Phyllo cups are one of my favorite things to use when I’m needing an easy appetizer. For me, they literally are one of best time saving ingredients you can keep on hand. Let’s be honest, they look fancy. They look like you made them, and that is was super complicated and will make people wonder how on Earth you pulled that off. Phyllo cups also are so versatile they can be used for sweet and savory recipes. Use these one time and you’ll be thinking of all the ways you can use a crispy phyllo cup.
So let’s talk Brie cheese for a bit. If you’re not familiar with it, Brie is a very soft cheese with a mild buttery flavor. It works well as an accompaniment in recipes because it doesn’t overpower or compete the other ingredients in the dish. Even if you’ve worked with Brie before, you might have a few questions, so let’s get to them.
How to work with Brie Cheese in Phyllo Cups
Brie is so soft. Like it’s a really soft cheese. Try cutting it with a knife straight out of the refrigerator and ya know that phrase hot knife through butter? Yea, nothing like that. More like dull knife through cotton candy. The solution? Freeze it! Yes, put the whole thing, packaging and all into the freezer for at least one hour before you want to actually work with it and cut into it. It makes ALL the difference. You’ll actually being able to easily cut cubes, or cut thin slices. The little cubes fit perfectly inside the phyllo cups!
Plus, I find that baking with the cheese slightly hard means it spreads less when it bakes. I think this is really important because Brie can have the tendency to spread very thin as it gets hot when it’s baking. But hard slightly frozen Brie will stay put, and we want to enjoy all that buttery Brie in our phyllo cup!
Can I leave the rind on?
Oh the big question. The rind. That hard outer layer of the cheese. So on Brie, yes you can eat the rind and yes you can leave it on. Really what it comes down to is personal preference of texture. The rind as texture, slightly hard and maybe a little mealy. Personally, I cut it off. I don’t like it. I don’t like the texture and I prefer my Brie to be completely smooth. Freezing the Brie first makes it so easy to remove the rind. Once the Brie wheel is frozen, the rind kind of just shaves away with your knife. It’s really quick and easy to do. So my recommendation in the recipe below calls for removing the rind. But, if you’re a rind lover there’s no harm in keeping it on!
My favorite part about this recipe isn’t the Brie, not the bacon, and it’s actually not the phyllo cups. It’s these gorgeous sauteed mushrooms! Sliced really thin, these saute in oil until you bring out their robust in flavor. Sprinkled with a little bit of salt, they are the perfect companion to the Brie and crispy bacon.
If you like this phyllo cup recipe and want more check these out:
Baked Brie and Raspberry Phyllo Cups
Gruyere and Bacon Phyllo Cups
Or, check out my collection of appetizer recipes by clicking here.
Brie Mushroom and Bacon Phyllo Cups
Brie Mushroom and Bacon Phyllo Cups are a savory little appetizer. Brie cheese melts into the crispy phyllo cups and sweetened with a drizzle of honey. Top with sauteed mushrooms and bacon then bake. The finishing touch is a balsamic and honey drizzle!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 50
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Yield: 30 phyllo cups
- Category: Appetizer
- Method: Bake and Saute
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
8oz wheel of Brie cheese (chilled in the freezer for 1 hour!)
2 boxes of 15 count phyllo cups
5-6 slices of thick bacon
2 8oz packages of sliced white mushrooms
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Honey
For the Balsamic Honey Drizzle
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 tablespoon honey
Instructions
1. Start by making the sauteed mushrooms and bacon. Remove the sliced mushrooms from the package, remove any stalks, we only use the mushroom heads for this. Slice any thick pieces into slighty thinner, and give the mushrooms a rough chop since we need the mushrooms to be more bite sized and easily fit in the phyllo cups. Heat the 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a large pan over medium high heat. Add the mushrooms and cook 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Spoon onto a paper towel lined plate and sprinkle with salt.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 and make the bacon. Cook the bacon strips in a large frying pan over medium heat for 10-12 minutes until crispy. Remove and place on a paper towel lined plate. Once cool, crush into crumbles.
3. While the bacon is cooking and the oven is preheating, it’s time to prepare the Brie and the phyllo cups. Place the phyllo cups on a large baking sheet. Remove the Brie from the freezer, shave off the rind if desired, and dice into small squares. Fill each phyllo cup with 1 square, you’ll have some cheese leftover. Drizzle each cheese square with a little honey, then bake for 8 minutes.
4. Once the cheese has baked and become melty, remove from the oven. Add more cheese to any phyllo cup that looks like if could use a little more cheese, again I always have a few squares leftover. Fill each phyllo cup with mushroom bits and bacon. You should use most of the bacon, but depending on how many mushrooms were in the packages there probably will be excess mushrooms. You can save these in the fridge and use in another recipe, or an omelet or frittata. Bake the phyllo cups for 10 minutes at the 350.
5. Lastly, while the phyllo cups bake make the balsamic honey drizzle. In a small pot, pour the 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar and the 1/2 tablespoon honey. Heat to boil then reduce heat to simmer for 8 minutes. Drizzle over each baked phyllo cup and serve!
Notes
As noted above, you will have a few squares of cheese and possibly some mushrooms leftover. You can save the mushrooms and use them in another recipe, or use them for breakfast in an omelet.
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