Baked Brie with Apples is one of the best appetizers you'll ever try! This easy recipe takes only 30 minutes and will add colors and vibrancy to any dinner menu! The apples are caramelized with brown sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice, and honey and then added on top of melting brie cheese. This is a vegetarian and gluten-free recipe.
Baked brie with apples - easy 30-minute appetizer
If you're looking for an easy appetizer recipe that looks beautiful and colorful, this baked brie with caramelized apples might be exactly what you're looking for! The whole recipe takes only 30 minutes, and what you have in the end is a gorgeous appetizer for any occasion, especially the holidays!
- The brie cheese is baked in the oven until very soft, creamy, and molten.
- While the cheese is being baked, the apples are caramelized with brown sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice, and butter and then deglazed with a touch of honey. What you have is beautifully roasted apples with lots of flavors!
- Pour the caramelized apples over the baked brie.
- For a final touch, finish it with chopped pecans on top!
This delicious appetizer will turn heads during your next party or dinner! And, so will this Cranberry Brie Cheese!
What is brie cheese?
- Brie is a soft-ripened cheese with a creamy texture and white rind. It is usually made from cow's milk, even though goat brie cheese is popular, too.
- The brie cheese usually comes as a wheel with a white rind on the outside. The whole brie cheese is edible - the soft center and the white rind on the outside.
- The cheese is named after Brie, a region in northern France where the cheese originated.
Beautiful holiday appetizer
This is such a perfect holiday or special occasion recipe. Baked brie tastes great combined with the classic holiday ingredients, such as apples, cinnamon, brown sugar, and pecans. Caramelized apples provide a sweet contrast to the savory flavor of baked brie. And, there is a little bit of crunch from chopped pecans sprinkled on top of the cheese. This appetizer is not only delicious, but it also looks beautiful on a plate, bursting with colors! It's a perfect recipe to make for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year's Eve. And, since the apples are available year-round, you can make this appetizer pretty much any time of year!
Budget-friendly appetizer
Baked brie with apples is a very budget-friendly appetizer. You can find many varieties of brie cheeses sold in the grocery stores - many of them are cheap. Apples are affordable too. All you need to do next is to adorn a plain brie cheese with something colorful and festive, such as apples. I use 2 apples for this recipe - one red and one green. It adds more colors and bakes the presentation even more beautiful. This delicious snack makes 6 servings, even though you can easily eat the whole thing yourself if you're not careful - it's that good!
Substitutions
This recipe is very flexible and versatile. Many substitutions can be made for original ingredients.
- Cheese. Use any variety of brie that you enjoy. It can be a traditional brie, a triple brie, goat cheese brie, or any other kind you like. Leave the white rind on the cheese. The whole brie cheese is edible - the soft center and the white rind on the outside.
- Apples. You can use any variety of apples: Gala, Fuji, Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, and so on. You can even use pears in place of apples if you like.
- Nuts. Chopped pecans are delicious over the baked brie. You can also use walnuts, cashews, or hazelnuts. Flavored nuts or candied nuts will work great on top of the brie, too. I would chop the nuts into smaller pieces before adding them to the cheese.
How to make baked brie with apples
This baked brie recipe is so easy.
- Just bake the whole wheel of brie cheese in the preheated oven at 350 F for 15 minutes until it gets warm, soft, and very melty.
- In the meantime, prepare the caramelized apples by cooking them in the skillet on the stove with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice.
- Then pour the caramelized apples over the freshly baked brie, and sprinkle with the chopped pecans! That's it! The whole recipe takes at most 30 minutes.
- Serve baked brie with crackers of your choice.
Cook's tips
- Use parchment paper to line the baking dish in which you will bake the brie. This will minimize the cleanup.
- Save time by cooking the apples while the brie bakes in the oven. This way, the whole recipe takes only 30 minutes!
- Use a pie server to carefully move the brie from the baking dish onto a serving platter. This will ensure that the brie cheese won't break or fall apart.
- Use a small cast-iron pan or a small ceramic baking dish for baking the brie and serve it in the same pan. This not only minimizes the cleanup but also saves you the number of dishes you have to clean afterward!
