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Cranberry Brie Bites are a perfect appetizer for any holiday party. They are bite-sized, easy to make, and so delicious. The combination of flaky crescent dough, creamy brie cheese, and sweet-tart cranberry sauce is irresistible. They are topped with crushed walnut, fresh thyme and drizzled honey. These tasty bite sized pasties melt in your mouth and are a total show stealer.
Ready in a less than 30 minutes, these bites are the perfect last minute appetizer idea for the holiday season. Pillowy crescent dough is crowned with creamy brie cheese and tart cranberry sauce for a flavor explosion in every bite. Super simple to make, they look and taste gorgeous!
Why l love this Recipe
- An easy appetizer. This is a low maintenance appetizer. Made with a handful of ingredients these little beauties come together in less than 30 mins.
- Crowed pleaser: A party appetizer that’s a crowd pleaser. It will become your favorite holiday appetizer for parties and much more.
- Topped with tangy cranberry sauce. If you don’t have jarred cranberry sauce you simple whip some up with my Easy Homemade Cranberry Sauce recipe. Either way….delicious!
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Crescent Sheet: I used store bought Pillsbury crescent sheets. You can also use puff pastry sheets if you like.
- Brie– I used Kirkland’s since I already had that but Presidents’ Brie cheese also works.
- Unsalted Butter-since the dough is a bit savory, I prefer using unsalted butter.
- Cranberry Sauce– Store bought or Homemade Cranberry Sauce works.
- Thyme or Rosemary– I used thyme, but I have also used Rosemary many time. So whatever you have on hand.
- Walnuts– I like walnuts so I used that, but you can also use pecans if you don’t like walnuts.
- Honey (optional)- I love drizzling honey on this recipe. It’s the perfect additions to it. But if you are allergic, you can skip it.
How to Make Cranberry Brie Bites
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 400 F.
Step 2: Prep the pastry. Cut the crescent sheet roll into 1.5-2 inch squares, for 12 even pieces. Grease a mini muffin tin with unsalted butter then place the squares into the mini muffin tin pan.
Step 3: Brie portions. Cut the brie cheese into mini portions.
Step 4: Layer the topping. Top each pastry piece with cubed brie, cranberry sauce, herbs and crushed walnuts. You can also add the walnuts afterwards if you prefer.
Step 5: Bake in the preheated oven until the crescent pastry is golden, about 10 minutes
Step 6: Allow to cool, serve and enjoy!
Tips for Cooking this Recipe
- Brie Cheese: Freezing your wheel or wedge of brie for just 20 minutes makes slicing it into small pieces a breeze.
- Crescent Dough: Aim to cut your crescent squares into similar sizes, for even cooking.
- Grease Pan: Be sure to grease your muffin tin with butter for easy bite removal!
- Watch the Time: Oven temperatures may vary, so keep an eye on your bites to avoid over-browning or may take a minute or two more to brown.
- Serve warm: I recommened eating the bites while they are still warm.
- Do not over fill the bites or else the filling will ooze out.
Brie Bites Recipe Variations
Feel free to mix things up with these little pastry appetizers!
- Top with different nuts: sub in your favorite nut. Almonds, pecans or pistachios would work great.
- Use different herbs: rosemary or thyme are the best for this recipe.
- Flavored Jelly: Swap the cranberry sauce with other types of jellies like orange marmalade, fig jam, raspberry jam, apricot jam or pepper jelly.
- Dough: If you don’t have crescent or puff pastry dough, you can use mini phyllo cups.
Make Ahead and Storage Tips
Make Ahead: Fully assemble the Brie Bites in the muffin pan, cover with seran wrap or allumium foil and refrigerate them unbaked up to two days before.
Storage: Store leftovers in an airtight storage container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
Reheating: Place bites in a mini muffin tin and bake at 350 degrees F until warmed through. You can also reheat them in the air fryer to makes things a lot faster.
Freezing: I personally do not recommend freezing these because they are so easy to make and eat fresh. But if you’d like to freeze these bites, cook as directed and allow it to cool compeletely. Transfer them into a freezer safe bag and freeze for up to 2 months. Defrost in the fridge before and reheat in the oven as directed above.
Frequently Asked Questions
Rich brie is wonderful alongside something sweet, tart, and fruity, such as cranberry sauce in this recipe! Because it’s a soft, creamy cheese, brie also pairs well with contrasting textures, such as crunchy nuts and flaky puff pastry.
It’s totally up to you. The rind is 100% edible and can be left on, but if you prefer eating brie without it, slice it off before cutting it up into cubes (after it’s been frozen for a bit)
While brie is classic, feel free to experiment with other soft cheeses like camembert or goat cheese.
More Appetizers to Try
- Baked Brie Cranberry Bread Bowl
- Air Fryer Chicken Wing Recipe
- Buffalo Cauliflower Wings
- Avocado Egg Rolls
Get ready to elevate your holiday appetizer game with these Cranberry Brie Bites. Bursting with the gooey goodness of brie and the tarte of cranberry sauce, each bite is a mini celebration. Perfect for parties or a cozy night in.
