The perfect two-bite holiday appetizer recipe with melted brie cheese, sweet-tart cranberry sauce, and fresh rosemary all nestled inside a buttery soft crust! An EASY appetizer recipe with just 4 main ingredients that's ready in 30 minutes! PERFECT for Thanksgiving celebrations, holiday and Christmas parties, or for New Year's Eve!
Prep Time20 minutesmins
Cook Time10 minutesmins
Total Time30 minutesmins
Course: Appetizers
Cuisine: American
Keyword: baked brie bites, brie and cranberry bites, brie bites with crescent rolls, brie cheese bites, brie cranberry bites, cranberry brie bites, crescent roll brie bites
Servings: 24
Calories: 138kcal
Author: Averie Sunshine
Ingredients
one 8-ounce tube crescent roll doughthawed puff pastry dough may be substituted
2tablespoonsall-purpose flourfor dusting work surface
8ouncewheel brie cheesedivided
½cupwhole berry cranberry saucedivided (homemade* or store bought)
¼cupchopped pecans or walnutsoptional; divided
Sprigs fresh rosemarycut into small pieces; optional for during baking or garnshing; divided
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375F and spray a 24-count mini muffin pan very well with cooking spray; set aside. Tip - I strongly recommend making as written and using a 24-count mini muffin pan but if all you have is a 12-count pan, it will still work. Just double the quantity of the cheese, cranberry sauce, and optional nuts/rosemary, and bake longer - about 18 minutes, but keep an eye on them as all ovens, muffn pans, etc. vary.
Lightly dust a cutting board or clean counter top with the flour, unroll the crescent roll dough, and press the seams together. Tip - If you can find crescent roll dough sheets, that's ideal because there are no seams. However, regular crescent roll dough will work. You can use any name brand or generic brand you'd like. If you're using puff pastry dough, make sure it's thawed, but still chilled which is key to having it actually puff up nicely during baking.
Using a sharp knife or sharp pizza wheel, cut the dough into 24 equal-sized pieces.
Place one piece of dough in each of the sprayed muffin pan cavities; set aside.
Evenly sliced a wheel of brie into 24 equally-sized pieces and place one piece inside each of the crescent roll dough pieces.
Top each with a small dollop of cranberry sauce. You don't need much, about a teaspoon, give or take, for each.
If desired, evenly sprinkle a couple nuts onto each cheese and cranberry mound.
If you like the taste of rosemary, add a small sprig of rosemary to each mound before baking. If you're not as fond of it, then I suggest garnishing after baking for the visual appeal, and you can take it off rather than eating it. But that's tricky to do if it bakes in with the cheese.
Bake for about 10 minutes, or until the dough is set and lightly golden browned. Notes - The baking time is an estimate and because all brands of dough, muffin pans, the exact size of your hunks of cheese, just how many cranberry sauce you added, your oven, your climate, etc. there will be variances in bake times. Bake until your appetizer is done and set (not raw) but also not burnt. You may need to add a couple minutes to my estimate, but start checking at 10 mintues. If you're using puff pastry dough, I find it takes longer to bake because it's thicker; I would start checkng at 15 minutes and go from there.
Allow the brie bites to cool momentarily in the pan, remove, and serve.
Notes
Cranberry Sauce - I recommend the following homemade cranberry sauces: Cranberry Cabernet Cranberry Sauce, Spiced Cranberry Sauce with Apples, Cranberry Currant Sauce, or Cranberry Pineapple Mango SauceIf you're going to use a store bought sauce, that's fine. Make sure it says 'whole berry' otherwise it will likely be more like a smooth jelly without any real chunks of cranberries which isn't my preference.Storage - Bites are best warm and fresh, but will hold at room temp for a few hours. You can make them a couple hours in advance, but I don't recommend more. It's like pizza, best hot and fresh. Leftovers may be stored airtight in the fridge for up to 3 days, noting you'll want to microwave them as needed to soften them up again before eating the leftovers.