Christmas Brie en Croute
The Farmer's Markets leading up to Christmas are a great place to get into the spirit of the season. More specialty hand crafted items are available than at any other time of year, poinsettias and mistletoe can be bought, and a new wave of produce begins to appear. One of my favorite December arrivals is the Fuerte avocado, which is, in my opinion, the best variety of avocado you can get. Mostly it is found in California, it has a shorter season than the Hass avocado, so it is not as widely popular or available. If you are an avocado lover and haven't tried a Fuerte you are missing out. While fuerte avocados are not iconic winter fair, I like to incorporate them in as many dishes as I can especially those shared with friends and family at the Holidays.
At Christmas potlucks, there is one dish that I always look for, but is often overlooked by others: a small golden brown round of pastry called a Brie en Croute or Baked Brie. Warm melty cheese with crisp buttery pastry is a heavenly combination, but then add in a layer of berry jam or pepper jelly and you really couldn't ask for anything more. Elderberry jam is my most recent farmer's market find and it melds perfectly with this dish as it has cinnamon and cumin, ideal warm holiday spices.
To ensure no one misses this baked brie at your next holiday party, garnish your brie with fuerte avocado slices layered to look like a Christmas tree, decorations that will be sure to catch everyone's eye.
1 Sheet Puff Pastry
1/4 cup Elderberry Jam
1 Brie Cheese round
1 egg beaten with 1 Tbsp. milk for egg wash
1 Fuerte Avocado, cut into thin slices
Cut a 9" round of puff pastry, use your baking pan to measure. Place jam in the center of the pastry dough in a circle matching the size of your brie cheese round. Place the brie cheese round over the jam circle. Coat the outer edges of the pastry with egg wash and begin to fold the pastry up around the cheese to cover completely. Flip over so it is seam side down on your baking dish. Brush the top of the pastry with egg wash. If desired cut out star and ornament shapes with the remaining pastry dough.
Bake at 375° for 30 minutes,. Reduce the temperature to 350° and bake an additional 5-10 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and cooked through. (Pastry cutouts will only need to bake for 10-15 minutes.)
Allow to cool slightly. Layer your avocado slices from largest to smallest and add your pastry cutouts. Best enjoyed warm.
If you have already seen It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street, there are still a plethora of classic holiday movies out there for you, and many that don't fit into conventional Christmas movie criteria. Western master John Ford's 3 Godfathers is anything but conventional, featuring three outlaw bank robbers as its heroes, including John Wayne in the leading role. These three outlaws, on the run from the law, find more than they bargained for out in the desert, eventually embodying the three wise men, after a fashion. Exciting, funny, and full of heart, 3 Godfathers appears to be about as far as can be from a Christmas movie for the first half of the film, before the story starts to take shape and one small member is added to the outlaws party. -Z
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