Sweet Tooth: Brie & Pear Tart

I love fancy looking desserts and trying my own interpretation of them!

Something that I always saw was brie stuffed filo pastry and for me - it didn't really scream "OMG amazing!"  That being said - I have yet to make one myself...but if we are just talking looks and possibly the idea of how it might taste - I'm not sold on it yet.

So last Christmas I decided to whip up a dessert for my at the time boyfriend's family and despite it looking crazy fancy - it wasn't.  It was so simple and easy to do.

Sadly, I only have photos of the final result!

What you need:

• Filo pastry thawed
• A lot of melted butter
• ½ a large pear thinly sliced
• Brie cut in chunks
• Toasted pecans (or slivered almonds or walnuts could work too)
• Homemade sea salt caramel sauce 
• Vanilla ice-cream - I made a no-churn vanilla maple ice-cream actually!
• Ground cinnamon and nutmeg
• Brown sugar

What to do:

1. Pre-heat oven to 175*C.
2. Line your baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. Taking one sheet of filo pastry at a time - lay it on the baking paper and brush melted butter all over and then add another sheet.  Do this repeatedly with the whole package.
1. If you do this while it's still a little frozen it will crack and that's annoying.
2. Whatever isn't being used as you're brushing butter - should be covered with a damp towel to avoid drying out (which can also lead to cracking). Damp - not soaked because then you'll have stuck together sheets that will be a pain to separate and then that leads to holes and you get my drift....
4. Brush melted butter generously on the final top layer and then sprinkle brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.
5. Spread the toasted nuts, brie and pear slices evenly.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes- middle rack.  Be sure to check on it regularly to prevent burning.
7. Serve warm with ice-cream and sea salt caramel sauce.

I absolutely loved it and the great thing about this kind of dessert with filo pastry is that it's so flexible and forgiving! My filo sheets were still a bit frozen and they cracked all over.  I just slapped some more melted butter and kept going.

Besides - it all gets chewed up anyway!

This was a nice light alternative to a cake or pie which can be pretty heavy and it was well received by everyone!  It looked super fancy but it wasn't - at all! :D  But don't tell your guests that!

I would definitely recommend bringing this to your next potluck!

XO,
Dominique