This gluten free baked brie, or brie en croute, is a perfect appetizer for New Year's Eve. Filled with melted brie and a praline sauce on top, it'll wow your guests and make you forget it's totally gluten free!
crackers, slices of apples, grapes, dried fruit, etc for serving
Instructions
Make the puff pastry according to recipe directions. Cut off ¼ slice and rewrap the rest and refrigerate or freeze for other purposes. Wrap the slice in plastic wrap and allow to come to cool room temperature, about 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400° F.
Make the pecan praline sauce: in a small saucepan, melt the butter. Add the pecans, cinnamon, brown sugar, and maple syrup. Cook over medium heat just until the sugar has dissolved, about 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Pour into a small bowl and set aside.
On a lightly floured surface, begin pressing lightly on puff pastry dough to flatten and enlarge the width. Turn and continue pressing until the piece of dough is enlarged enough to begin rolling it out. Roll out to a rough square or circle (it doesn't matter the shape, as long as it's big enough to wrap around the wheel of brie). The final thickness should be about ¼ of an inch.
Place the wheel of brie in the middle of the pastry and top with the pecan praline topping (the "sauce" will thicken and harden as it cools). Fold the pastry up and over the brie and praline sauce. Excess pastry can be cut off using kitchen shears if desired. You can also use the excess pastry by cutting it out with small cookie cutters for decorations on top. "Glue" them onto the pastry with egg wash.
Carefully pick up and place the wrapped brie onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Whisk one egg with 1 tablespoon water and brush over the entire surface of the pastry.
Bake at 400° F for about 30-40 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown. If you've gathered the pastry at the top like I did, you may need to take a small piece of foil and cover just the edges on top so those don't burn while the rest of the pastry continues to brown and crisp.
Remove from the oven and allow it to sit for about 15 minutes.
Place on platter and serve with gluten free crackers, slices of apples and/or pears, clusters of grapes, and dried fruit and/or nuts, etc.
Notes
*The pastry can be assembled and covered well with plastic wrap up to 3 hours in advance. Keep it in the refrigerator until you're ready to brush it with the egg wash and bake it as instructed. **Once the pastry has been baked, wrap up any leftovers (if there are any) and refrigerate for no more than a few days. To reheat, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place pastry on parchment-lined baking sheet and cover with foil. Bake until cheese is melted and warm, about 10 minutes. ***DISCLAIMER: The reason I created my own flour blends is because I could not obtain the results I wanted with flour blends that were available in stores, online, or from other gluten free bloggers. My recipes have been developed to be used with my own bread flour blend that I created after painstakingly testing for, in some cases, YEARS to develop what I believe to be a superior gluten free bread like no other. If you do not use my gluten free bread flour blend for this recipe, I cannot speak for the results you will obtain. While store bought blends may give you a satisfactory result, they may NOT give you the results intended in my recipe.
Keyword baked brie, brie en croute, Gluten Free, puff pastry