Baked Brie Cranberry in Bread Bowl

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If you loved my Baked Brie Recipe, you’re going to love this one! For your Thanksgiving, Christmas and any holiday parties, try this elegant easy 3 ingredient baked brie cranberry, served in a pull-apart bread bowl for dipping! This crowd pleasing festive appetizer is perfect for entertaining and so easy to make!

If you’ve ever baked brie in the oven before, you know what a crowd pleaser it is! Top it off with any jam and nuts and it makes for a fancy, beautiful and absolutely delicious appetizer! The best part about this recipe, is that your guests can pull apart the bread bowl, and dip it right into the brie and cranberry! It’s absolutely perfect for entertaining.

A great Thanksgiving leftovers recipe

After Thanksgiving there is usually an overabundance of cranberry sauce prepare and left over! This is a 3-ingredient recipe for baked brie cranberry that makes it so easy to use up any extra cranberry sauce you make or have left over. It literally only needs cranberry sauce, a round bread boule and a wheel of cheese.

Ingredients

• Bread boule: A round loaf of rustic bread. You can use whole wheat or white.
• Cooking spray: I prefer to use cooking spray as you use a lot less oil this way.
• Brie: This recipe requires one whole wheel of brie. It’s a wonderfully creamy cheese that gets super gooey when melted.
• Cranberry sauce: You can use homemade or store bought.
• Thyme: Fresh thyme adds a great flavor as well as adding some festive color.

How to make baked brie cranberry bread bowl

First, it’s important to get a round bread boule that is bigger than a standard brie wheel. You can usually find this in the bakery section of most grocery stores. You want to find one that is both wide and deep enough to fit the cheese. I haven’t had a hard time finding it in stores.

Then you want to slice off the top portion leaving just enough to fit the width of the brie or slightly wider. It doesn’t have to be perfect the first time around. You can slice it until you have a surface wide enough. Use a long serrated knife to make it easier.

Next, peel the rind off the cheese wheel all around it removing as much of it as you can; it doesn’t have to be perfect. Place the cheese wheel on top of the flat bread surface (as a measuring guide) and use a smaller knife to cut around the perimeter of the cheese.

Start hallowing out the bread and go as deep as the depth of the brie cheese you have. You can use your hands or a spoon to dig out the bread. There’s no need to hollow out all the bread; just enough to fit the cheese snugly in the bread.

Don’t throw away the bread that you remove though. You can toast it and serve on the side with this baked brie cranberry appetizer or save it for later to use with soup.

When the bread is hallowed on the inside, slice around the bread about 1 – 1 ½ inches part. Be sure not to go all the way through to the bottom though. This creates the tear-apart bread that will be used for dipping.

Then place the brie inside the bread boule. The the tedious part of the recipe is all done. You’re pretty much done with the labor intensive part. But hey, we haven’t actually cooked anything yet, so it’s not so bad, right?!

Next, spray the bread boule with cooking spray. You can do this before or after placing the cheese inside. And then add about half a cup of cranberry sauce – enough to cover the entire surface of the brie cheese. You can also sprinkle on some fresh thyme at this point, or wait until it’s baked before adding them.

When it comes out of the oven, you basically get a baked brie cranberry stuffed bread bowl with built-in dippers! You’ll know it’s done because the bread will get golden brown and slightly crunchy, and the brie cheese will get nice and melty. The melty salty brie with the sweet tart cranberry sauce is a match made in heaven – it’s a bomb flavor combination that screams holidays! This is such a crowd pleaser for holiday events and gatherings!

Tips for making the recipe well

1. Buy high quality crusty bread boule, which is basically a round loaf of bread. This is important because the crusty bread will be able to hold up the heavy wheel of cheese and cranberry sauce without breaking apart. You can use freshly baked bread or day-old bread; either one works fine.
2. Use good quality triple cream brie. Double cream is cool, but triple?! Self explanatory hahahaha
3. Cut the rind off the cheese all round, just enough to see the cheese, without cutting off any of the cheese. This is important to make sure that the cheese oozes out after baking in the oven.
4. Serve immediately! The beauty of this tear-apart bread with baked brie cranberry is the melty cheese that oozes out as you tear out the cut pieces of bread. If you’re taking this to a friend’s house, I would recommend baking it for 15 minutes. Then finishing off the final 10 minutes when you arrive to the party.

Frequently asked questions

This recipe is one of those reliable crowd-pleasers that only takes a few minutes to prepare and only needs three ingredients. It’s a wonderful appetizer to wet everyone’s appetite before a big meal.

For more easy appetizers:

• Cheese Board
• Skinny Spinach Dip
• Christmas Wreath Salad
• Shrimp Cocktail in Avocado Bowls
• Mushroom Avocado Toast
• Whipped Goat Cheese Stuffed Tomatoes

If you’ve tried this feel good Baked Brie Cranberry Bread Bowl recipe or any other recipe on FeelGoodFoodie, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below! I would love to hear about your experience making it. And if you snapped some shots of it, share it with me on Instagram so I can repost on my stories!

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Review

Baked Brie Cranberry in Bread Bowl

For your Thanksgiving, Christmas and any holiday parties, try this elegant easy 3 ingredient baked brie cranberry in a pull-apart bread bowl for dipping! 

5 from 165 votes

Author Yumna Jawad

Servings 8

Course Appetizer

Calories 122

Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 25 minutes mins

Video

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• ▢ 1 bread boule round loaf of rustic bread
• ▢ Cooking spray
• ▢ 1 wheel of brie about 12 ounces, top of rind removed
• ▢ 1/2 cup cranberry sauce
• ▢ 2 tablespoons fresh thyme

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Slice off the top quarter of the bread. Place the wheel of brie (with the rind removed) on top of the bread and use a knife to trace a circle around it. Scoop out the inner circle of the bread.
• Place the bread on the baking sheet. Spray the cooking spray on the outside of the bread. Cut slices all around the edges of the bread, about 1-2 inches apart. Be careful not to cut all the way down. This will create the removable slices for eating after it’s baked.
• Place the brie in the emptied out bread crevice. Add ½ cup of cranberry sauce and sprinkle with thyme, and bake in the oven until the bread is toasted, about 25 minutes.
• Serve immediately while cheese is melty.

Equipment

Aluminum Sheet Pans

Zwilling Knife Block Set

Non Slip Cutting Board

Notes

Storage: Store any leftovers in an airtight container. They will last about 3-4 days in the fridge. When ready to eat, just microwave or toast the portion to be eaten.

Make Ahead Tips: It’s best if you have cranberry sauce leftover to use in this recipe. It allows the cranberry sauce to settle and thicken, ensuring it remains put in the middle of the bread bowl on top of the cheese. 

Substitutes: For best results, follow the recipe as is. However if you can’t find triple cream brie cheese, any other would be fine. It just wouldn’t be as melty as the triple cream. Also, if you don’t have any leftover cranberry sauce, you can substitute for jam of choice.

Nutrition

Calories: 122kcal, Carbohydrates: 7g, Protein: 6g, Fat: 7g, Saturated Fat: 4g, Cholesterol: 28mg, Sodium: 183mg, Potassium: 58mg, Sugar: 6g, Vitamin A: 260IU, Vitamin C: 3.1mg, Calcium: 59mg, Iron: 0.5mg

Nutrition information provided is an estimate. It will vary based on cooking method and specific ingredients used.

Cuisine American

Course: Appetizer