Baked Brie with Walnuts, Pomegranates and Honey

If you’re looking for a delicious gluten-free appetizer to serve at your fall and winter holiday celebrations, this baked brie with walnuts, pomegranates and honey will be a show stopper. This post is sponsored by Crunchmaster and contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosures.

It can feel like such a chore to come up with both a beautiful and delicious appetizer when you can’t eat gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, rye and sometimes oats.

And like many of you, I’m often asked to bring a gluten-free appetizer to potluck events.

This year, you can make a warm and cozy appetizer that everyone will love, and no one will ever have to know it’s gluten free.

In this article, I’ll show you how to make a dreamy baked Brie with walnuts, pomegranates and honey that will please everyone – kids, adults and all.

Best of all, there’s no gluten in sight!

Is Brie Cheese Gluten Free?

Before I show you how to make a Brie cheese board, I want to assure you that Brie cheese is gluten free and safe to consume on a gluten-free diet. Always read labels carefully, just to be certain the brand you’re buying does not contain gluten.

Brie cheese is made from cow’s milk and an enzyme called rennet, which is used by all cheesemakers to coagulate milk.

The rind of a Brie cheese round is also edible, as it’s made from a white mold called Penicillium candidum, a mold used to inoculate the cheese and keep it free from unwanted microorganisms.

The rind has a strong earthy flavor while the Brie cheese has a mild buttery, and sometimes smokey, flavor.

To Heat or Not to Heat?

Whether you heat a Brie cheese round is up to you, but I think it’s best heated. When heated, Brie cheese becomes silky smooth in texture. The cheese literally oozes with creamy deliciousness.

Brie cheese pairs well with fruits, jams and nuts, and is often served with crusty bread or your favorite cracker, like multi-seed Crunchmaster crackers.

Fall Brie Snack Board

You need just four simple ingredients to make my simple baked Brie cheese appetizer recipe:

• Brie cheese round
• Pomegranate arils
• Walnut bits
• Honey

When choosing a Brie cheese, the best will be those labeled “triple cream.” This means it contains more than 75% butterfat. Double creams contain 60-74% butterfat.

I purchased the Kirkland imported French Brie, which is only double cream, but comes at a great price at Costco. Another brand to look for is President brand (also gluten free), and you can choose from a double or triple cream variety.

Once you gather the ingredients needed for the baked Brie cheese, you’ll also want to gather a few items for your snack board.

For this particular snack board, I wanted to keep things simple to allow the beautiful Brie cheese round to shine. Therefore, I only added the following two items to my snack board:

• Crunchmaster crackers (multi-seed)
• Red grapes (which are in season right now and so sweet!)

Both the salty Crunchmaster crackers and sweet red grapes will pair nicely with the creamy Brie cheese, and both will elevate and complement the look of your snack board too.

How to Cook Brie Cheese

You can bake your Brie cheese round on a parchment-lined baking sheet, although it might spread as it expands. That’s okay, it’ll still taste great.

I prefer to bake my Brie cheese round in a contained pan, this way if it spreads, it won’t make a huge mess on the baking sheet. Plus, once you cut into the Brie round and break the delicate mold holding it in place, it will start to ooze everywhere. A baking dish will contain the oozing.

Before baking a Brie cheese round, score the top of it. Scoring is important for several reasons:

• As the Brie cheese heats in the oven, the scoring will allow it to properly swell and expand. Scoring will prevent it from exploding in your oven.
• The scoring also opens up the top to allow the flavors from the toppings to seep in and elevate the overall flavor of the Brie cheese.

Now top the scored Brie cheese round with fresh pomegranate arils, walnuts and a generous drizzle of honey. Alternatively, you could use any fruit, nut, or jam.

A lot of people love to cover their Brie cheese round with fig jam or berry preserves. You can’t go wrong.

Bake the cheese, uncovered, for about 20 minutes in a 375º F preheated oven.

Carefully add the baked Brie to your snack board (be careful, the serving dish is hot!), and serve it alongside your favorite Crunchmaster crackers and red grapes (or other seasonal fruits).

Allow the cheese about 5-10 minutes to cool before digging in. You can cut into it with a cheese knife, or simply scoop the cheese with the sturdy Crunchmaster crackers, which works well when the cheese is warm.

The cheese will harden as it cools, so you may need that cheese knife after all.

Just look at how silky smooth this cheese looks when warmed. And it takes smoky and creamy all the while.

What to Do with Leftover Brie

Brie is best enjoyed as soon as it’s opened, but you can store any leftover Brie in your fridge wrapped up in a sealed container.

Beware, because Brie is a soft cheese, it will only last a few days after it’s opened before it begins to sour.

Looking for More Snack Board Inspiration?

I created these amazing snack boards in partnership with Crunchmaster. Please use them to inspire your next snack board creation!

Gluten-Free Queso + Movie Night Snack Board

Game Day Snack Board with Homemade Black Bean Dip (pictured below)

Three Kid-Friendly Snack Boards

Epic Easter Charcuterie Board

Gluten-Free Bruschetta and Crackers Snack Board (pictured below)