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These Cranberry brie Mini Tarts are the perfect appetizer for Thanksgiving or Christmas! They are also a great way to use up leftover cranberry sauce!
How was everyone’s weekend? Mr. Briar and I had a pretty great one. Friday night we experimented with burger recipes (those will be coming to the blog in the future!), Saturday we went to Discovery Park, which if you live in Seattle or are planning on visiting, you should make an effort to visit – it is gorgeous! I posted a few pictures on snapchat of fallen leaves that were twice the size of my hand. After our rainy walk in the park, we finally got to check out Un Bien, the new incarnation of the famous sandwich shop Paseo. It has been about five years since I ate at Paseo, and the new place did not disappoint. We also had dinner with friends both Saturday AND Sunday – we were extra social. I ended up bringing these quick cranberry brie tarts to one of the dinners.
How was everyone’s weekend? Mr. Briar and I had a pretty great one. Friday night we experimented with burger recipes (those will be coming to the blog in the future!), Saturday we went to Discovery Park, which if you live in Seattle or are planning on visiting, you should make an effort to visit – it is gorgeous! I posted a few pictures on snapchat of fallen leaves that were twice the size of my hand. After our rainy walk in the park, we finally got to check out 
I have a thing for happy hour. And by happy hour I mostly mean appetizers and drinks in any setting, it doesn’t have to be at a bar. In fact, my husband and I are so fond of having happy hour at home that for our wedding instead of serving a large dinner we served about 20 heavy appetizers that people could pick and choose to make their meal. Because of my love of happy hour, I have a love for easy appetizers. I especially like it when a few of them together (along side a nice cheese plate) makes an impressive spread, but without working in the kitchen for hours.
With the holidays coming up, I am guessing that most of you are going to be going to a few get-togethers, and maybe hosting some as well. It is always good to have a few quick appetizers up your sleeve, either for bringing to a party or for hosting one. This one is so simple, it only takes three ingredients! I used the leftover cranberry sauce from Friday’s post here. I’m sure many of you are going to have some leftover cranberry sauce laying around after Thanksgiving, and even though Turkey Cranberry sandwiches are delicious, it’s good to have some other options for using it up.
For these simple mini tarts, I just used mini phyllo cups which are available at most grocery stores in the freezer section. If you can’t find them, you can use regular phyllo dough cut into squares and pressed into the mini muffin tin. Buying the cups already made just saves some time. Into each cup I placed a dollop of creamy brie – triple cream. If you use double cream it won’t melt as well, so try to use triple cream. I baked them for 10 minutes, then took them out of the oven and spooned a little cranberry sauce in each cup. You can also bake them with the cranberry sauce, but I preferred the fresher flavor that the cranberries had when I did not bake them. I finished these with a little fresh cracked pepper, which I think rounds out the flavor nicely. You can leave it out if you want, but it really adds an extra layer of flavor, so at least try it before you decide!
The crunch of the phyllo cup combined with the buttery flavor of the brie and the sweet tart flavor of the cranberry sauce all compliment each other and make the perfect two bite appetizer. Serve these next to a nice cheese plate and some bacon wrapped dates and you have a nice little cocktail party spread with hardly any effort. These would also be great to serve as Thanksgiving day appetizers. I like to have a few small plates out for guests to nibble on throughout the day so that people don’t get hangry when the turkey inevitably takes longer than scheduled.
Cranberry Brie Mini Tarts
Ingredients
- 12 frozen mini phyllo cups
- 6 teaspoons triple cream brie
- 6 teaspoons homemade cranberry sauce
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F
- Place the phyllo cups in a mini muffin tin.
- Fill each cup with about 1/2 teaspoon of brie.
- Bake for 10 minutes, until cups are golden and cheese is melted.
- Remove from oven and top each cup with 1/2 teaspoon cranberry sauce. Finish with by lightly seasoning with fresh ground pepper (one turn of the grinder per cup was perfect for me)
Notes
Be sure to use triple cream brie if you can. Double cream will not melt nicely.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
If you love these, you will LOVE my Baked Cranberry Brie Bread Bowl and my Pomegranate Goat Cheese Bites!
Are you getting ready for holiday entertaining? What kinds of things do you like to serve at your gatherings?
Easy delicious and just a perfect snack. I did some where I baked it all together and some I baked the shells and cream cheese together first then added the cranberry sauce. The second ones came out more crunchy. 10 min baking was perfect at 350
so delicious….i used puff pastry and cooked a few days before…nice cold or just warmed. sprinkle with chopped pistachios after cooking…yummmm
So glad you loved them!
I used goat cheese instead of Brie, turned out fabulous!!!
So glad you loved it!
Not liking cranberry anything!
Any ideas what would be yummy instead?
Apples???
THANK YOU
Hi! Any jam would probably be fine, I would try blueberry or fig!
I used a cranberry relish with mandarin oranges great mix of sweet and tart
Hello, what did you use for the green to decorate the plate? And where did you get it? Thank you.
Hi, the green is rosemary! And the plate is either from World Market or Crate and Barrel, but it is a few years old.
Not sure what triple cream brie is?
Hi Sue, triple cream brie has a higher fat content than double cream brie, so it tends to melt better. When you buy brie, it says on the package if it is double cream or triple cream.
Do you have to cook the preformed shells in a mini muffin tin or can you bake them with the brie on cookie sheet?
Hi Sue – you can use a cookie sheet 🙂
Hi Meghan!
I’m planing on making these for this Thanksgiving. Do you bake the cups first and the bake again with the Brie? I noticed that the empty cups looked baked already in pictures you posted.
Hi Laure – No, I didn’t bake them before hand. The pre-made phyllo cups are already a little browned when you get them. I think they bake them before packaging. I hope you love the recipe!
Does the cranberry sauce have to be homemade?
Hi Elizabeth – no, it doesn’t have to be homemade, store bought is fine. I would use whole berry cranberry sauce if you can though!