Maple Crisp Brie Bites

Maple Crisp Brie Bites are my new finger food obsession – cheeseboard meets canapé! Crisp maple-butter crostini topped with brie, prosciutto and pecans, they’re low-effort, low-cost, and perfect for taking places already assembled.

Maple Crisp Brie Bites

I love taking ordinary things and giving them a little upgrade – just enough to make them feel a bit special for hungry, drink-sipping friends with relatively small effort and low cost. Like swapping out a plain bowl of nuts for Texan BBQ Candied Nuts with smoky-sweet-savoury crunch.

Today, we’re dressing up cheese and crackers and making Brie Bites! Instead of plonking down a wheel of brie with a pile of stale bread slices on the side, we’re brushing the bread with maple butter, toasting it until crispy (now we get to call it Maple Crostini), then topping it with slices of creamy brie, a sprinkle of toasty pecans, fresh thyme and a shard of prosciutto.

It’s a timeless combination of cheeseboard favourites, constructed in bite size form, and it is so, so, SO good! I have eaten way more than acceptable and I should be ashamed, but I regret nothing. Life is short. Let me eat the brie!😅

Ingredients in Maple Crisp Brie Bites

You could totally skip the extras and just pop a slice of brie on each crostini. These are so tasty just like that. But each little sprinkle adds a little something-something that makes this extra special!

For the maple crostini

Here’s what you need for the crostini – a good baguette (not those flimsy cheap ones!), maple syrup and butter.

• Baguette – Use a good one with a nice crunchy crust, and a chewy crumb with big fat irregular holes (left, below). Ciabatta or sourdough in baguette shapes also works. You can also use loaves and cut the bread into crostini-size pieces (there is no law that prohibits this! 😄)

  Avoid the cheaper, light-weight baguettes sold as “French Sticks” here in Australia (right, below). The soft crumb of those are so fine that when toasted, you can literally crush them into a powder between your fingers. This is why they are no good for crostini and bruschetta, they just can’t hold up to the toppings, they just soak through immediately and turn into mush. However, they are ideal for old-school garlic bread!

  CAVEAT: If you find crostini too crunchy and hard (and I get it), then use French stick! It is a “softer” crispiness. Just be sure to bake the bread all the way through so it’s entirely crispy so it will hold up better, and assemble close to serving time (ie you won’t be able to put the brie on hours ahead).

• Maple syrup – Real maple syrup has a stronger flavour, especially after cooking, because it’s, well, real! Maple flavoured syrup (ie imitation maple syrup) tends to lose its taste when heated, I find. Honey will work in this recipe too.

• Butter – I use unsalted, if you used salted, just skip the salt.

• Salt – I use salt flakes here because it dissolves more easily than grains (we aren’t simmering the maple butter for long). If using grains, just stir very well to make sure it’s fully dissolved, and also halve the amount (because 1/2 tsp salt flakes = 1/4 tsp salt grains).

FOR THE TOPPINGS

There is no need to invest in an expensive brie – though you can if you want. Once you add all the toppings, it really elevates whatever brie you use!

• Triple cream brie – I use triple cream because it’s extra oozy and rich, and bizarrely not any pricier than regular brie. But honestly, any creamy soft cheese that you can slice or smear is going to be great here: camembert, goats cheese, Danish feta (ie the soft spreadable kind), soft blue cheeses, cream cheese and yes, even regular non-triple-cream brie.

  And, as mentioned above, I really don’t think it’s worth investing in an expensive brie here. My choice is the Coles brand triple cream brie – $5.50 full price (often on sale), excellent value for the quality (creamier than pricier brands).

  Firmer cheeses (like cheddar) are also great albeit not quite the same as a creamy brie. 🙂

• Prosciutto – 6 thin slices barely weighs 60g/2oz but different delis/brands cut to different thickness, and the size also varies. You want enough to put a tiny bit on each (they are salty, you don’t need much!) bearing in mind they shrink by almost half when baked. Alternatives – Pancetta or jamon are similar (cook the same way) else crispy pan fried salami or bacon would also be fabulous!

• Fresh thyme leaves – To make this extra special, don’t skip this! They add an earthy, herby freshness that makes these truly memorable. Dried just isn’t the same. And honestly, thyme is one of the easiest herbs to grow in a pot. Pop it on a windowsill and you’ll save a fortune (and emergency herb runs).

• Pecans or other nuts – For nutty goodness. Everybody knows nuts and cheese = win! I chose pecans because it’s an obvious match with maple syrup, but virtually any nut will work – walnuts, almonds and pistachios are front of mind as alternatives.

• Maple syrup – For the tiniest drizzle at the end, to add a bit of shine and enticing drips. I literally use less than 1/8 teaspoon per crostini else it gets too messy and drippy when you pick it up.

