Cranberry Baked Brie — ♥️💚 An EASY 15-minute appetizer that’s filled AND topped with richly spiced orange-scented cranberry sauce. Perfect for holiday entertaining! This baked cranberry brie is salty, tart-yet-sweet, and IRRESISTIBLE!
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Easy Cranberry Brie Appetizer
I love baked brie so much that I try not to make it very often — because there’s no stopping once I start!
This easy, 15-minute baked brie that’s filled and topped with richly spiced and orange-scented cranberry sauce is perfect for holiday entertaining.
Whether you make it as a Thanksgiving side or as an appetizer for Christmas or New Year’s Eve parties, it will be ooh’ed and ahh’ed over and devoured. Salty, tart-yet-sweet, and of course melted cheese is irresistible.
If you have homemade cranberry sauce — like Red Wine Cranberry Sauce — on hand, go with that. Or make this as a way to use up your leftover cranberry sauce. Winning at leftovers by way of cheese is always a great idea.
Ingredients for Cranberry Baked Brie
To make the baked brie with cranberry sauce, you’ll need:
- Cranberry sauce – see notes below for how to doctor up store-bought sauce
- Brie
- Chopped pecans – walnuts also work
- Fresh rosemary – optional, for garnishing
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
Cranberry Sauce Options
Homemade cranberry sauce: Use my Apple Cider Cranberry Sauce, Blueberry Cranberry Sauce, or Cranberry Currant Sauce in this baked brie appetizer. All will work!
Store-bought cranberry sauce: If you don’t have homemade cranberry sauce on hand and don’t want to make either of my 30-minute versions, no biggie. Doctor up a can of store-bought by adding orange zest, cinnamon, allspice, and vanilla extract. A splash of spiced rum rather than vanilla is nice too.
How to Make Cranberry Baked Brie
Making baked brie with cranberry sauce couldn’t be simpler! Here’s an overview of the recipe steps:
- Slice a round of brie in half and top with cranberry sauce. Brie is easiest to slice when it’s cold, so be sure to cut it right after you remove it from the fridge!
- Add the other brie half, top with more cranberry sauce.
- Bake for about 10-15 minutes and serve!
Baking Tip
I have baked this on parchment paper that’s on a baking sheet and then transferred the parchment to a serving dish and cut off the excess parchment, as shown in the photos. And I have used an oven-safe baking dish lined with parchment for easier cleanup and served out of the baking dish. Do whatever is easiest.
Recipe FAQs
No! Keep the rind on the wheel of brie cheese. It’s edible and also helps contain the melted interior after baking.
Because all ovens, the baking method chosen, and the ingredients used will vary, the baking time will be a little different for everyone so check early and often. My cranberry brie baked for roughly 10 minutes.
Look for cheese that’s starting to melt but pull it from the oven before it turns into a total oozing hot mess and collapses.
If you make one of my homemade cranberry sauces, you should be fine to wrap this cranberry brie in puff pastry since my sauces are quite thick. If you’re looking for a recipe for a recipe for something along those lines, make my Baked Brie In Puff Pastry which has been tested specifically for puff pastry.
The most you can do to prep for this recipe is make the cranberry sauce beforehand. Otherwise, you really can’t prep this dish in advance.
I like to serve my Thanksgiving baked brie with cranberries with one or more of the following: crackers, bread slices, crudités, dried fruit, sliced apples, grapes, roasted nuts.
Holiday Appetizers to Serve with Baked Brie
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Cranberry Baked Brie
Ingredients
- about 1 cup homemade cranberry sauce*
- one 8-ounce round wheel brie, cold
- about 1/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, optional
- fresh rosemary sprigs, for garnishing
If using store-bought sauce:
- one 14-ounce can whole-cranberry sauce
- 2 tablespoons light brown sugar, packed
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, optional and to taste
- 1 to 2 teaspoons orange zest
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, may be substituted with orange extract and/or 1 to 2 tablespoons spiced rum
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F and line a baking sheet or an oven-safe baking dish with a sheet of parchment paper; set aside.
