15 Creative Ways To Use Brie Cheese

Brie is a tasty, creamy, soft cheese you can find at many grocery stores these days. Luckily, it's not one of those cheeses that are so obscure, like Brie Noir, that you can't find it locally, need to travel to a particular regional location to get it, or pay a huge fee to get it shipped to you. This creamy cheese is tasty enough to eat on its own, but we have a lot of creative ways to use Brie cheese for snacks, appetizers, meals, and more that you'll enjoy.

From a simple addition to a sandwich to more complex chocolate-covered desserts, there are plenty of methods to eat this cheese. Brie's rind is fully edible, so many of these techniques include the rind, but some call for it to be removed entirely. We'll share a variety of options to offer different tasting notes and ways to eat it, whether you want something sweet, prefer to go the savory route, want an eggy breakfast, or filling burger for dinner. Add Brie to your grocery list because you're about to find a lot of inspiration.

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Mix The Cheese With Honey To Transform It Into Whipped Brie

Brie is a beloved cheese all by itself, but you can make a whipped Brie with only two ingredients to turn it into a restaurant-quality delight. To replicate chef Thomas Keller's famous whipped Brie, you only need room-temperature Brie and honey for a sweet and creamy cheesy dip. This luxurious dish can be spread on toast or crackers or eaten along with vegetables. Remove the rind and chop the Brie into smaller pieces before adding the cheese and honey into a food processor or blender. This gives a whipped effect while changing the flavor into a sweeter one.

Once it's blended, it's more of a spread than anything, so you can place it onto a piece of sourdough along with chopped strawberries, jam, or whatever you'd like to pair it with. Leave it with the two ingredients, or transform the taste of this Brie appetizer with chopped fresh thyme or fleur de sel,which you can blend directly into the mix or sprinkle on top when plating it.

Have Fun With Toppings And Mix-Ins For Baked Brie

You've likely come across some version of a baked Brie, but we have a couple of amusing ways that you can heat this up in your oven. Figs and pecans make a delicious baked Brie that you can eat all year long, but for a Halloween option, make a baked Brie jack-o-lantern. However, there's no rule that you can't make this in the middle of the summer. It's made with Brie, pie dough, jam, and the adorable jack-o-lantern design. It's a little spooky but delicious nonetheless.

For an autumn-inspired dish, cranberry and rosemary baked Brie can be a delight for the senses. It has the tanginess from fresh cranberry sauce and the herbal minty and lemony qualities of freshly chopped rosemary. We would not recommend dried rosemary as it's crunchier and doesn't mesh as well with the fresh cranberry sauce. You need a full package of Brie that you'll bake, and then add the cranberry sauce and rosemary mixture after it's heated. It's an enticing blend of gooey, tart, creamy, and a bit sweet. Dig into this with crackers, nuts, or whatever you enjoy.

Combine With Butter To Make Brie Butter Spread

It's safe to say that foods tend to taste better with butter, whether it's toast or mashed potatoes. Try making Brie butter that you can serve with dinner or eat with baguette slices. Brie and butter are all you need. Combine equal parts of butter and softened Brie to get the right consistency. You will want to remove the cheese rind since that will give it a lumpy quality that won't fully integrate.

The creaminess of the butter helps to mellow the pungent notes from the cheese to create a unique combination. Make this as a batch to serve on the side of a grazing platter, or spread the Brie butter onto crackers with caramelized onions. For a delectable nutty side, you could also add a nut like pecans or walnuts, which you can mix into it after blending or add to the top for texture. For an herbal version, try it with sautéed minced garlic or freshly chopped herbs like parsley or rosemary or lavender for something more floral.

Include Brie In Your Next Sandwich

Brie can be served on sandwiches for a creamy complement. The great thing about this cheese is that you can eat it at room temperature, so it's creamy, but you can also eat it warmed up, which is why you see so many baked Brie recipes. Use leftover steak from last night to create a steak sandwich or Philly cheesesteak. It's a mesh of flavors and textures from slightly toasted bread, melted cheese, the slightly crisp sliced bell pepper, and the chewy and savory steak. Make a Brie and prosciutto sandwich or add more meats like salami and mortadella.

If you're in the mood for a grilled cheese sandwich but you want to mix things up attempt a balsamic vinegar, mushroom, and onion Brie grilled cheese. Cooking the mushrooms and onions not only helps move the flavor along but you're not left with raw, watery pieces in your sandwich. The softness of the inside ingredients pairs marvelously with the crunchy exterior of the bread that gets fried in a butter and mayo mixture. It's a great way to add veggies to a grilled cheese, too.

Layer Brie On A Toasted Baguette For Crostinis

Crostinis are a crispy, satisfying little snack or appetizer that looks fancy but is pretty straightforward to make. Alex Guarnaschelli's go-to crostini involves sliced Brie, fresh herbs, and black pepper, and then, to top it all off, she makes a homemade dressing of with red wine vinegar, mustard, and olive oil. Grab the miniature toast slices and then assemble them. Toss them in the oven briefly to warm the cheese up, but they can be served at room temperature too. This is a quick snack to make for a stay-at-home T.V. show marathon or to impress guests at your next party.

