Hosting a dinner party is probably one of my favorite things to do, although I don’t do it often. My favorite thing to make in general are appetizers and a dinner party gives me an excuse to make a lot of them (I tend to go overboard but that’s okay). Everyone can leave with a goodie box.

One of the most common appetizers you may see at a dinner party is crackers and cheese; don’t get me wrong, I am a huge fan of crackers and cheese but sometimes it can be a bit basic. This appetizer can be added to your charcutier board or served on it’s own and it is anything but basic. This baked Brie is stuffed with garlic and rosemary and can be served with garlic toasted baguette or simply crackers and cheese.

As you will see in the recipe, I decided to stuff the cheese and leave the rind on. However, there are some options that you can explore as well.

• No Rind: You can choose to cut the rind off the top before serving to give the cheese a more mild flavor and remove the garlic and rosemary pieces. This will have a nice aesthetic because it will look very creamy and be easy to scoop out with a spoon.
• No Stuffing: If you are against stuffing the cheese you can take a knife and slice the top of the cheese off and layer the garlic and rosemary on top of the cheese. From there you can either bake with the top off or put the top back on while baking. The downside to this is that the cheese may melt over but it still looks beautiful. If you choose to do this, I personally would not put olive oil on top as it can become very oily.
• No Olive Oil: I like to drizzle a bit of olive oil on top of the cheese to help release the flavor of the garlic and rosemary while giving the cheese that silky texture. However, this does mean you are adding another fat to the meal. You can simply leave the olive oil out of the process and the cheese will still taste great. Plus, the bread will be buttered or have olive oil on it for toasting.
• Toasted Bread: This recipe calls for garlic butter on the toast. Butter may not do well with everyone so a very simple and tasty substitution is to use garlic and olive oil instead.

INGREDIENTS  

Bread

• 1 Baguette
• 2 tbsp Butter
• 1 clove Garlic Minced
• Salt & Pepper

Brie

• 1 round Brie
• 1 clove Garlic
• 1 tbsp Rosemary Needles

INSTRUCTIONS 

Bread

• Preheat oven to 425F.
• Microwave the butter, minced garlic, salt and pepper in a small bowl until butter is melted.
• Cut bread at an angle and lay out on baking sheet.
• Lightly brush bread with the melted garlic butter on both sides
• Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes on the top rack until crispy or lightly browned.

Baked Brie

• Take Brie out of packaging and poke holes in the top of the brie so that you can stuff rosemary and garlic in the holes. To do this you can use a toothpick or a fork. If you use a tooth pick you will want to wiggle it around to make the holes big enough.
• Slice garlic into thin slivers and stuff slivers in the holes of the brie leaving every other one open for the rosemary.
• Stuff rosemary in the remaining holes.
• Drizzle with a tsp of olive oil and bake in oven for 15 minutes.
• Take Brie out and place on serving platter. You can now either slice the top of the cheese off or serve as is. Taking the top off will give it a more creamy look but it will make the cheese more mild.