Cranberry Chutney and Brie en Croute!

I had 3 bags of frozen cranberries in my freezer that I had bought last Christmas when I thought that stringing fruit on my tree might be a good idea with a 1 year old in the house. Make that 4 bags (I found one yesterday). Once baby Moo was mobile, I figured that cranberries maybe WEREN'T a good idea - plus all that stringing of popcorn and fruit?!?! WAY more work than I wanted to do around the holidays. We did paper chains instead and put the non-breakable ornaments way up high. The nice ones stayed in the box. Again. Ahhhhh, the joys of kids :)

Anyway - back to the chutney - this is the recipe that we used, slightly adapted. It was good plain, it was excellent in brie en croute and I'm sure it'd be lovely with a roast turkey. Slighty sweet, slightly tart, a cute little jar with jewel flecks running through...beautiful.

Cranberry Chutney:

1/2 med onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2" piece of ginger, finely chopped

1 12 oz bag fresh cranberries, coarsly chopped

1 granny smith apple, peeled, cored and chopped

1/3 cup rice wine vinegar

3/4 cup water

1 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup golden raisins

1 tsp celery seed

1-1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

Saute the onion in a little olive oil about 2 mn, add garlic and ginger and sautee an additional 2-3 mn.

Add remaining ingredients and cook until thickened, about 45 minutes.

Fill hot jars with chutney and process 10 mn. Let sit in pot additional 5 mn. 

Cool on counter with towel underneath until completely cooled or overnight .

p.s. Here's what happens when your jars aren't hot before you start putting food in them: The bottom just popped right off and we had chutney floating around in there with our cans...

For the Brie en Crute? EASY and simple appetizer to wow a crowd! Unfortunately I only took the 1 picture, of it in the oven - which turned out horribly and all I can really see here is how disgusting my oven looks with all the fingerprints and baby slobber...but I swear that if you can look past that, you'll see that it's pretty neat :)

1 small wheel brie cheese

1 half pint jar cranberry chutney

1 sheet frozen puff pastry

1 egg

1 Tbsp water

Defrost puff pastry - roll out slightly depending on the size of your brie

On a small baking sheeet, lay out your pastry.

Place the brie wheel in center of pastry, spoon chutney over top and fold pastry up and over the chutney and brie, creating a little "package".

Mix egg and water together to make an egg wash and brush over the top and sides of the pastry.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.