One of the appetizers Amy made for Saturday night was
Brie Bites.
They were not only pretty but yummy too!
I must explain that these are leftovers from the night before so they do not look nearly as pretty and fresh as they did right before serving.
Forgot to take ANY pictures of the party!
We need to hire someone to do that. :)
Here's the recipe:
Tart shells {those ones you buy frozen...super easy, right?}
Brie
Cranberry Chutney {recipe below}
Sugared cranberries {recipe below}
Fresh Mint leaves
How to:
Put a small piece of brie in each shell, add a teaspoon or so of the chutney over the brie.
Bake at 350 for about 5 minutes or till brie is melted.
Add 1, 2 or 3
{or however many you can put on there!!}
sugared cranberries on top of the chutney.
Add a fresh mint leaf.
Serve.
Enjoy.
The little sign at the party.
Cranberry & Orange Ginger Mango Chutney
1 12-ounce bag fresh cranberries
1/2 of a peeled orange, diced (about 1/3 c)
3/4 c mango, diced (I used TJ’s frozen mango chunks. You could use another fruit, i.e peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, etc. in place of the mango)
1 1/4 c water
1 c white sugar
1/4 c brown sugar, packed
1 tsp ground ginger, or more/less to taste (I used 2 tsp but I like lots of ginger and that provided a very nice kick)
1/2 tsp cinnamon, or more/less to taste (I used 1 tsp but I like cinnamon)
Directions: Combine all items in a sautee pan on the stovetop and bring to a rapid boil and then turn down the heat and let it simmer until desired thickness is reached. For me this was about 20 minutes but will vary on how thick you want the chutney and the rate/heat of your simmering on your stovetop. I could see this being “done” for some people at about 10-12 minutes and for others, 30 minutes.
Yields: approximately 24 ounces of chutney (3 small glass jars). Will keep in jars in the refrigerator for week(s) so you can make a large batch at once. Use common sense but it will keep for quite a long time.
Optional:
If you want heat and a kick, you could add a pinch of cayenne, red pepper flakes, or chili powder. The TJ’s ginger mango chutney has a bit of heat from the red peppers and the heat plays off the sweet from the fruit and it’s a wonderful combination.
Other warm spices include nutmeg, cardamom, garam masala, or even curry if you like it.
If you want to turn this into more of a sweet jam/preserves, add vanilla extract. If you have lemon, orange, or other specialty extracts, they could work well, too.
Add additional fruit (I’d start with about 1/2 cup) or substitute any fresh or dried fruit such as raisins, dates, currants, craisins, apricots (fresh of dried), peaches, pears, plums, nectarines, etc.
You could use alternate sweetening methods such as using stevia, maple syrup, agave, or alter the sugar proportions to taste. Note the Ocean Spray Cranberry Sauce recipe starts with 1 c water to 1 c sugar.
If you are tweaking the spices and flavors, my suggestion would be to take half the batch and pour it into a jar(s). For the other half, make the tweaks and optional add-in’s so that you have some diversity (and also if you didn’t like the tweak you chose, half the batch is ‘safe’)
Everything goes in one sauce pan…
Bring it to a boil and then simmer it.
About 10 minutes later…
Done.
{Amy used dried apricots in place of the mango.}
from
Sparkling Cranberries
For the simple syrup, raw cane sugar or real brown sugar lends a nice molasses flavor to the cranberries, but regular granulated sugar (or a blend of brown/white) will work.
2 cups cranberries, picked over
2 cups water
2 cups sugar (see head notes)More sugar for coating: I do a mix of medium-grained organic sugar for the first coating, and then a second toss with regular granulated white sugar. You don't want a huge grain for that first toss, just something larger than standard sugar, smaller than most turbinado sugars. You can sort of see the different grain sizes in the third photo in the main write-up.
Place the cranberries in a medium glass bowl and set aside.
Make a simple syrup by bringing the water and sugar just to a simmer in a medium saucepan. Let the syrup cool for a couple minutes and then pour it over the cranberries. If the syrup is too hot the cranberries will burst, so be careful. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
The next day, drain the cranberries and toss them with larger grained sugar until they are well coated. I only use a scoop of sugar at a time, and small batches of cranberries, so the sugar doesn't get too damp. Place the coated cranberries on a baking sheet to dry for a few hours.
Do a second toss with the regular granulated sugar, this typically takes care of any sticky spots on the cranberries. Let dry another hour.
Makes 2 cups of sparkling cranberries.
These were the card holders for the cheesecake buffet.
They didn't stand up as well as I would have liked them to.
I did have fabrics under them so I suppose that didn't help.
But they did look pretty.
Wow, those cranberry bites look delicious!
ReplyDeleteyummy!
ReplyDeleteCan just imagine the brie flavor with the cranberries! Yummm! Happy holidays. :-)
ReplyDelete