Ok I am obsessed with cheese. Like Cheese > Chocolate any day of the week. I don't even discriminate, I am equally obsessed; Brie, Blue, Chedder, Halloumi, Havarti, Nabulsi, Gouda, the list goes on. This super super super easy and amazingly tasting appetizer is so perfect for entertaining. It literally takes almost zero effort but looks impressive and taste amazing.
So Brie is not a commonly consumed cheese in the Middle East so for this interpretation of the dish I made it a bridge between modern and middle eastern ingredients. During the holidays cheese related appetizers float all over the internet but I was inspired to make this from a post Gaby did on her site Whats Gaby Cooking.
I first made slight incisions on top of the brie and inserted thinly sliced garlic into the incisions. This will give a nice slight garlic taste in the cheese which taste oh my God so friggin amazing. Okay moving on.
In order to make a perfect cut splitting the Brie into two I use this little trick that makes a very clean cut through this otherwise creamy and sticky cheese.
I first make a slight incision all along the outside of the Brie and then I use dental floss and wrap it around and inside the incision and just pull through, and thats it. Once I have the two pieces I bottom side with chopped up Medjool Date but feel free to use any kind of jam or fruit. I then put the two halves together and this is very important, put it BACK into the little wooden case it came in. I tried making this once with the cheese NOT in the case because I was so paranoid about it catching fire in the oven and naturally the cheese melted and looked like a big blob. If you want it to look presentable and in tact it must be in the oven in the wood case.
Feel free to top it with any other fruit or jam
In order to make the crostinis I used fresh sourdough baguette from the local bakery. Make sure to cut them into thin slices and top with olive oil and zaatar and bake in the oven. It's literally as easy as that!
Dip the crunchy crostini right into the brie and ENJOY! It's so good I literally can't even take it.
