I have one more recipe to share from our apple-picking porch party that was featured on SMP Living last week — and this one combines my two favorite things, gooey baked cheese and sweet apples. The best part about this recipe? You can make it the night before and freeze it, just pop it in the oven before guests arrive! I’d be lying if I said we didn’t eat the full wheel of brie between the few us gals — it was delectable!

Ingredients:

• 2 apples, sliced in thin pieces
• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 tsp Royal Rose’s cardamom clove simple syrup
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• Dash of nutmeg
• Wheel of brie (6 to 8 oz)
•  Frozen puff pastry dough, thawed
• 1 egg, beaten for wash

1. Preheat oven to 375°F
2. In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Combine apple, sugars, simple syrup and spices in saucepan until apples are fully coated and sauté for 4-5 minutes while stirring. When sugars start to bubble up, remove the mixture from the heat and let cool.
3. On a floured surface, roll out thawed puff pastry dough and cut into a 10″ circle.
4. Cut the wheel cheese in half horizontally, place bottom half off cheese wheel on the rolled out pastry dough, top with 1/2 of the apple mixture. Place the second half of the cheese wheel on top, and cover the top with the remaining apple mixture.
5. Working in a circular fashion, begin to wrap and fold the pastry dough around the brie, leaving some room at the top for the apple compote to show.
6. Brush the dough lightly with one beaten egg, and then bake off in the oven for 35-40 minutes on a baking sheet, or until the crust is a golden brown.  Let it rest for 5-10 minutes before cutting, and serve warm with a crusty baguette or crackers.

All images by Bring To Light Photography