Caramelized Apple Baked Brie

Brie is a semi soft cheese from the Brie region of France, but then you knew that, or you would not have clicked on this link. ;>) Like it’s wines France attempts to protect it’s cheeses by giving them a “Domaine De Appelation” or a sort of naming convention which means that technically speaking “Brie” cheese can only come from that region of the world. While this may prevent the good people of France from making a similar cheese in the Cote de Beaunne or elsewhere it does little to stop a major dairy or company in the United States from making a similar cheese and naming it “Brie.” If you follow wines this is also true, but that is a story for another day so I won’t go there.

The outside crust is indeed an edible mold which acts to preserve the cheese for a longer period of time. The cheese can be made with whole milk or low fat milk and there are even some heavy cream versions with 40% butterfat….very rich. French Brie is typically sold in the whole wheel fashion and weighs about a kilo or 2.2 pounds. This is an ideal size for entertaining, as the whole cheese can be wrapped in a puff pastry or a bread dough and baked for a pretty presentation. There are loads of things that can be used for a filling for your baked brie recipe, and you can also try your hand at three dimensional food art while you are at it.

For your fillings you can choose an assortment of savory or sweets. On the savory side of the ledger; sauteed leeks and mushrooms are fun combination’s, you can also use light tasting sea foods like shrimp or lobster and tomato in a sort of “Provencal” style. On the sweet side; all kinds of jams, jellies and fruit will fill the bill for your filling desires. The outside coating can be bread dough, like a brioche style with lots of butter or you can use puff pastry as an easier route in both cases you will want to use something which will rise quickly and turn a nice golden brown in a short period of time.

When I have the time I prefer to use the Brioche style dough as it is more elastic. To make a the dough you would use:

1 package of yeast (dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water)
3 T Honey
1 C Scalded Milk
1 t Salt
3-4 C White Flour

You can also add marzipan (Almond Paste) to the mix for a light almond flavor, a couple ounces softened in a little water will blend right into the dough. Add the honey, milk and salt to the yeast in a bowl and then add the flour a cup at a time until you can no longer stir it. Then turn it out into the last cup which you spread on your bread board. Knead it, adding just enough flour to keep it from sticking to your hands. As you knead it, the dough will get silky smooth in your hands, you will know when to stop (Hint fold it over on itself at least 50 times)

OR

If you think that that is too much work. You can go to the store or your local bakery and pick up a couple of sheets of puff pastry. I won’t discuss making puff pastry, that is major work and after my second attempt years ago I found it much easier to buy.

Take the Brie and carefully cut it in half the long way so that you have two circles I use a French knife with a 10″ blade. Stand the Brie on it’s edge and get the cut started. Then when you are about a quarter of the way through lay it back down and use a rocking motion to slice a little into each edge (front and back). If you are careful you will have two equal and even pieces when you finish. See the gallery below for a visual of the process.

With it now open you can add your favorite filling. It doesn’t take very much just a thin layer of jam, red pepper infused honey, or caramelized apples will work. Spread one side and the cover it with the other. Now the fun begins. Get a couple of eggs and add them to a half cup of water in a bowl and mix them up thoroughly. This is the wash or coating that will enhance the color of your finished brie. Now take the pastry sheet and cut it into a large square. (It usually comes in 10×15 sheets so simply cut 5″ (Save This) off and you will have a 10×10 sheet remaining). Carefully roll this out on a floured board until the dimensions are more like 12×12. Set your stuffed brie in the middle of the dough and start folding the dough over the Brie a side at a time. With each side stop and paint the dough you have just folded with the egg wash. The object is to make a tight envelop over the Brie. The egg was will help the edges to stick to themselves as you go. once the Brie is sealed up, you can turn it over onto your baking sheet and expose the top area for decorating.

Braided Rope Topping

Puff Pastry does exactly that! So it is fun to decorate using it. In the three baked Brie’s, I cut the dough in half inch strips and folded each strip in half length wise to form a thick strand and then braided the strands into a loose rope to go around the edge, or in this case to coil into the center. This one is Chili/Honey flavored. The one below is raspberry flavored so I made a large raspberry out of the extra sheet then put a stem and a few leaves on the top. Using a small knife you can make small cuts in the dough and when it rises it will separate and give you a nice textured effect. With the leaves you make a single cut down the length and then a series of vees going into the main center cut to represent veins on the leaf. If you fold two layers of puff pastry dough together and make your cuts from that you can get an even more dramatic rise when it bakes. If the cutting sounds too difficult, try using a cookie cutter to cut different shapes out of the dough and simply place them on top of your Brie. Stars, hearts, any cutter you have will make an interesting 3D type top for your decorations. Now paint the whole thing in egg wash so the color is enhanced when it bakes. Bake it in a 325 over for 15 minutes or so until it is mostly golden brown. This can be done with “Baby Brie” or Camembert cheese as well for smaller portions. Serve it warm with water crackers and Voila you are in Brie Heaven!

