Description
An easy and forgiving appetizer for any occasion.
Ingredients
Scale
For the cranberry orange sauce (makes ~1 cup):
- 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries*
- 4–6 tbsp packed brown sugar (depending on how sweet you like it)
- 1 tbsp orange juice
- 1 tbsp orange-flavoured liquor (optional)
- 1 tsp grated orange zest (or lemon zest**)
For the crostinis:
- 1 baguette***, sliced
- 1 block brie cheese, sliced
- 1/4 cup pistachios, finely chopped
Instructions
- Make the cranberry sauce beforehand (you can keep it in a jar in the fridge until you are ready to use it): Place the cranberries, brown sugar, orange juice, and orange-flavoured liquor into a small-medium sauce pan and mix until the ingredients are somewhat combined.
- Place on a stove over low heat, and once the sugar starts to melt you can increase to medium-high heat to bring the mixture to a boil. Keep stirring the mixture with a spoon the entire time it is on the stove.
- Once the mixtures starts boiling, turn down to low heat and simmer for around 5 minutes, until it starts to thicken and the cranberries are soft. You can either crush some of the cranberries with the back of the spoon or leave them all whole (it’s up to you – I like to crush around half of them).
- Take the mixture off the heat and mix in the orange zest.
- Make the crostinis: Preheat oven to 375F. Line a baking sheet with tinfoil, silicon, or parchment (for easy clean up if the brie melts over!).
- Slice the baguette. Slice the brie into ~1/2 inch (~1 cm) thick slices. Place the baguette slices on the prepared baking sheet and top each slice with a slice of brie.
- Spoon a heaping teaspoon of cranberry orange sauce on each crostini (there should be 2-3 cranberries on each crostini and ~1/2 tsp of liquid sauce).
- Sprinkle with chopped pistachios
- Bake for 5 minutes, or until brie is slightly melted and softened (you don’t want to bake them for too long or it will be too melty/soggy).
- Serve immediately, while they are still warm! They don’t keep/store super well, but you can keep them in an airtight container in the fridge for around a day.
Notes
*You can use blueberries or blackberries instead of cranberries if you’d like.
**Choose orange zest if you want a more orange-y flavour, and choose lemon zest if you want a more citrus-y bright flavour (lemon zest pairs well with blueberries & blackberries!).
***If you don’t have access to a baguette, you can use plain flavoured crackers. You may want to decrease the amount of brie and cranberry orange sauce (but that’s up to preference!).
Keywords: cranberry orange brie crostinis
