Ways To Serve Brie Cheese

Choose from a variety of ways to serve brie.

Brie is a soft, flavorful cheese that originated in France. Its implications of elegance make it a good choice to serve at a gathering or dinner party; it can fit right in at a formal dinner or bring a suggestion of formality to an otherwise relaxed gathering. You can serve brie in various traditional or creative ways to suit your taste and the style of your event.

With Crackers or Bread

Serve brie in the most traditional and basic way by placing it on a dish, putting a cheese knife next to it and placing the dish next to a selection of crackers or baguette slices. Your guests will then cut the brie themselves, choose their crackers or bread, and prepare their own bites of food. Provide a variety of types of baguette slices, including plain, sourdough and seeded.

With Fruit

Because brie can be so rich and almost heavy, serve it with fruit to lighten it up. If you want to add brightness and tartness to the cheese, serve it with cranberry sauce. For a simple but tasty snack, serve brie with apple slices; the two flavors in this simple preparation complement each other well without being overly formal. For an easy preparation of brie that is limited by only your imagination, serve it with any flavor of jam.

With Other Cheeses

For a complete cheeseboard, serve your brie with at least two other cheeses---ideally a blue cheese or other strongly flavored cheese and a hard cheese like cheddar or Gruyere. You can, of course, add other cheeses to this selection too. For example, goat cheese or feta add a bit of tangy flavor to the board.

Other accompaniments can be served with your cheeseboard such as nuts, dates or even a lightly dressed salad.

Baked

Bake brie by completely wrapping a wedge (or entire round) of the cheese in puff pastry dough. If you want, you can include jam or fresh fruits of your choice on top of the brie before you wrap it in the dough. Sprinkle the top with brown sugar for added sweetness, if desired. Place the wrapped brie into a preheated 350-degree Fahrenheit oven and bake for approximately half an hour, or until the pastry coating the cheese has turned golden brown. Serve your baked brie with accompaniments such as crackers or baguette slices.

For a quicker version of baked brie, place your round of brie on a microwave-safe plate and microwave it until it is hot, approximately two minutes. Remove the plate from the microwave and cut out a wedge. The brie will melt out and your guests will be able to dip their accompaniments into the melted cheese.

Fried

If you have time to prepare your brie just before your guests eat it, you can fry it. Simply cut your brie into bite-sized pieces, coat them lightly in flour, dip them into a bowl with beaten eggs, roll them in breadcrumbs, then fry them in a frying pan with a layer of oil about 1/8 inch deep. Fry the cheese bites for just a couple of minutes, turning them regularly as each side turns brown. Serve the fried brie bites while they are hot with toothpicks on the side for your guests to use.

Tags: baguette slices, brie with, serve with, your brie, your guests