HungrySister Presents: Iron Chef - Honey

HungrySister hijacks the blog while HungryMom's vacationing!

The first Monday of every month, my account team's Games and Recreation Committee releases a 'secret ingredient' for the monthly Iron Chef competition. We have a week to plan our entries for the great unveiling of our dishes the following Monday, where we reserve a conference room so everyone can sample each other's dishes and vote for their favorite. The winner receives a cooking tool and a trophy (and glory). As you can imagine this makes the first week of every month way more awesome. Spoiler alert - I've lost both competitions so far, but my day will come...eventually.

May's secret ingredient was honey. I decided to make a baked brie because it is fairly simple and a crowd-pleaser. Looking back, I should have used WAY more honey. Refer to the pictures below as a starting point and then just go ape-wild with the honey.

You'll need:

1 sheet puff pastry. Puff pastry needs to defrost for 40 minutes before you use it, which I learned the hard way.

1 wheel of brie

1 bee hive or 1 c or so of honey

1/2 cup walnuts/pecans/almonds - whatever you happen to have. I used walnuts because I like the texture!

1 egg, for the egg wash

2 tbsp sugar to sprinkle on top

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Cut the wheel of brie in half and proceed to fill the brie with an unnatural amount of honey (about 1/2 to 3/4 c honey). I attempted to do this here but was wildly unsuccessful.

Add the nuts - more or less, depending on how nutty of a person you are. Roll the puff pastry out on a floured surface and place your honey brie sandwich in the middle. now ADD MORE HONEY! Imagine this with honey all over the place. Wrap the puff pastry up like a present. I wish I had a more instructive way of saying this, but all the recipe just said 'like a present,' so there you go. Make the egg wash by mixing the egg with a little water, and then brush over the pastry. I don't have a pastry brush so I had to use my hands, which was less than ideal. Sprinkle the top with the sugar. Cover a baking sheet with tin foil (unless you love scrubbing dishes like I do, apparently) and place the brie in the center. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until golden. Behold, my losing entry! Let me know how it turns out with the extra honey! I think it could also be delicious with a little cinnamon or nutmeg sprinkled in the center, or chopped dried fruit.