Brin de Paille cheese in pastry

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Cheese in pastry case

Brin de Paille is a small, whole cows' milk cheese from Normandy. It is similar to Brie and here it has been baked whole in puff pastry,

Ingredients

• 250 g or less of bought puff-pastry
• 1 Brin de Paille cheese
• 3 Cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
• Beaten egg or milk

Method

1. Divide the puff pastry into two and roll out into rounds.
2. The rounds should be large enough to encase the top or bottom on the cheese and cover the sides, with a slight overlap.
3. Stab the garlic slices into the ridges on the cheese.
4. Place the cheese on one of the pastry rounds, wet the inside edges with water and fold up over the sides.
5. Turn the cheese over and place the the centre of the other round of pastry and repeat the wetting and folding process.
6. Allow to rest in the fridge for a minimum of one hour.
7. Pre-heat the oven to 180 C/Gas 4.
8. Glaze the pastry with the beaten egg or milk
9. Bake in the centre of the oven for about 40 minutes.

Serving suggestions

Serve with salad and Not-for-wimps garlic mayonnaise or any other mayonnaise.

Variations

As well as garlic, you can stab the cheese with herbs such as thyme or rosemary. Having eaten this now, I feel that a stronger cheese is called for as Brin de Paille has a very delicate flavour. Perhaps a very ripe,smelly Camembert de Normandie would be more suitable, in which case, slice the cheese in half, horizontally, and just use the one half.

See also

• French cheese fondue - a variation on cooked Vacherin cheese