While prepping for a Christmas week lunch, we thought about just serving a spread of our favorite salads. But we needed something more, something warm and festive…and…indulgent for the holidays. So we left our strictly healthy food comfort zone and created this Instagram-inspired baked brie.

It is the off-season after all, and no better time to sneak in a few extra bites of rich, gooey cheese, right?

-Laurel & Bec

Baked Brie in Puff Pastry

1 8 oz. wheel of Brie Cheese

1/2 cup fresh cranberries

1 ripe, soft pear, peeled and sliced (we used comice pears)

1 sprig of rosemary, leaves removed and chopped roughly

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

pinch of sea salt

1 sheet of puff pastry (purchased frozen, but thawed completely in refrigerator before starting this project and rolled out to about 1/4" thickness. The kind we used came 1/4" thick so we didn't have to do any additional rolling)

1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 425.

Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper.

Cut 3-4 slash marks into the rind on top of the wheel of brie. Note: You can leave the rind on because it is edible (something we learned recently during a visit to the French Cheese Board).

Unfold the puff pastry and place it over the baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Place brie on puff pastry.

Pile pears, cranberries, and rosemary on top of cheese. Sprinkle with pumpkin pie spice and sea salt.

Wrap cheese by gathering the pastry around the sides, as you would if you were wrapping a bottle of wine. You can stretch the dough a little so that it isn't too think. If there is too much thick dough around the part where it is gathered, it might start to puff up and open too much while cooking. Firmly pinching the dough together where it is gathered will help prevent this. Also, you probably will have extra dough. You can used this to cut a "ribbon" that you can stretch across the seam where the pastry is gathered. This will help keep everything intact.

Use a pastry brush to brush the beaten egg all over the dough. This will create a nice golden brown look.

Cook for about 25-30 minutes or until the pastry looks like it is cooked through and golden brown on top.

Allow to cool for about 10 minutes on the baking tray, then transfer to a serving dish. Cut into it with a cake turner and let cheese ooze out. Serve with crackers, bread, or crispy pear or apple slices.