Friday evening culinary crime: "Brie-bert" in phyllo with bacon

[Cet article est aussi disponible en français.]

As the Holidays draw near... you might want to surprise your guests with original meals. This was inspired by a discovery I made while living in Abitibi (Northern Québec). There was a café in Rouyn-Noranda, called l'Abstracto which served a decadent dessert aptly named «brie emphylloppé». I never asked for the recipe, but it basically consisted in a piece of brie with a dollop of apple sauce in phyllo paste, served with a raspberry coulis. Divine...

For X's birthday, Friday, I decided to host a bacon-themed dinner at my house this time. Somehow, I had to outdo the crepe-filled menu from last year. There were six of us enjoying the following home-made menu:

• Abbey cider
  
• Dips and crudités
  
• Smoked salmon mousse
  
• Brie-bert emphylloppé (with bacon)
• Pork tenderloin roast (with bacon)
• Chocolate cupcakes (with or without bacon)
• Someone had brought a lovely red wine to complement it all...

As can be seen, I decided to serve the "brie-bert emphylloppé" as an appetiser rather than dessert, since the cup-birthday-cakes could not be outdone. The following recipe is my approximate recreation of what I had tasted. I had fresh dates and frozen cranberries and decided to make a berry sauce from it rather than taking apple sauce... it added zest to it all. And of course I had to add bacon (to some of the pieces, in case this turned out to be a disaster).

For four brie-berts:

• 3 sheets phyllo pastry
• Butter
• A few slivers of brie and camembert cheese
• 4 cooked bacon half-slices (cooked, but not crispy)
• 1 tbsp berry sauce (below)
• 1 tbsp berry sauce, a few blackberries and maple syrup for serving
  

Approximate ingredients for the berry sauce (I did not measure anything here...):

• ½ cup pitted fresh dates
  
• ½ cup cranberries (fresh or frozen; no need to thaw in the latter case)
  
• ¼ cup orange juice
  
• ½ cranberry cocktail
  
• Ground nutmeg
  

Preheat oven to 400°F. Prepare the berry sauce, as it must cool down before insertion in the brie-berts. In a small saucepan on medium heat, purée dates and cranberries with a bit of orange juice and/or cranberry cocktail. Add a bit of nutmeg when it has reached the right purée texture. A blender can be used to smoothe it out and a little juice added to reach the right texture. Reserve and let cool.

Butter up three sheets of phyllo pastry (according to the instructions on the pack). Cut into four pieces (roughly 6 inches square). On each, put a half slice of bacon, a piece of brie, another of camembert, and cover with berry sauce. I forgot to take pictures of the baconated brie-berts; the one below does not have one.

Wrap up and butter up the top. Place in a baking dish and bake until golden (about 20 minutes; mine took longer because the oven was only at 350° F because of the pork roast.

Serve hot on a dollop of berry sauce and some berries. Adding a bit of maple syrup on top will only make the little buggers divine!