Brie, Cranberry and Walnut Tartlets

Method

1. Cut the brie into cubes of about 15mm, dipping the knife in hot water between cuts so the paste does not drag. Keep a face of rind on as many cubes as you can. A 100g wedge gives 24 cubes of roughly 3.5g.
2. Spread the cubes on a lined plate, not touching, and freeze them for 15 minutes. This is the step the recipe turns on; everything after it is assembly.
3. Toast the walnut halves in a dry frying pan over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, shaking often, until they smell nutty. Tip them straight onto a cold plate: walnut skin is tannic and turns bitter fast in a pan that is still hot.
4. Heat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan). Once it is up to temperature, give the empty cases 3 minutes on a dry tray, then set the tray on the bench and leave it there while you fill. Dry heat pulls the cupboard damp back out; skip it and the shells crumble under the spoon.
5. Put a level half teaspoon of cranberry sauce in each case and push it flat to the edge with the back of the spoon. Keep it low: a mound tips the cube off centre and the melt goes over the side it leans towards.
6. Sit a frozen cube of brie on top, rind side down, and grind black pepper over the tray.
7. Bake for 5 to 6 minutes, until the cheese has slumped to fill the case and looks glossy but is not yet moving. Start watching at four: there is about a minute between slumped and over the rim, and no way back from the second.
8. Press two or three pieces of broken walnut into the top of each tartlet as the tray comes out. The cheese is soft enough to hold them and no longer hot enough to cook them.
9. Scatter the thyme, add a few drops of the fig and honey balsamic if you are using it, and rest the tray for 5 minutes before it goes round. Straight from the oven the cheese will burn a mouth and run down a wrist. Serve within 40 minutes.

Questions about baked brie tartlets

Do you take the rind off brie before baking it?

No. The rind keeps its shape while the paste behind it softens, so it holds the cube together in the case, and it carries most of the flavour. Take it off and the cube spreads instead of slumping, and tastes mild and creamy and little else.

How much brie do you need for 24 tartlets?

About 100g, cut into 24 cubes of roughly 15mm. That is a small wedge, or a slice off a larger wheel, in which case buy 150g so you can lose the thin end. Brie keeps ripening after it is sold, so buy it two or three days out rather than a week. If the same cheese is doing board duty later in the day, our Christmas cheese board guide has the per-head quantities, and the finger food guide does the arithmetic for a full spread of canapes.

Can you make brie and cranberry tartlets ahead?

Make the parts ahead, not the tartlets. Cut the cubes up to a week out, freeze them solid on a lined tray so they are not touching, then tip them into a container: a batch cut on Sunday is a tray on Friday with no knife work in between. Toasted walnuts keep three days in a jar, and the cases keep for months with the pack sealed. What fails is a filled, unbaked case left waiting, because the sauce draws moisture into the base within half an hour. Bake 24 as two trays of 12, the second going in as the first goes round.

What can you use instead of walnuts?

Anything toasted with a bit of bite to set against the sweet fruit. Pecans are the closest swap and a little sweeter; hazelnuts want their skins rubbed off after toasting. For an Australian version, roast salted macadamias bring their own salt with them, so use less pepper. Chop them first: a whole macadamia is too round to press into a 37mm tartlet and rolls straight off.

Two packs cover this tray, and a third in the cupboard costs $9.95 and will still be good in December. The Confiletas Mini Savoury Round Pastry Cases here are 37mm, the four other shapes in the tarts and pastry shells range cost the same, and the cranberry sauce travels in the same box from the festive entertaining shelf. Shipping is free Australia-wide over $100, and orders placed before 12pm on a weekday are dispatched the same day from our Corio, VIC warehouse, tracked with Australia Post.