Colm O'Gorman: Festive baked brie in a bread bowl, with cranberry, pecan and rosemary

Colm O'Gorman: Festive baked brie in a bread bowl, with cranberry, pecan and rosemary

Brie and cranberries are always a wonderful flavour combination, but baked brie served in a crusty, delicious golden bread bowl topped with homemade cranberry sauce and a pecan and rosemary crumb is a whole other level of deliciousness. This spectacular dish is perfect for a special supper over the holidays, served with some great red wine and a fresh salad, or as a Christmas day brunch, served four or five hours before Christmas dinner.

I have two recipes for you this week. The first is for my homemade cranberry sauce, which is a key ingredient for this baked brie recipe. This homemade cranberry sauce is spectacular. I make kilos of it over the holidays, giving lots away as gifts, but we also eat masses of it ourselves. Shop bought cranberry sauce cannot compare with this, and it takes mere minutes to prepare and cook.

Use a round loaf of fresh white bread for the bread bowl. Lidl do a very good one in their instore bakeries. You can use camembert if you cannot source a wheel of brie, either will be delicious. Go for a whole cheese about 200-250g in weight.

Baked Brie in a Bread Bowl with Cranberry, Pecan and Rosemary

recipe by:Colm O'Gorman

You can use camembert if you cannot source a wheel of brie, either will be delicious. Go for a whole cheese about 200-250g in weight.

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 15 mins

Cooking Time

 15 mins

Total Time

 30 mins

Course

 Baking

Ingredients

• Cranberry Sauce:

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• 1 small shallot

• 1 small red chilli

• 300g fresh cranberries

• 50g soft dark brown sugar

• Zest and juice of an orange

• 2 tbsp Cointreau liqueur

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

• Baked Brie Bread Bowl:

• 1 white boule or other round loaf

• A little extra virgin olive oil

• 1 whole wheel (250g) of brie or camembert cheese

• Fresh homemade cranberry sauce, see below for recipe

• 100g pecan halves

• A large knob of butter

• 20g panko breadcrumbs

• 1 tsp fresh chopped rosemary

• Cranberry Sauce:

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• 1 small shallot

• 1 small red chilli

• 300g fresh cranberries

• 50g soft dark brown sugar

• Zest and juice of an orange

• 2 tbsp Cointreau liqueur

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

•  

Method

1. Warm your oven to 200 Celsius.

2. While the oven is warming, make the cranberry sauce. Finely chop the shallot, you want about two tablespoons for this recipe. Remove the seeds and stalks from the chilli and dice it very finely. Heat the olive oil over high heat in a medium sized saucepan, and when it starts to shimmer, reduce the heat to medium and add the shallot. Cook until the shallot softens, about two to three minutes. Next add the chilli and cook for another minute.

3. Rinse the cranberries and add them to the pan along with the zest and juice of the orange. Next, add the sugar and stir well, season with a little sea salt and a good grind of black pepper. Bring to a soft boil and add the Cointreau. Stir again and reduce to a simmer. Let it cook gently, stirring occasionally, until the fruit softens and begins to break up and the sauce begins to thicken. This should take about eight to ten minutes. Do not overcook it. I like my sauce to have a bit of texture with the berries retaining some shape. Taste and add more seasoning if required. Set aside while you prepare the bread bowl.

4. Use a bread knife to cut the top off the loaf of bread. You want an exposed surface about 3cm wider in circumference than your wheel of brie all around. Next, hollow out the centre of the bread so that the brie can sit inside the bread bowl. To achieve this, I use bread knife to cut a circle that is roughly the same size as the wheel of cheese and about 5cm in depth, and I then pick out the bread to give me an even circular well in the middle of the bread.

5. Next, cut 2cm slices vertically around the edges of the bread, taking care not to go too deep. You should cut no more than halfway down the side of the bread bowl.

6. Spray or brush the sides and bottom of the bread with a little olive oil.

7. Next, spoon four to five tablespoons of cranberry sauce into the bread bowl and spread it evenly across the bottom of the bowl. Place the wheel of brie inside the bread bowl on top the cranberry sauce. Pop the bread onto a baking tray and into the oven. Bake for fifteen minutes. Toast the top of the loaf that you cut away in the oven for the for the last five minutes cooking time and you can cut that into wedges and serve it on the side. It would be a shame to waste that lovely crusty bread!

8. Roughly chop the pecans. Keep the pieces quite large, with a few left whole. Toast the nuts in a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat. When the pecans are nicely toasted, add a large knob of butter, about 20g or two tablespoons is plenty. When the butter starts to foam, add the chopped rosemary and the panko breadcrumbs. Stir until the breadcrumbs are toasted and golden, two to three minutes should do it, and remove from the heat.

9. The bread bowl should be beautifully toasted and golden brown with the cheese starting to ooze a little after fifteen minutes in the oven. Remove it from the baking tray and place it on a serving dish. Spoon some more cranberry sauce on top of the cheese and pile on the pecan and rosemary crumb. Finish with a little more cranberry sauce and a few sprigs of fresh rosemary.

10. Serve this in the middle of the table with more cranberry sauce on the side. Let everyone help themselves, tearing of wedges of crusty bread and using them to scoop up the creamy molten cheese, tangy cranberry sauce and delicious pecan and rosemary crumb.