- If you are using homemade sauce or leftover cranberry sauce, skip to step 3. If using canned sauce, add it to a medium bowl with the sugars (some canned sauces are still quite tart and you will appreciate the optional granulated sugar), orange zest, cinnamon, vanilla, allspice, and stir to combine; set aside. Note – you will not use all of the sauce for this recipe and will have some leftover for another use.
- Slice the round of brie horizontally in half to create two equal sized rounds. Place one of the halves (rind side down) on the parchment paper.
- Evenly top with about 1/2 cup of the cranberry sauce, leaving a 1/2-inch bare margin around the perimeter.
- Top with the other brie half (rind side up) to create a ‘sandwich’.
- Evenly top with another 1/2 cup cranberry sauce, leaving a 1/2-inch bare margin around the perimeter. Optionally, if you don’t prefer as much rind on your brie, you can gently remove some or all of the top rind before adding the remaining cranberry mixture but I keep it on.
- Optionally, evenly sprinkle with chopped nuts.
- Bake for about 7 to 10 minutes, or until fruit is warmed and cheese has softened but hasn’t turned into a gooey mess and collapses. Because all ovens, equipment, ingredients, etc. vary, watch closely and check early because there can be quite a bit of variance in the baking time.
- Garnish with rosemary and serve immediately with crackers, bread, crudites, etc.
Notes
- *My favorite homemade cranberry sauce recipes are Cabernet Cranberry and Blueberry Sauce and Cabernet Cranberry and Currant Sauce.
- Recipe adated from Black Currant and Walnut-Stuffed Brie.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Easy Brie Appetizers:
Baked Brie in Puff Pastry — Warm melted cheese, layered with cranberry sauce, and baked in flaky puff pastry is a crowd FAVORITE appetizer! Fast and EASY for you, IRRESISTIBLE for everyone else! It’s the PERFECT holiday appetizer for Thanksgiving, Christmas, holiday parties, or New Year’s Eve!
Black Currant and Walnut Stuffed Baked Brie — Gooey, amazing, salty-and-sweet! Stuffed with jam, topped with walnuts, and so easy! Perfect for holiday entertaining and parties!
Baked Brie with Balsamic Cherries – Only 3 ingredients and ready in 15 minutes! So easy and so good!
Cranberry Brie Bites — ❤️🤤 The perfect two-bite holiday appetizer recipe with melted brie cheese, sweet-tart cranberry sauce, and fresh rosemary all nestled inside a buttery soft crust!
great
great
Worst appetizer ever!!! I will never make again. Brie is expensive and certainly not worth the effort.
I’ve made this with my grocery store’s freshly made cranberry-orange relish, and it was delicious! I found using caramelized walnuts helps balance out the tartness. Alternatively, you could just add a little brown sugar as you suggested when using canned cranberry sauce. Thanks for the recipe!
I’ve made this with my grocery store’s freshly made cranberry-orange relish, and it was delicious! I found using caramelized walnuts helps balance out the tartness. Alternatively, you could just add a little brown sugar as you suggested when using canned cranberry sauce. Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad that it was delicious! I bet the carmelized walnuts were great and how handy your groc store has freshly made cran-orange relish!
I was thinking about wrapping this up with puff pastry. Is your cranberry mixture to runny for puff? I really want to try that cranberry sauce!
My cranberry sauce is not runny, it’s quite sick, and the longer you boil it for thicker it gets.
GIMME ALL THE MELTY BRIE. I mean, come on. Does it really get any better than this? I think not.
I’ll fight you for ALL the melty brie! It’s seriously the best! My weakness :)
Most American’s will never eat true Brie. The Brie in France is an unpasteurized product. The French laws prevent real Brie from being exported to the United States. If you slice into it, it already oozes. It does not need to be “baked” to get that ooziness. The Brie imported “from France” is a pasteurized knock-off.
Gooey, melty brie is my favorite soft cheese and I especially love it with any kind of jam or fruity topping. Your cranberry-blueberry sauce is the best I’ve ever made and sounds awesome with it. I would have to serve it to guests or take it somewhere because Jon and I would devour this in no time!
I seriously could have eaten this whole thing myself. No problem. But I quickly brought it over to a neighbor with a big family :) This was SOOooo good and brie is my fave melty soft cheese too and with the cran-blueberry sauce if you already have some on hand, make this!