Some of you may know that I really like to cook stuff. Well, I went to a friend’s wedding not to long ago and one of the hors d’oeuvres plate had this awesome cheese spread. The thing that caught my attention was this warm gooey bread wheel, filled with cheese. It tasted so good that I asked the chef for the recipe for this “Baked Brie wheel” and I thought some of you might like to know my experiences.

I made a Brie wheel for some friends based on the recipe the chef told me:
Cut a brie wheel in half and put some jellies and jams in the middle. Put nuts, dried fruit and other stuff in there as you like. Rejoin the wheel so it makes a sandwich. Then cover with puff pastry. Freeze the wheel, so that the cheese does not melt before the puff pastry can fully puff. Cook at 400 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes until the pastry has risen. Serve with crackers or fruit for a snack or with salad for a meal.

I looked online yesterday for some other recipes and found some tips and tricks for Brie wheels. I made my wheel by cutting two circles and a strip to go around the wheel. I think a better idea is to make use a sheet and put the wheel in the middle and just bring the edges around. They then snip the excess and fold the edges down in sort of a pinwheel like fashion.

There were some really great ideas of other stuffings. A shiitake mushroom and onion stuffing sounded really good for a heartier wheel. Some just made syrups and poured over the brie and stuck it in the oven until melted. One article recommended using foreign bries as they claim the domestics don’t melt as well. Also, a site mentioned that the colder the dough the puffier it will be and the firmer the inner cheese. Seeing how I froze mine overnight, we’ll see if it puffs well and is firm on the inside.

Okay, so I made the Brie wheel last night and there was failure and success. Here’s what I learned:

1. Don’t cut out the circle and make the shape fit the wheel. Use an uncut sheet of pastry and place the wheel in the middle and then fold the corners together at the top. Small seams in the pastry lead to the Brie melting out. Also, the cutting and assembling process requires a lot of handling of the pastry and will reduce puffage.
2. Don’t use crackers that have too much flavor in them. They can overwhelm the brie. We had some plain crackers and those went much better.
3. Cook the Brie at 400 for 20-30 minutes in a pan of some sort, lined with parchment paper. This makes getting the pastry out easy and makes cleanup easy in case of leakage.
4. Brie still tastes good even if half of it oozes out into the pan.
5. Even though you thought you were full, there’s always room for Brie.
6. Everything tastes good with Brie.

Witness the power of cheese this Thursday at my house.