Easy Cranberry Baked Brie with Thyme

Easy Cranberry Baked Brie Recipe: Fancy and delicious 15-minute holiday appetizer your guests would love. Creamy, gooey, runny-centered baked brie topped with cranberry sauce, roasted pecans and thyme.

For those of you who are celebrating Thanksgiving, you probably have to deal with leftovers on the next day. Here is a tip for you: Turn your leftover cranberry sauce into a fancy appetizer!

Here is what you’ll need:

• brie/camembert in a wooden box;
• leftover (or freshly made) cranberry sauce/lingonberry sauce;
• thyme;
• honey;
• pecans;
• crusty baguette/ciabatta bread to serve.

Sounds easy, doesn’t it? And it is as easy as it sounds. 15 minutes, no cooking involved, simple ingredients you probably already have.

Although I am not American, I enjoy celebrating Thanksgiving with my family. This year it coincided with my son’s 11th month birthday, so we celebrated both occasions with a big dinner. Not that my son could enjoy it but my husband and I certainly did!

So here is what I cooked for us:

• vegetarian pot pie;
• ciabatta bread stuffing;
• potato dauphinoise;
• kale pumpkin salad;
• cranberry sauce;
• Moscow Mule with homemade ginger ale (I will post the recipe soon, so you can have it for Christmas!);
• pumpkin pie;
• cranberry baked brie with thyme and pecans.

Although everything came out delicious and looked pretty even for a very self-critical person like me, I managed to drop the baked brie when I was taking it out of the oven. It flipped over and landed on the oven door. My heart broke at that moment, but my husband managed to save the brie before it oozed out of the wooden box. What a relief!

Not to repeat my mistakes, please make sure you use a large spatula when you take your baked brie out of the oven! Oven mitts won’t really work here, or even if they do, they will make it too risky! But who wants to risk when it comes to a gooey cranberry  baked brie, right? Not me, not any more.

Besides of that little accident, our Thanksgiving dinner couldn’t be better! I can’t wait my son to join our celebrations next year. Hopefully, he would be able to enjoy it more than this year.

I will surely make this cranberry baked brie again for Christmas! Who is with me, cheese fans?

How to Make Easy Cranberry Baked Brie with Thyme

The recipe is very easy if you already have the cranberry sauce. If not, you can make it yourself within minutes. I took equal parts of cranberries and lingonberries for my sauce. I like it the most this way.

Tart and slightly sweet lingonberries (or mountain cranberries) are probably hard to find outside Scandinavia and Russia. It might be a good idea to check your local Russian store. Lingonberries are usually sold frozen. You can order them here if you are in the U.S. or purchase a ready made lingonberry jam from Ikea (they have it on Amazon!)

Lingonberries are not only delicious, they also have so many health benefits that they are considered a new superfood! It makes them worth to try if you haven’t yet.

To make the cranberry/ lingonberry sauce, use 1/4 cup water and 2 tablespoons brown sugar for every cup of berries. I used 50:50 ratio cranberries and lingonberries but you can use any. Just make sure you add the right amount of water.

In a small saucepan bring 1/4 cup water with 2 tablespoons brown sugar to a boil over medium heat. Add the berries and thyme sprigs and cook until the berries burst open, for about 5 minutes, stirring often. Crush the unburst berries with a potato masher. Discard the thyme sprigs.

I like to add additional spices to the cranberry sauce. This year I added nutmeg, allspice and a tiny bit of lemon zest. If the sauce is too sour for your taste, add additional honey.

Once the sauce is ready, bake your brie. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F or 180 C, remove all the plastic packaging from the brie and place the brie wheel into a wooden box it comes with. Bake for 15 minutes.

Top the baked brie with cranberry sauce, roasted pecans and drizzle with honey. Decorate with thyme sprigs. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Enjoy with crusty baguette or ciabatta bread!

Here is the full recipe:

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Easy Cranberry Baked Brie with Thyme

Easy Cranberry Baked Brie Recipe: Fancy and delicious 15-minute holiday appetizer your guests would love. Creamy, gooey, runny-centered baked brie topped with cranberry sauce, roasted pecans and thyme.

Course Appetizer

Cuisine French

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 15 minutes

Author Elena Szeliga

Ingredients

For the cranberry sauce:

• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 cup lingonberries/cranberries
• 2 sprigs thyme
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• a pinch of nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon lemon zest optional
• honey to taste

For the baked brie:

• 9 oz or 250 grams brie wheel
• a handful pecans roasted
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 3 sprigs thyme to garnish
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• crusty baguette or ciabatta bread to serve

Instructions

For the cranberry sauce:

• In a small saucepan bring water with brown sugar to a boil over medium heat. Add the berries and thyme sprigs and cook until the berries burst open, for about 5 minutes, stirring often. Crush the unburst berries with a potato masher. Discard the thyme sprigs. Add the spices, lemon juice and zest and honey if the sauce is too sour for your taste.

For the baked brie:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F or 180 C, remove all the plastic packaging from the brie and place the brie wheel into a wooden box it comes with. Bake for 15 minutes.
• Top the baked brie with cranberry sauce, roasted pecans and drizzle with honey. Decorate with thyme sprigs. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Enjoy with crusty baguette or ciabatta bread!

Tried this recipe?Tag @happykitchen.rocks and hashtag #happykitchenrocks!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! What did you cook and what part of the meal is your favorite? Leave a comment below!

Cheers,

Elena