You can pick the herbs you'd like to use based on preference. Whether you leave a sprig of rosemary as it is or choose to chop it up into smaller pieces is up to you. Make a refreshing cranberry and mint crostini with Brie, which is a colorful and cool appetizer that uses mint as the herb of choice. This is filling and satisfactory with the melted cheese, sliced baguette, and the complex flavors of the cranberry salsa — the kick from jalapeño and red onion paired with the tang of cranberry makes for a topping that has hints of spicy, sweet, and a touch of sour.

Make Sweet Or Savory Stuffed French Toast With Brie

French toast might be a brunch classic that you picture with a sugary drizzle of maple syrup, but in addition to sweet options, you can turn your stuffed toast into a savory dish, as well. Some of the best ingredients to stuff French toast with are savory, whether that's smoked salmon, fresh or dried herbs, or a cheese like Brie. Make a savory version with the Brie and ham, sautéed mushrooms, or cherry tomatoes. Now the question is how much Brie you'd like to add. Whether you like thin slices or thicker ones is up to you. Add fresh herbs, like fresh thyme, to the inside or sprinkle them into the egg mixture to coat the exterior of the French toast.

Make a hearty stuffed French toast with Brie cheese, honey (instead of maple syrup), or your favorite jam for a sweet take. Try it with finely sliced apples to give it a crisp addition, or add in fresh berries such as raspberries or blueberries. Smash them in a dish ahead of time so they don't make your French toast super lumpy. There are two common ways to stuff French toast: the first and easiest is to construct a sandwich, dredge in the egg mixture, and fry it like regular French toast. The second method is to use a thick-sliced loaf that you can cut into and stuff.

Arrange Brie Onto Your Next Grazing Board

Brie is a shoo-in as far as what to add to a grazing board, but you can mix it with other cheeses or include it on a burrata board to offer a different flavor profile and texture. Grazing boards are great to munch on when you invite a couple of friends over to watch the premiere of a new show or when you want to bring something impressive to a potluck. They don't always have to be enormous either, as you can make a small board to serve one person; It depends on how many items you include in the quantity of those items.

You'll often see salami and prosciutto included on a board in terms of meat. There's an assortment of cheeses, from Swiss to blue cheese, so you can find joy in the cheese mixtures. Grapes, strawberries, and melons are often included in terms of fruits, while you'll frequently see carrots, cucumber, celery, and radishes for produce. You don't have to follow any rules, but in general, establish a mix of cheeses, fruit, vegetables, bread or crackers, and dips to provide a range of firm, soft, sweet, and savory options.

Pair The Cheese With Puff Pastry To Make Mini Brie Bites

Stock items like puff pastry in your freezer as a convenient option that you can get a bunch of use out of. Use the flaky pastry and Brie to create a myriad of little Brie bites that you can customize to make into appetizing appetizers. Impress guests the next time you host dinner or visit friends with cranberry Brie bites made with puff pastry, cranberry sauce, rosemary, and garlic. These are easy to construct, and it takes about 15 minutes in the oven for the pastry to get nice and golden brown.

But you can use your imagination for the combinations since you often see the cheese prepared with things like rosemary, thyme, cranberry, mushrooms, pecans, walnuts, and figs, so you can go that route. For a less widespread combination, endeavor pesto Brie bites that pair pesto and sun-dried tomatoes with the cheese. The recipe itself calls for crescent rolls, but you can easily switch that with puff pastry.

Top A Flatbread Or Pizza With Sliced Brie

Elevate your next flatbread or pizza with sliced Brie. Avoid wedge shapes since they provide a more chunky addition that's harder to bite into. Make a bacony pear and Brie flatbread for a scrumptious meal when you long for something other than pepperoni. While the recipe calls for homemade dough, you can simply use a store-bought flatbread and then add your toppings, which transforms a basic dough into a sophisticated dish that will impress anyone who eats it.

It has crispy and salty bacon as well as sweet pear and fig jam. The jam provides a seedy texture, while the melted cheese is gooey but not stringy like mozzarella. Top with arugula and balsamic to make it a captivating meal. Switch the pears for cherries or peaches for a different fruit topping, or swap the bacon with prosciutto. Spread on cherry jam or apple butter if you're not into figs. There are a ton of satisfying medleys that you can create.

Eat The Creamy Cheese With Vegetables

This cheese tends to get paired with bread like baguette or pizza dough, but when you want to create a lighter but equally delicious dish, combine the Brie with vegetables. You can make a colorful vegetable bake with Brie and your vegetable of choice, but if you need inspiration eat it with parsnips and celeriac for a delicious and cheesy root vegetable bake. Revitalize the way you think of carrots with a dish like burnt carrots with Brie. The carrots are slightly sweet, so the char gives it a smokiness, while the Brie gives a flavorful melt-in-your-mouth creaminess.