How to serve baked brie
- Crackers. Plain crackers work the best since you have so many flavors going on on top of the baked brie.
- Bread. Use a slice of freshly baked bread or toasted bread slices for scooping up the melted cheese.
- Spoon. Or, just do what I like to do best with brie - get a spoon, get a slice of brie on your plate together with apples and just eat it as is.
Other appetizers you might like
If you like how festive the baked brie looks with caramelized apples on top, you will love these colorful and delicious appetizers:
- Cranberry Brie Cheese
- Creamy Vanilla Grape and Apple Salad with Cranberries and Pecans
- Winter Fruit Salad with Maple-Lime Dressing
Baked Brie with Apples
Ingredients
Brie cheese
- 8 oz brie cheese whole wheel of brie cheese
Caramelized apples
- 2 apples cored and sliced, length-wise
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons honey
- ⅓ cup pecans chopped
Instructions
Bake the brie cheese
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a small baking dish with parchment paper.
- Place brie into the baking dish. Bake for 15 minutes until the brie softens.
Make caramelized apples
- Place sliced apples into a large bowl, add brown sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice, and mix. Let apples sit for about 5 minutes to release juices.
- In a large pan, heat 2 tablespoons of butter on high heat.
- Add sliced apples (without juice at the bottom of the pan) to the butter in the pan in a single layer, and cook on high for about 3 or 5 minutes, checking periodically.
- After 3 or 5 minutes, flip sliced apples to the other side, and cook on medium-high heat for another 3 or 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Note: Depending on how hot your stove gets, it might take you less or more time to cook the apples, the key is to brown them or even get a slightly “burned” effect. But don’t overdo it, stop cooking the apples once they acquire this “roasted” appearance.
- Right after you remove the pan with roasted sliced apples from the heat, immediately add honey – it will make apples sizzle and will caramelize them beautifully, off heat. Then, add all other juices from the bowl.
Assembly
- Carefully transfer the baked brie to a serving dish, using something flat like a pie server.
- Top with warm caramelized apples, scattering some of the apples around the base of the brie for presentation purposes.
- Sprinkle with chopped pecans.
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
What kind of apples go best?
Kelly, I've used 2 kinds of apples here: 1 green Granny Smith apple and 1 red Fuji apple (you can also use Gala or Honeycrisp for red apples). Enjoy - I hope you love it! 🙂
What goes the best to dip with?
Regular crackers, fruit crackers, fruit, crusty bread.
Other ideas: sweet potato fries, fresh iceberg lettuce wedges.
I usually provide individual plates and small forks and knives.
Do you eat the rind ??? Peel it off ??
Jo, you can eat the rind. This recipe (baked brie) will work only if the rind is on. The rind doesn't really have any flavor, and in this recipe you can't even taste it because the cheese is soft and melted (together with the rind).
I want to take this somewhere today, can I heat up the apple mixture just before I leave and take brie to be warmed in their oven and then add the apple mix?
Kathleen, yes, you can do just that! The apple mixture reheats (and refrigerates) really well, even the next day!
How long can Brie remain good outside of refrigeration.?
About 3 hours.
The flavor was out of this world! First attempt at making this and my cheese oozed out but it still tasted good but wasn’t as pretty as yours. Should I leave it cool before trying to cut to prevent it from draining all over the plate? I want to make it perfect next time.
Diane, I am happy you enjoyed this kind of brie! For next time, yes, I would just let the brie cool a little bit (but not too much) before cutting it.
Without realizing it, this is exactly what I did. I baked the brie, topped it with apples - took photos of the uncut brie with apples (which obviously took at least 5 or 10 minutes) and only then did I slice the brie.
I've made this as an appetizer for Thanksgiving this year, and it was gone in 30 minutes! Should've doubled it, ha! Will make it for Christmas, too!
Your comment made my day! Glad you've enjoyed this simple recipe enough to make it again! 🙂
This looks so good! Can I use other nuts, though? Which ones do you recommend?
Hi Kathy! Yes, you can use other nuts, such as walnuts. You can also use candied nuts or spicy nuts - they will be delicious!