg sandwiches. Or serve them instead of cornbread at your next barbecue.

Like I said, they’re really easy to make.

Just toss the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl, give ‘em a swirl, and drizzle in the cream and cheese. Mix until the dough just comes together. The less you handle the dough, the more tender your biscuits will be.

I cut my biscuits into squares—not rounds. That way, there’s no cutting, reshaping the dough, then cutting again. Just pat the dough out once, whack it into squares, and they’re ready to bake.

If you wanted to go crazy, toss in a handful or two of crisp, crumbled bacon when you add the cheese.

Cheddar Cheese Biscuits

3 cups flour
1 1/2 Tbls. baking powder
1 Tbls. sugar
2 tsp. kosher salt
2 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 3/4 cups sharp cheddar cheese, grated
4 Tbls. butter

Yields about 16 large biscuits

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set them aside.

Make the biscuit dough

Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Mix to thoroughly combine.

Pour in the heavy cream.

Toss in the shredded cheddar cheese.

Mix with a wooden spoon until the ingredients just come together as a dough. (Again, you don’t want to overwork it.) It will look raggy and very floury. That’s just fine.

Round the dough up with your hands and smoosh it together into a ball. Set the ball on a lightly floured board.

Cut the biscuits

With your hands, smoosh the dough down so that it’s relatively flat. You want it to be about an inch thick.

Square off the sides so your dough is roughly shaped like a rectangle.

With a bencher or large knife, cut the dough into 16 squares about the same size. (The corners will likely be a little smaller. That’s just fine.)

Transfer the biscuits to your prepared baking sheets. Space them out.

Let the biscuits rest while you melt the butter.

Brush the biscuits with butter and bake

Put the butter in a small saucepan on the stove over low heat to melt it.

When the butter is melted, brush the top of each biscuit with melted butter.

Pop the biscuits into your preheated 375 degree oven. Bake at 375 for 22-24 minutes.

They’re done when they’re lightly browned on the top, like this.

Cool them for 10 minutes on the pan. Then transfer to a rack to finish cooling.

Enjoy!

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