---

How to make Maple Crisp Brie Bites

I’ve tried stove-toasting the crostini which works great – it gives a great candy-like crust, but needs almost double the amount of butter to prevent it from burning. Even for a bread-and-butter-monster like me, it was too much! Plus, flipping each slice multiple times to make it cook evenly is a hassle. Oven is way easier.

Crostini and crispy prosciutto

1. Slice the bread 6mm / 1/4″ thick. This is the perfect thickness – not too thin (bakes up cracker-like) and not too thick (either too toast-like, or if crispy all the way through, will break your teeth!).

2. Maple butter – Melt the butter in a saucepan then add the maple syrup and salt. Simmer for just 20 seconds then remove.

3. Brush the maple butter onto each side of the bread. I use a dab/brush technique to ensure full coverage. Spread them out on a foil + paper lined tray.

4. Lay prosciutto on foil + paper lined tray. Don’t worry if they overlap slightly, they shrink so much!

5. Bake – Put both trays in the oven. I put the prosciutto on the upper shelf.

6. Prosciutto 15 minutes – After 12 to 15 minutes, remove the prosciutto. They will have shrunk by almost half, be a bit wrinkled and dark red but not brown. Remove onto paper towels to drain excess fat and let them cool, then they will become crispy.

6. Prosciutto shards – Break the prosciutto into shards. I like long thin pieces because I feel like I get visual impact when I stick it upright in the brie, though I also like the twisted pieces that I can lay flat on the brie which have crevices to hold little pools of maple syrup. But, I also like sprinkling crumbled prosciutto on the brie as well! Basically, anything works. 😆

7. Crostini 20 minutes – After 15 minutes, flip each crostini and shuffle if needed so they cook evenly (if your oven has hot spots). Then bake for a further 5 minutes until they are crispy on the edges and lightly crispy on the surface, but still a bit soft inside (test with a finger jab). They will crisp up more as they cool on the tray.

   There is such a thing as too crisp: If you bake until they are fully crispy, they get even harder as they cool and honestly, they can be too crispy, as in tooth-chipping hard!

ASSEMBLING

Tip – If using a creamy, melty brie, slice while fridge cold, before it gets too smeary.

1. Cut the brie into slices just shy of 5mm / 0.2″ thick. Make the slices a bit shorter than each crostini. I think it’s nice to see some of the bread, plus also if there’s full coverage that’s a LOT of brie per piece and you’d need closer to 2 wheels of brie.

2. Brie – Top each crostini with a piece of brie. Patchwork brie offcuts as needed – once topped with the extras, nobody will even know it’s not a single piece of brie.

3. Toppings – Stick a crispy prosciutto shard in the brie (or place/pile/crumble on top). Sprinkle each with a pinch of pecans, drizzle with the tiniest amount of maple (literally, just 1/8 teaspoon each) then a small pinch of thyme leaves.

   Note: The order is very deliberate! If you do maple first then pecan “dust” gets stuck all over the prosciutto which looks untidy. If you do the maple after the thyme then the tiny leaves get washed away by the maple. These are the details that irrationally irritate and matter to me because I’m a crazy cooking lady.😁

4. My favourite part – time to eat! Pour yourself a drink (I’m currently obsessed with Dirty Martinis) and enjoy.

Matters of practicality

I originally pictured a warm, melty-brie situation, but if you bake it then the brie runs everywhere. As for using residual warmth from the crostini, the stress of racing to serve it just wasn’t worth it.

So this recipe is designed to be served at room temperature, and thanks to the gooey goodness of triple cream brie, there’s no loss of melty goodness. Plus, it holds up beautifully for hours without softening the crostini, so you can assemble ahead.

Basically, whether you’re gunning for Employee of the Month, Favourite Child status, or bribing your hairdresser for a guaranteed hair appointment anytime you need one, you can assemble it at home, box it up and it’s still perfect hours later.

Or, you know – just be a regular person and take it to a picnic. 🙂 – Nagi x

---

Watch how to make it

Life of Dozer

Coming to you in real time! Dozer went in for a dental procedure today:

A no-big-deal procedure but he did have to go under a general anaesthetic which, because of his age and laryngeal paralysis condition, can cause some complications.

So I stayed too. 😅

I’m told he lost a couple of teeth but he seems to have dealt with the general just fine! I had hoped to share a post-op photo of him but I’m still waiting for him, so you just get me instead.🤣

Yes, I brought a packed lunch.😁 And wrote up today’s recipe!

UPDATE: He’s home and fine! He was much better than the last time he went under a general anaesthetic, I’m so relieved. He demanded dinner as soon as he went home (the whole pre-op fasting thing is the part he struggles with the most!) and had no troubles eating it despite stitches in his mouth and being down a couple of teeth. Thank you for caring! ❤️