Raspberry Brie

Popularity: 2% [?]

Technorati Tags: baked brie recipe

Working in a professional kitchen with 20 other chef’s, there are probably 20 different opinions on which brand of chef knives is the best. Out of the 20, there are 20 different sets of knives represented. Each of us has picked up a different set of assorted knives or a set along the way, depending on our needs and the type of work we were doing at the time. For myself, being involved in Garde Manger for many years I have purchased many types of smaller blades to use for cutting smallish items.

Some of the chef’s have complete sets of one brand, while most of us have assembled our tools in a more piecemeal fashion. There is a Henckel’s set, a Shun set and a Global set owned by one or another of the chef’s. My set is indeed piecemeal with all three and more represented in my kit. You would probably be tempted to ask which one was better, however you would get each of us to of course say his was.

The sleek silver handles of the Global set are interesting, they are filled with sand to give a sort of dynamic balance to the knife while you use it. The damascus folds of the Shun set look fantastic and the blades are so hard they hold an edge for a long time but they are a bear to sharpen for that very reason. The Shun serrated slicer is probably the sharpest knife that I have ever used, amazing when you cut with it everything seems like butter. I bought my Henckels a long time ago and was not exposed to the Shun knives until much later, I would probably have purchased the Shun if I had Known about it. My slicer and french style feel comfortable in my hand and I can use them for 8 hours at a stretch without much effort.

If you are trimming meat you would want a high quality boning knife to get the sinew without taking too much of the good product beneath. However, if you have to spend all day “frenching” lamb racks where you are constantly scraping the bone with your blade you will want to find a junkie old boning knife that has been sharpened by a knife service to as point where the blade is only a quarter of an inch wide.

So if you want to know which set is the best… Get the best set available for the job you have to do. If you can afford a few hundred dollars to buy a Shun set then by all means do so you won’t regret it. I love my Henckels and would highly recommend them
and lately have been drooling over the Miyabi line, for the extremely well to do Miyabi makes special order knives that run you about $800 a pop. The professional chef knife is the best knife in the hand of the professional chef getting the job done!

Popularity: 1% [?]

Technorati Tags: Professional chef knives

If you’ve been searching for information about how to improve your health and eat healthy and balanced food on a daily basis, then you’ve probably come across Nicholas Zhou’s name at least a few times. And, if you’re like me, you’ve probably wondered what the story is behind his best-selling cookbook on healthy eating on the Internet.

Well, here’s the truth: This cookbook is the real deal.

Listen, I’ll be the first to admit that I was hesitant when I first decided to buy “Real and Healthy Chinese Cooking.” But when I got in on my computer (only 3 minutes later!), I was literally blown away by what I had received.

The first thing I noticed about the cookbook was all the beautiful pictures taken by Nicholas. He spent 2 whole years to prepare and cook all the dishes in his book and take pictures for those dishes that deserve one for clarity or beauty. This really helps a lot since the pictures give you a clear idea how the dishes will look like, what ingredients you need, and even how long they should be cooked.

For example, I have been looking for the right recipe for “Stewed Beef Strips” for years but I could never get it right. In Nicholas Zhou’s book, I saw the picture and figured out (he also pointed out in the cooking directions) that the sauce should be poured over the beef on the plate instead of being stirred with the beef in the hot wok. So that’s the secret why the Stewed Beef Strips always tastes so good at Hunan House (my favorite Chinese restaurant in town).

You will also be delighted to see that Nicholas Zhou’s cookbook is not packed with thousands of free recipes that you can find anywhere on the Internet, which is the case for most cookbooks you can find out there. Instead, his book only contains low carb, low fat recipes that have been personally cooked and tested by him. He only included recipes that he considered authentic and healthy according to his 4 years of continuous reading, writing, cooking and research. But don’t worry! The cookbook stills contains over 500+ recipes, which will be far more than enough for you and your family for a lifetime.

And the best part is that you’ll get lifetime update for the cookbook. Nicholas promised that he will keep adding new recipes and cooking tips to his book on a daily basis and he will offer free download for the updated version whenever it’s available.

The cookbook contains the most famous Chinese recipes as well as all the secret recipes that couldn’t be found anywhere else. Most recipes are quick-and-easy style and perfect for people who have a fast-pace lifestyle — which have saved me TONS of time and money already.

But what impresses me most about the cookbook is just how authentic it is. I’ve a huge collection of over 30 Chinese cookbooks, and they all seem to focus on just ONE thing – Americanized Chinese recipes. For example, they usually ask you to add sugar to a spicy dish, or cheese to an appetizer dish, which is rarely the case for real Chinese cooking.

The “Real and Healthy Chinese Cooking” cookbook is almost like a bible of authentic and healthy Chinese cooking like its name indicates. I give this product my absolute highest recommendation.

Check it out here, to find out more.

Popularity: 2% [?]