Monday, July 6, 2009

Tenderflake Baked Brie, Pear and Walnut Braid & Another Week of Vacation

Marc is back to work this week but I have another week off. Abby and I are back in Canada.

My brother's youngest son Thomas is here from British Columbia for 9 days. My eldest son Geoff picked him up at the airport at midnight.

This morning we're picking up my mother along the way and driving 2.5 hours north to her cottage until Wednesday evening. I won't be able to blog while I'm away. I hope I'll have some pictures to share with you though when I'm back.

I am sharing the recipe for the Baked Brie, Pear and Walnut Braid Marc and I made to bring to the 4th of July Picnic we went to. We brought over 2 braids. The recipe follows. Its easy and sooo delish. We once brought some to a friend's place and they were serving a Mexican dinner. She served our dish with fresh fruit as a dessert. A great idea! Its very impressive but not difficult to make.

Baked Brie, Pear and Walnut Braid

Pillsbury Puffed Pastry (from the frozen section)
1 pear - leave skin on and slice thinly
1/3 cup dried cranberries - roughly chopped
1 tbsp Dijan mustard
1/3 cup chopped walnuts - toast on cookie sheet for about 5 minutes in oven
1 large sweet onion, sliced thin
2 tablespoons butter
1 tbsp sugar
4 oz brie cheese, sliced into think slices
1 egg - mixed with a fork

The puffed pastry comes in 2 per package. You will use 1 sheet for the above recipe.

Allow the puffed pastry to thaw.

Meanwhile slice the onions thinly. Fry with the butter stirring occasionally and add the sugar. This helps to carmelize the onions. You will fry the onion for about 20 minutes until it is a lovely carmelized golden browny colour. Add the chopped walnuts and cranberries and stir together.

Spray a cookie sheet with Pam or brush with margarine/butter.

On a lightly floured counter, roll out the pastry to about 12"x9" size.


Brush the mustard down the middle third of the pastry lengthwise. Then spread the onion mixture over the mustard. Then place the brie cheese slices along the onion mixture followed by the pear slices in the same way.



Starting at the left corner make diagonal cuts 1" apart almost to the filling. (like the left side of a "V") Repeat on the right side in the opposite direction (like the right side of a "V") Alternating strips from side to side bring up one strip and fold over filling resembling a braid. Brush each strip with the eggs. You can see the strips in the picture with the fruit and cheese in the middle. Carefully using an egg lifter lift on to the cookie sheet.








Bake at 375 for about 25 minutes or until the top of the pastry is a light golden brown and you can see the cheese has melted.

You can serve it on a pretty plate with a seregated knife to cut as you eat it or as we did for the picnic we cut down lengthwise and then cut it into pieces across. It was easy for a crowd of people to help themselves that way. VERY yummy!

It can be cooled and wrapped in foil and frozen. Remove from foil and heat in oven.

Enjoy and see you when I'm back... Judi xoxo

12 comments:

SmilingSally said...

Cranberries or cherries--or both?

Faye said...

Hope you have a great time!Looking fowards to seeing the pics! The bread looks great! Thank-u for sharing! Blessings

Judi said...

Sally
Good eye! No wonder you can edit books...its cranberries. I corrected my recipe. Don't know where the cherries came from.
Judi

Darlene said...

Hope you have a great visit at your Mother's cottage. That braided bread looks delicious!YUM!

Amelia said...

Oh yummy!!!! Thank you for giving the recipe! I think I may actually be able to do this one!!! :0) Hope you enjoy your time away! Come back soon!

Kim's Treasures said...

Looks so yummy!!! ENJOY!!!

Dawn said...

Juudi, that sounds so good!!!! I really want to try this. I'll have to let you know when I do.

Have a wonderful visit with your mother! Aren't vacations wonderful?

take care,
Dawn

Julie said...

OMG, Judi...this just sounds heavenly! Great idea to serve with fruit! A meal in itself. Can't wait to make one when I get back home!!! Have a fun next week off with everyone!!!

Tootsie said...

well...now I'm hungry!!! I hope you have a great vacation...it finally got rainy here for the last two days, I am catching up on the inside stuff!!! had to do laundry or my kids would have been in the nude this week!!! lol

The Quintessential Magpie said...

Oh, Judi!!! This looks divine! Oh, I wish I had some RIGHT NOW!

Thanks for this recipe...

XO,

Sheila :-)

Lorrie said...

Hope you're having a great time Judi. What a great recipe this is--it does look VERY impressive and it sounds delicious too.

Cindy said...

Mmmmm that looks so good! I love brie and walnuts! I may have to try this!

Regarding your question. Vintage and Vogue is in Campbell, which is right next to San Jose and it's about an hour south of San Francisco. I really don't know any great shops in San Francisco. I'm going there Wednesday to see a "Wicked" so if I see anything I'll let you know.

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