Ladybug Brie En Croute

I loooove this appetizer.  What's not to love?  Brie slathered with yumminess and baked up inside a puff pastry.  I'll take three. 

I've done this with lots of different fillings.  Anything you'd slather on a piece of bread or cracker with brie would be good inside the pastry.  This time around, my plan was to use my mom's raspberry jelly, but the kids finished it off on a sammie, so I used some homemade Mixed Berry sauce I had in the freezer.  Along with that, I added some dried cranberries and slivered almonds.  You could use any kind of jam.  Berry, apricot, orange, pear, fig.  The fig would be good with a balsamic reduction.  You could also smear on a layer of roasted garlic. Okay, now my mouth is watering.

I got the big brie round from Costco, but normally, for just a few people, I use the smaller round you can find in any grocery store.  Because I used the bigger one, I cut the cheese in half and filled it with the goodies, in addition to putting them on the top.

Here's the ingredients and assembly line in photos:

Mixed berry sauce, slivered almonds, dried cranberries, large brie round, and one sheet of defrosted puff pastry.

Cut your brie in half across the middle so that you have a top and bottom.

This step isn't necessary, especially if you're using the smaller round of cheese.

Slather your goodies onto the bottom half.

Put the top back on.

Next, you're gonna wanna roll out your pastry sheet on a floured surface.

You need it big enough to wrap around the cheese.

Once you have it rolled out, put some more of your goodies in the middle.

Center your brie on top and wrap the dough around, cutting off any excess.

 It doesn't need to be perfect, the seam goes on the bottom.

Flip it over onto a baking sheet.

At this point, you can leave it as is, or decorate it with dough scraps.

Leaves for fall, balloons for a birthday, flowers for spring, a bow or tree for Christmas.

You get the idea.

I'm gonna go ahead and beat the birthday party theme to death here and attempt to make mine resemble a ladybug.

At this point, you'll want to brush on an egg wash.

Mix one egg with one tablespoon of water and brush it all over the outside.

Bake at 400 for 20 minutes, then let it sit for 45 before cutting into it.

I'm not baking mine until tomorrow, so I left the egg wash off until then.

Although, I did put a post-it note on the saran wrap I covered it with so I wouldn't forget!

I'll get pictures of her in all her baked ladybug glory tomorrow.....