If you try this recipe or any of my other recipes, please leave a star rating in the comment section below because I love hearing from my readers. Also follow me at Cookin’ With Mima on FACEBOOK |INSTAGRAM |PINTEREST for all of my latest social posts and recipes.
Cranberry and Brie Bites
Equipment
- Mini muffin tin pan
Ingredients
- 1 8 oz tube Crescent Sheet roll , cut into 2 inch squares
- 6 oz. Brie cheese, cubed
- 1 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted to brush pans
- ⅓ cup cranberry sauce, about 1 tsp. per piece
- 1 tsp. fresh thyme or rosemary, finely chopped
- ¼ cup walnuts, crushed
- 2 tbsps. honey, optional for topping drizzle
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degree F.
- Grease the 12 piece non-stick mini muffin tin pan with butter.
- Cut the crescent sheet into 1.5-2 inch squares. The whole sheet should be cut evenly into 12 pieces.
- Cut the brie cheese into 1 inch cubes.
- First, place each crescent dough piece into the individual muffin tins. Add a piece of brie cheese, top with the cranberry sauce and add the herbs and crushed walnuts on top. You can also add the walnuts afterwards if you prefer.
- Bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until the sides on the crescent dough is golden on the sides and the center cheese has melted.
- Remove from the oven and let it cool for a couple of minutes. If you wish to drizzle some honey before serving you can do that now.
- Serve and enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Brie Cheese: Freezing your wheel or wedge of brie for just 20 minutes makes slicing it into small pieces a breeze.
- Crescent Dough: Aim to cut your crescent squares into similar sizes, for even cooking.
- Grease Pan: Be sure to grease your muffin tin with butter for easy bite removal!
- Watch the Time: Oven temperatures may vary, so keep an eye on your bites to avoid over-browning or may take a minute or two more to brown.
- Serve warm: I recommened eating the bites while they are still warm.
- Do not over fill the bites or else the filling will ooze out.
I’m definitely going make some they look delicious thanks for the recipe!!
Let us know how it went!
Another easy solution for feeding many, nice presentation and very adaptable.
Thanks for the review Sheri!
Crazy question, regular muffin pan or mini muffin pan? thanks
Sorry for the delayed response! they are mini muffin tins. I will update the post soon to reflect that.
I made these last Christmas and will be making them again this Christmas! We absolutely loved and devoured them! They were simple to make and made a great show as they are pretty on the table. Kinda makes it look like you worked hard on them 🙂 Thanks for your fantastic recipe.
Hi Joanne,
Happy to hear that. Thanks for leaving a review.
I made these for Christmas and we really enjoyed them. The only thing I would do differently is that I decided on the option of using fruit jam instead of cranberry sauce. They ended up a bit too sweet and would have preferred the tartness of the cranberry sauce as in the original recipe. Probably would get 5 stars with the cranberry. These were quick and easy but looked really classy. I am grateful that the first reviewer asked the question about making ahead of time because an hour before we left for my daughter’s I made them. covered with saran wrap and then popped them in the oven when we arrived. None the worse for the delay in baking.
Hi Eileen!
Thanks for leaving a review! Glad they worked out good for you.
Wow!!! Some novice cooks on this or what???
Hi Michael!
Thanks for your review!
I printed this recipe and the first quarter of the page was empty. I think who ever formats your web page should do a sample printout before posting the recipe.
Hey Paul,
I am so sorry that happened to you. Every site show up differently on different computers and I have no control over how it will print the blog feed area itself. That’s why I have the print recipe button and that should take you to a completely new page to print out the recipe card itself.
I’m sorry to say that I do not have an oven that will allow you to bake a dish wrapped in Saran wrap. Did you possibly mean aluminum foil?
Hi Sharon,
I am a bit confused. I can’t see to find the part where you are referring to. No saran wrap is safe in any oven, I wouldn’t use that. I didn’t use aluminum foil for this recipe either. Can you please refer me to where you are talking about?
If I make these the night before to bring to a work party the next day, how should it be eaten? Room temperature? Or would they need to be heated back up? Thank you!
Hi Vi,
I personally recommend making them sometime before you go or the day of. You can prepare everything the night before in the muffin pan, wrap up with a saran wrap and then pop them in the oven say before you get yourself ready. Set a timer. They literally need about 12-15 minutes of baking time. This way you can take them fresh, crispy and the cheese will still be soft. But if you must bake them the night before, you need to store in an air tight container and reheat in the oven at 350 for 5 plus minutes or so before serving again to melt the cheese because it will get hard when cold. So I would personally do the first option I gave.
Brie is never a “hard” cheese. It’s classically spreadable at room temperature. I love this recipe, and even though they’d be most scrumptious heated, I believe it would be fine to serve them at room temperature.
Hi Edward,
I definitely know what brie is and it’s softness :). I didn’t mean hard as in hard cheese but rather meant that it wont be soft and gooey if it gets cold. And when you melt the brie and refrigerate it, it wont be as soft as what it was in it’s original state. Thanks for the comment though this way others will understand what I meant.