For this recipe, you'll want to remove the rind since it doesn't fully melt. There's a lot of balance between the sweetness of honey, the tangy lemon juice, and a little bit of spice from the red chili pepper flakes. Turn that bag of carrots in your fridge into something exciting that you'll want to make on the regular. This cooked veggie dish makes an incredible side dish to complement your meat or protein of choice or can be added to bed greens for a worthy salad.

Use Brie In Your Burger

Give your burger a cheesy boost without a classic hamburger pairing like mozzarella or cheddar. A few slices of Brie can soften against the heat of your burger to create a slightly melted cheesy topper. However, if you want it to be fully melted, place the slices of Brie on the burger during the last few minutes of cooking so it can heat against the warmth of the pan or grill.

Tyler Florence tops burgers with Brie but likes to choose a triple cream version with more butterfat to make it a creamier and butterier taste than the average brie. Brie's buttery, nutty flavor can complement the fattiness of your burger, so stick to a higher-fat burger with burgers that are 75% lean and 25% fat. The triple cream Brie can have a mushroom smell, which makes topping the burger with sautéed mushrooms a supreme choice. Rather than topping your burger with cheese, make stuffed burgers with Brie and figs for a fresh alternative. These make for an oozy doozy of a burger that has a rich, umami taste.

Whip Up Your Favorite Salad With Brie

There are plenty of salad options when you want a lighter meal or side dish you can include Brie on. Start with your green base, whether that's your favorite type of lettuce, spinach, spring greens, arugula, or a blend. Then, include items like cherry tomatoes or diced tomatoes, red onion, olives, cucumbers, or carrots. These items not only create texture from the food itself but also how you cut it, such as carrot slices have a more distinct crunch compared to shredded carrots.

Leave the rind on and cube the Brie. For a salad that has some sweet components, make it with sliced apple, dried cranberries, and pecans for a tasty crunch. Eat the Brie with a lighter dressing (not creamy), like an apple cider vinaigrette. As far as how to cut the Brie, larger diced pieces or small wedges work best since they're easy to pick up with a fork but they're not too large. A big wedge would be difficult to eat on a salad without a knife to cut it.

Amp Up Potato Dishes With Brie

Combine this creamy cheese with potatoes for an entertaining twist of flavors. Brie and bacon potato skins meld the crispy, smoky bacon with the potato skins to make a unique appetizer that's ideal for autumn and winter holidays with the addition of the cranberry sauce garnish. Although there is a bit of prepping and cooking time, it isn't too overwhelming of a dish to make. It will impress family and friends since it's considerably different from your standard potato skin recipe, which usually resembles a loaded potato.

Opt for not-so-basic mashed potatoes by transforming them into a decadent delight with Brie and truffle oil. This medley of flavors makes a luxurious mashed potato alternative. Keep the rind on the Brie if you like a chunky mashed potato since the rind does not entirely melt. But for those who prefer a fully creamy mash, remove the rind.

It Can Be A Filling Or Topping For Egg Dishes

From crepes to frittatas, there's usually there's often a cheese element added to egg dishes. Brie for a delicate and nuanced flavor addition to the egg, or consider doing half Brie and half of the other cheese, like cheddar or mozzarella, in scrambled eggs. Brie is often found in both sweet and savory foods. Make ham and Brie crepes when you're in the mood for something salty, or with spinach and artichoke if you want more vegetables. Turn it into something sweet with ripe pears, Brie, and a sprinkle of powdered sugar or with sliced strawberries.

Assemble a tasty frittata with Brie and your choice of other inclusions, such as bacon, zucchini, scallions, or caramelized onion. Brie and eggs are meant to be because there are many ways you can incorporate the two. There's also wiggle room for how melted you want it; Bake the Brie within a frittata for total meltage or add it into egg crepes to gently melt against the heat of the eggs.

Make A Salted Caramel Chocolate-Covered Brie Dessert

While you might think of cheese as a savory food, there are marvelous ways to incorporate it into sweet treats. You'll see many dishes where Brie is paired with honey or fruit jam to make a sugary complement, but we're talking about making an actual Brie dessert. Surprise your taste buds with salted caramel chocolate-covered Brie, which uses cubed cheese pieces, caramel, and chocolate chips. To make these, top the cheese cubes with caramel and freeze to allow it to set.

You'll melt chocolate chips and then individually dip every Brie and caramel bite until it's coated. Each one looks a little unique because of the way the chocolate sets. They look like something you'd find at a tasty chocolate shop, but once you discover what's inside, it's a treat you'd more likely find at a gourmet eatery that's not afraid of mixing flavors. Bring this sophisticated delicacy to your own home for your next dessert. These can most certainly be eaten alone as they're seriously delicious, but you could also pair it with sliced pear or apple.

Static Media owns and operates Tasting Table, Daily Meal, and Mashed.

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