Baked Brie with Maple Syrup and Bacon: Gooey molten cheese with crunchy bacon and sweet maple syrup on top make this easy, three-ingredient appetizer pretty hard to resist!
If hosting, serve this alongside this homemade chex mix and you’ll be set!
Why You’ll Love This Brie Recipe
This recipe is super quick and easy, but it looks so impressive! Whether you are looking for a holiday appetizer, a game day snack or just a tasty treat for when company comes over, this delicious appetizer is sure to be a crowd-pleaser!
If you are planning a party, having easy appetizers is key to keeping guests happy and not overwhelming you, the host!
There are tons of theme ideas there on the blog to inspire you, such as party favor ideas, gift ideas and food ideas (like this simple cheese ball or this smoked candied bacon). So fun!
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Ingredients
I love that this easy appetizer only requires three simple ingredients and 20 minutes to make. This is the perfect recipe to keep in mind for last-minute entertaining this holiday season!
You’ll need:
- 3 strips of bacon
- 3 tablespoon of maple syrup
- 8 ounce wheel of brie cheese
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees f.
- Cut off the top rind of the brie cheese (if you are having trouble cutting the top off, try freezing your wheel of brie for a few minutes and then shaving off the top rind while it’s partially frozen). To prepare the maple bacon topping, cut the bacon strips into small pieces (dice it).
- Once you have a preheated oven, place the brie cheese on a parchment lined, rimmed baking sheet, and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the cheese is soft and just starting to melt.
- While the cheese is baking, cook the diced bacon bits in a skillet over medium heat until they become crispy. When they are crispy, remove the bacon bits from the pan and place them on a paper towel to soak up some of the grease. Carefully remove the pan from the burner and drain off the bacon grease.
- Right before serving, add the bacon bits back to the pan on medium heat and pour maple syrup over the bacon. Stir them together until they are warm and the bacon is completely coated in maple syrup.
Tip: If you cook the maple syrup and bacon for too long, it caramelizes and gets SUPER sticky (making it hard to get out of the pan).
To make sure that doesn’t happen, wait until the brie is almost finished baking before adding the maple syrup to the pan with the bacon and then put it on the hot brie immediately after it finished cooking and you’ve slid it onto the serving platter.
- When the brie has finished cooking, carefully slide the parchment paper and brie onto a serving platter and top the warm brie with the maple bacon mixture. Serve with crostini or crackers and enjoy!
Variations
There are SO many different ways you can serve a warm wheel of brie. This recipe is delicious just the way it is, but if you are looking to change things up a bit you could try adding some chopped, soft dried figs into the pan along with the bacon in step 4.
Or, try also sprinkling a little bit of brown sugar on top for some extra sweetness!
Love nuts? Try adding pecans instead of bacon for a maple pecan brie!
Storage
I don’t expect there will be much of this recipe left (any recipe with melted cheese is always a big hit in our house), but on the off chance that you do have some to store you can place it in an airtight container and store it in the fridge for 2-3 days.
When you are ready to reheat it, simply put it back on a parchment lined baking sheet and warm it in an oven preheated to 325 degree f until the brie starts to look melty again (melty? melted? Who cares- it’s warm, baked cheese!).
Expert tips and FAQs
Absolutley! If you have cut brie around and want to try this recipe, I would recommend baking it in a shallow, oven-proof dish with parchment in the bottom instead of on a baking sheet (in case it runs a bit more than a complete wheel would).
Follow the rest of the recipe as it’s written, but instead of sliding the parchment onto a serving platter simply serve the maple syrup and bacon topped brie right in the oven-proof dish you baked it in!
Ooooh, my friend, the options are endless. You can serve baked brie with basically any type of cracker, crostini or even baguette slices or other bread slices! You can also serve baked brie alongside apple slices and fresh cut veggies.
If you’re looking to get fancy, you could put all of the options listed above together on a cutting board with your baked brie for a charcuterie style snack!
This is personal preference, really, but the best cracker for a baked brie would be one that is sturdy enough to hold the cheese without breaking and that has a subtle flavour that won’t compete with the flavours in the recipe. You could eat baked brie with a simple Ritz cracker, a multigrain Breton cracker, or any number of other crackers from your grocery store’s cracker aisle!
Yes, you can! The outer rind of a wheel of brie not only protects and holds the soft cheese inside together, it also adds flavour.
We are kind of partial to bacon with brie (if you hadn’t guessed), but if you are putting baked brie on a charcuterie snack plate there are lots of other meats that pair nicely with it. Some classic charcuterie meats include prosciutto, salami, and sopressa (which you should be able to find in your grocery’s deli or at the nearest Italian grocery store).
Why, eat it of course! Just teasing. There are a lot of different ways to eat sliced brie. You could eat it on its own, pair it with a cracker or slice of bread, add it into a sandwich, or slice it and put it on a salad!
Related Recipes
If you love this recipe then you’ll also love this post on how to make a cheese board, and this yummy caperese grilled cheese recipe!
Recipe
Baked Brie with Maple Syrup and Bacon
Ingredients
- 3 strips bacon
- 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 8 ounce wheel of brie
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees f.
- Cut off the top rind of the brie cheese. To prepare the maple bacon topping, cut the bacon strips into small pieces (dice it).
- Once the oven is preheated, place the brie cheese on a parchment lined pan and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the cheese is soft and just starting to melt.
- While the cheese is baking, cook the diced bacon bits in a skillet over medium heat until they become crispy. When they are crispy, remove the bacon bits from the pan and place them on a paper towel to soak up some of the grease. Carefully remove the pan from the burner and drain off the bacon grease.
- Right before serving, add the bacon bits back to the pan on medium heat and pour maple syrup over the bacon. Stir them together until they are warm and the bacon is completely coated in maple syrup.
- When the brie has finished cooking, carefully slide the parchment paper and brie onto a serving platter and top the warm brie with the maple bacon mixture. Serve with crostini or crackers and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
Sarah Smith says
The absolute perfect amount of sweet and salty! LOVE this!
Jessica says
Oh thank you Sarah!! I’m so glad that you liked this. It IS the perfect combo, making just about anything you serve with it, work! 🙂 Thank you for the comment and for the review!
Allyssa says
hank you so much for sharing this amazing baked brie maple syrup recipe! Will surely have this again! It’s really easy to make and it tasted so delicious! Highly recommended!
Jessica says
Isn’t it so easy!? One of my favorite brie recipes for SURE! Thank you for taking the time to drop a note and leave a review!
Jennifer says
This was TOO good!! We ate it up so fast! Loved it!!
Jessica says
That’s so wonderful! I’m thrilled that you liked this baked brie as much as we do. Thank you for taking the time to let us know!