Brie Cheese and Cherry Jam Pastry Puffs

I don't know what the world is coming to....last week I posted a recipe for Honey Glazed Balsamic Vinegar Roasted Baby Carrots (SO  good!), and now a brie cheese appetizer.  I don't even like brie cheese.  Well, I don't like brie unless it's baked in these pastry puffs.  In this case, I LOVE brie cheese!  Anyway, I've made a bit of a departure from sweets, but these are worth it!

These couldn't be simpler to make (well, I guess they could if they were a one step baking recipe, but this is 3, so that's good enough for me to qualify as easy!) and they were a HUGE hit with the dinner guests I served  them to.

I started out very irritated because the puff pastry I thawed out stuck together.  Stuck as in wouldn't unfold. At.  All.

Eventually, I gave up and tried the second sheet.  I don't like being defeated by puff pastry, but I gave in when even my sous-chef cat Morticia became interminably bored and left the kitchen to engage in something more interesting that watching me struggle endlessly with something as silly as PUFF PASTRY.  Moving on....

Okay, so I unfolded the second sheet of puff pastry and assembled the ingredients.  The recipe I was following, from my new favorite blog (more on that later), Eat Yourself Skinny, said to use chives, but I could not find any in two stores so I used scallions:

1 sheet of Puff Pastry, thawed

24 one inch squares of Brie Cheese

Cherry Jam

Chives or Scallions

Chopped Pecans

To begin, preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  Next, cut the puff pastry into squares and place them in the bottom of each cavity of a muffin pan prepared with cooking spray.  Eat Yourself Skinny suggested cutting 24 squares, which I did, except I can't measure or count so I made them pretty small.  I will admit to never working with puff pastry before, so I thought they expanded in size.  They don't.  They puff UP, not out.  So, this means the size you cut the pastry will be the size you end up with.  They do not spread like cookies.  As a result, I ended up with brie bites.  They were perfect to pop in your mouth and exploded with flavor.  I'm getting ahead of myself, though.  So, place each square into a muffin pan.

Bake for 10 minutes and remove from oven.

Press the middle of the puff pastry down with the handle of a wooden spoon.  Bake puffs for 6-8 minutes longer or until they are golden brown if necessary:

Once they are golden brown, remove from oven and press center of pastry down again.  Fill the center of each puff with cherry jam, careful not to overfill.  The amount you use will be determined by the size of the pastry puff:

Place a square of brie on top of the jam and place pan back into oven for 3-5 minutes or until cheese begins to melt:

Immediately after removing puffs from the oven, garnish with chives or scallions and chopped pecans.  Serve them warm, but before you do sample one.  You will love it.  And how easy is this recipe?!  In 15-20 you will have an appetizer that impresses everyone.

Certainly you can use different flavor jams or types of chopped nuts, you can do a lot of experimenting with this recipe.  These are the bite sized ones I made:

My Husband loved them SO much and they disappeared so quickly I made more the next day using larger puff pastry squares in a two-bite size:

They were, of course, as delicious as the bite-sized ones.  So, let the occasion you are making them for guide what size pastry square you should cut and bake.  They look so pretty and not only make a great appetizer, but my Husband enjoyed them for breakfast the next morning!

Next month we are hosting a dinner party to celebrate a milestone in my husband's career and these are TOTALLY on the menu!!  Okay, now the reason I love Eat Yourself Skinny.  I discovered on the left sidebar of her blog she has recipes broken down into Weight Watcher points with a variety of  items from 0-9 points!  She has come up with some great recipes and did the hard work for those of us on plan!  These Brie Puffs are only TWO POINTS!!  For the breakdown of this and many more recipes, go to her site.  She's fabulous!!  In the meantime, bake these up and enjoy!  :)