Appetizers with Cheese, Please

From brie to bleu to Jack—cheese combined with fruit, nuts, honey and more makes for a tasteful event.

Honey and Roasted Garlic-Baked Brie with Baguettes

YIELD: 12

12 Brie wheels (4-6 oz. each)
24 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
8 ½ cups honey
salt, to taste
freshly cracked pepper, to taste
3 French baguettes, cut in fourths

1. Place one Brie wheel on each of 12 individual baking dishes. Place 4 garlic halves in each dish around the cheese. Pour ¾ cup of honey over each Brie. Season with salt and pepper, and place the baking dishes into a 350°F oven.

2. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven.

3. Quickly heat the baguette slices in oven until crisp. Serve the Brie hot with one crispy baguette quarter on the side.

Photo and recipe: Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board

***

“We try to use quality cheeses with great flavor. Haystack Mountain, a local cheesemaker, has some good ones: Chile Jack, Aspen Ash and Buttercup pair well with berries and fruits. We like to create cheese trays with organic preserves, herbal honeys or fresh berries and fruit.

“We also make house hand-stretched mozzarella that we can infuse with many different things during stretching, like basil or browned garlic bits or even a smoky chipotle rub. We like to make the mozzarella because it’s unique, inexpensive, and people like to know that it is made here.

—Daniel D. Skay, Nutrition Manager/Executive Chef, Parker Adventist Hospital, Parker, CO

***

CRABBY IS A GOOD THING: Chef Scott Anderson of Shepherd University, Shepherdstown, WV, collaborated with the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board on this recipe for Crabby Pico De Gallo Bruschetta that features three types of cheese.

***

“We cannot make enough Pear with Gorgonzola and Prosciutto. We use local pears and everyone is wowed by this.

—Fran Cassidy, Director, Food and Nutrition, Cooper University Hospital, Camden, NJ

***

BETTER TOGETHER: Romeo & Juliet is a signature cheese tray for alumni events at Miami University, Oxford, OH. It's comprised of salty, dense Manchego cheese and soft, sweet quince paste cut with a heart shaped cutter. Miami's colors are red and white, so this appetizer is perfect for displaying some tasteful school spirit.

***

“Baked brie is a classic. Warm and gooey, it’s a decadent comfort food and a signature item that is ordered again and again. We take a wheel of brie and spread it with raspberries and almonds, then wrap it in puff pastry. We cut out shapes of additional pastry then add that to the top, and then it’s baked. The appeal of brie is in its versatility: it can remain sweet; become savory or change flavor profiles season to season. It pairs so well with apricot, fig, balsamic glaze, caramelized onions, roasted garlic or pesto. We serve it with sliced bread or crackers and we've also done baby wheels of brie for smaller groups.”

—Merrill Collins, Director of Events and Catering, Connecticut College, New London, CT