Baked Brie En Croute

Lost, the Series Finale. Something special had to be done to marked the last ever Lost dinner party. (But don't you worry friends and bleaders this certainly won't be my last dinner party.) I considered this to be slightly ambition to try and make something brand new to me with less than an hour of company coming over for dinner, but hey I always wanted to learn and sometimes there's nothing like stress to make . There was a little hole in the cheese apparently, which is why there was a 'crown' of cheese surrounding the Brie, but it came out delicous. I guess you wrap cheese in buttered pastry it's bound to turn out decent. Presentation is something that will be a work in progress for this.

1 smaller wheel of brie. I love Costco.

1 roll of defrosted Phylo dough.

1 stick of butter.

a handful of pecans, chopped.

1 baking pan or dish with raised sides

Served with:

1 pink lady apple

1 gala apple

1 bosc pear

Simple Bruscheta bread:

1 par baked baguette loaf (I love trader Joes)

olive oil for brushing

Leave your Phylo dough out to room temperature for about 2 hours prior to use. keep it rolled. When it's ready, unroll it. as you use a sheet at a time, recover immediately with plastic wrap then cover with a damp towel. Otherwise it will dry out and crumble as you pull out the sheets. I also learned this the hard way as well, so trust me.

in a small fry pan on low heat, melt a stick of butter. when melted pour half to 2/3's of it out into a little bowl. You will use this for brushing the dough.

Take the remaining butter and on low mix in the nuts. cook for a couple minutes.

Take Every time you lay down a single paper thin layer of phylo dough, you must brush it with butter. So one layer at a time you put down a sheet, brush it with butter completely, then top with another sheet, and brush it with butter completely. I did about 3 sheets horizontal to the pan, then three vertical to the pan. Then I layed the cheese in the middle. Take the buttered pecans and place them on top of the Brie to lifted the sides (carefully) to wrap the cheese and nuts. The phylo did not cover the cheese at the top, so I took about 3 more sheets of phylo to wrap the top. Each buttered of course.

bake in a heated 375 oven for 30 minutes.

During the last 7-10 minutes pop in the bruscheta with it. BTW Brusceta in italian means brushed bread. a super simple bruscheta:

slice bread at an angle, place on a baking sheet. Brush with olive oil.

Now pull everything out and serve with the fruit. cheese, fruit, bread. Pass the wine please.