Brie en Croute

(photo stolen from The Girl Who Ate Everything)

Three words for this recipe: Oh.My.God.

Amazingly good.
I could have gobbled the entire thing, but a girl has to maintain her composure in a crowd.

This is a great recipe to bring to someone's house for an appetizer.
DEFINITELY a keeper.

Recipe courtesy of Paula Deen (The Food Network)

Show: Paula's Home Cooking Episode: Formal Entertaining
Total Time: 58 min.Prep10 min. Inactive20 min. Cook28 min.
Yield:8 servings, Level:Easy

Ingredients:
1 sheet frozen puff pastry, pre-packaged
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 cup walnuts
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 (8-ounce) wheel Brie
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
Crackers, for serving

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Defrost puff pastry for approximately 15 to 20 minutes and unfold.

In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.
Saute the walnuts in the butter until golden brown, approximately 5 minutes.
Add the cinnamon and stir until walnuts are coated well.
Place the walnut mixture on top of the Brie and sprinkle the brown sugar over the mixture.
Lay the puff pastry out on a flat surface.
Place the brie in the center of the pastry.
Gather up the edges of the pastry, pressing around the brie and gather at the top. Gently squeeze together the excess dough and tie together with a piece of kitchen twine.
Brush the beaten egg over top and side of Brie.
Place Brie on a cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes until pastry is golden brown.

Serve with crackers.

To give a special look, cut extra pastry into heart or flower shapes and bake until golden.

Note Paula has another version of this recipe that uses raspberry jam

I heart pudding

Those of you who know me well probably know that my white trash guilty pleasure, especially around the holidays, is chocolate pudding in a pie shell.
I love it.
It has been my favorite treat for as long as I can remember.

You also probably know that I love to bake, and I'm a snob about it.
No mixes, thank you very much.
All my baking is from scratch, using the highest quality ingredients.

Except for this.

I have tried multiple recipes for pudding pies, and chocolate pies.
I have tried multiple brands of gourmet chocolate bars and pain stakingly chopped each one.
I have not found anything as yummy as, I'm embarrassed to say, Jello brand.
And it has to have that skin on the top that recipes say to get rid of by refrigerating the pie with plastic wrap on the top.
Why would you want to do that?!

The only thing possibly better than eating the entire pie a slice of pie is taking a spoon to the pan after you've emptied the contents into the pieshell, and licking up every last drop (equally as delicious as licking the beaters after mixing cake batter. I am still eight years old when it comes to the delights of baking in the kitchen).

This is ironic considering I'm attending nuitrition school, and am learning to shun processed foods.
Sigh...
I'll keep trying new recipes, but for now the Jello stays.

That being said, today in the mail I got a package from an unfamiliar address.
Inside was no note of explanation.
No letter of reference.
Inside was one box of Jello brand chocolate pudding.

Interesting.

Whoever was so thoughtful: I thank you.

Random quote...
"Your face makes my soul want to eat chocolate pudding!"
~Andy Milonakis

I promise I will get back to regular blog posting again.
I was without a computer for awhile, so I got out of the habit, and Facebook tends to fill the gap.
But I have multiple catching up posts of gifts received, a trip to Seattle, etc.

And bear with me if some of my photos aren't visible.
I am trying to get my pics off Flickr, but not finished yet.