As we move into the warmer months, we are preparing to open our next big venture in Flora, Mississippi. The Flora Butcher was our first venture immediately embraced by thousands of customers in central Mississippi. That following extended to Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee and Arkansas. This was followed by Dave’s Triple B: Barbecue, Beer & Blues Restaurant which has won raves from both locals and food enthusiasts from around the country. Now we prepare our third Flora business, Raines Cellars. We will be offering fine wines and rare spirits, as well as familiar labels of a certain high quality. Our team has gone to Kentucky to pick our own bourbon barrel picks and travel to the West Coast to buy rare one of a kind wines at auction. All these labels will be available for sampling at our in-store tasting bar. Our culinary staff will be creating special dishes that are compliment by specific wines and spirits. Our first is
The cheese selections at the Flora Butcher always include a brie option but we occasionally have brie en croute in our freezer as well. When local fruits are in season, it's a fun way to use them as a filling to top the brie before sealing it in puff pastry. I recommend making this for parties because of the flavor and the visual appeal.
Step 1
The longest part of the process is making a fruit compote but it is a simple and there are lots of options on additional spices. In this case I used mandarin oranges but you can use any fruit. I added 3 mandarin's worth of skinless segments or "supremes" to a small pot with 2 cups of water and a quarter cup of raw sugar. Place the pot over medium heat and allow to cook until half of the water has evaporated. With a whisk, break up the fruit and stir the mixture. Reduce the heat to the point it is at a gentle simmer. Keep an eye on it and continue to cook until the mixture resembles a loose paste. Remove from the heat and allow it to cool.
Step 2
While your fruit topping is cooling, remove your puff pastry from the freezer and allow it to warm up. It needs to be soft enough to roll out but never let it get to room temp. Puff pastry is simply butter placed between two pieces of dough and rolled out flat. It is then folded and rolled out again to create 2 layers of butter. That is then folded to create 4 layers and so on and so forth until you end up with hundreds of layers of butter. That is what makes it "puff" but it also requires that it stay cold.
On a floured surface place your puff pastry and sprinkle flour on top of it. Then roll it out evenly until it is about 40-50% bigger than what you started with.
Step 3
While working a million Sunday Brunches in New Orleans, I came to appreciate a little gadget known as a hash brown ring. Ring mold sets aren't big enough for things like this but these rings come in a variety of sizes and I highly recommend getting a few larger ones if you like to play with puff pastry.
Off to one side of center, Place an 8–9 ounce wheel of brie on the puff pastry. Place your cold fruit mixture on the brie and smooth it out so it covers the top completely. At this point you can use a knife or a large ring mold to cut a circle about 2 inches outside the edge of the brie. Then cut a slightly larger round of puff pastry out as you will need it as a top.
Step 4
Whisk an egg until smooth and use a pastry brush to paint your eggwash onto the exposed puff pastry around the brie. Place the larger piece of puff pastry over the top and gently press it into place around the brie. At this point, some people like the use a fork to crimp the puff pastry together to create a design around the base. I like the cleaner look so I use one of my trusty hash brown rings to cut off the excess pastry in a perfect circle.
Step 5
Decorations! This is fun and you can hardly go wrong with anything you want to try. Just take the remaining puff pastry and start trying to cut out shapes like leaves or berries of anything that appeals to you. Brush the encased brie with eggwash and add your puff pastry decorations. Afterwards gently apply eggwash to the top of them. At this point I sometimes add the type of fruit that I used to the top for color.
Step 6
Move the brie to a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Bake in a 400 degree oven until golden brown, turning occasionally if one side gets dark faster. Anywhere from 15- 25 minutes usually.
One note is to check the paper after the first minute to make sure your oven's fan isn't too high and blowing the paper over your brie. Have some small metal pieces or silverware handy to pin it down if need be.
Step 7
Wait.
You want to serve the brie warm but not hot. Give it 30 minutes to rest so that you won't end up with a lake of cheese and an empty pastry shell. It will still be gooey and oozing out when you cut it. If you prefer it so be more solid, you can finish it an hour ahead of time so that it is warm but easier to cut off a piece and place it on a plate.
I paired this dish with a Monkey Shoulder, a blended scotch whisky. Scotch in general is nice with harder aged cheeses but with the brie it needed a softer approach than one of the heavy scotches. It has a very malty, creamy flavor with hints of buttered toast and butterscotch. It pairs well with any sort of citrus so it is nice with the mandarins.
If you think that you do not like scotch, you should give this one a try. It may surprise you. We keep a bottle open at the tasting bar at Raines Cellars for that very reason.
