Spicy Strawberry Baked Goat Brie

I really like hosting dinner parties. Our little townhouse is a bit small, so large parties require a bit of living space reorganization. I really hit the jackpot last Christmas when I discovered that my four-seat dining table is the exact same height as the island in my kitchen. I push them together - and VOILA! Suddenly, I have seating for seven people! I am only limited by the number of seats available in the house.

Last Sunday we had Paul's parents, my Dad and Cathy, and my brother John over for a feast. We started the night out with a pre-made vegetable platter (unused from a recent housewarming) and I served roasted chicken and root vegetables for a main.

Dessert was a delicious twist on a baked brie. I filled two rounds of goat brie with a mixture of strawberry jam and hotsauce, wrapped them up in a few sheets of phyllo pasty and baked it up until it was nice and flaky on the outside and warm and melty on the inside. I served the brie with rosemary and olive oil triscuits and a fruit platter.

Spicy Strawberry Baked Goat Brie

Ingredients
1 wheel goat brie
3 sheets of pre-made phyllo pastry, defrosted
1/4 cup strawberry jam
1 tsp your favourite hot sauce (I used sambal olek)

*hot sauce is optional. Brie baked with any kind of jam will be just as tasty!

Directions
1. Pre-heat your oven to 350 F

2. Slice wheel of brie in half horizontally

3. Mix your strawberry jam and hot sauce together and spoon onto one half of the goat brief.

4. Top with other half of goat brie.

5. Prepare your phyllo sheets as per directions on the box. I sprayed mine with olive oil cooking spray, but you could also brush on melted butter. You may need to cut/tear the sheets down to size depending on the size of your wheel of cheese.

6. Place cheese/jam concoction into middle of phyllo sheets and wrap up. Spray outside of package liberally with olive oil spray, or brush liberally with melted butter.

7. Place on baking sheet and place in oven. Bake for 20 min or until cheese is starting to run out of pastry.

(raw dinner. Sorry, no after photos!)

(delicious, melty, sweet and spicy dessert!)