Virtual Vegan Potluck – Spooky Vegan Macadamia Nut Brie en Croute

Welcome to the Virtual Vegan Potluck and my final Vegan MOFO post!

What a special night! It’s still Halloween on this side of the hemisphere and Vegan Zombies are everywhere on the loose counting down to World Vegan Day. Watch out, they’re coming to eat your brains grains. To save my pantry from a full on zombie invasion, I baked you them up this special ooey-gooey-spooky treat!

Macadamia Nut Brie en Croute

You will need to make these three recipes for this appetizer. You will also need a sheet of vegan puff pastry (if you are really awesome, make your own).

Macadamia Nut Brie

Inspired by a Vegan Brie in The Complete Guide to Vegan Food Substitutions

  • 1 C. macadamia nuts, soaked 4-8 hours in cold water, then drained and rinsed.
  • 1 C. boiling water
  • 2 T. Tapioca Flour
  • 2 T. Nutritional Yeast
  • 1 T. pure maple syrup
  • 1 T. yellow miso
  • 2 T. tahini
  • 1 T. rice vinegar
  • 1/2 t. dijon mustard
  • 1 t. sea salt
  • 2 T. Earth Balance or other vegan buttery spread
  • 1/2 package Pomona’s Pectin (only this brand of pectin will work in this recipe)

Method: Lightly oil a small round dish (I used a glass tupperware), set aside. Measure out half of the dry pectin, about 4.5 teaspoons. Combine calcium packet from pectin box with 1/2 C. water (not listed in ingredients above) in a small lidded jar and shake til thoroughly combined. Blend all ingredients except pectin and calcium water in your turbo blender or food processor until completely smooth. Add dry pectin and half (1/4 C.) of the calcium water and pulse until all combined and thick. Immediately scrape hot brie out into the small round prepared dish. Refrigerate for a couple hours, turn out on to a plate, brie will be slightly soft (as brie is) but ready to use in this recipe.

Maple Cranberry Sauce

  • 1 package fresh cranberries (I used ocean spray)
  • 2/3 C. pure maple syrup
  • 2/3 C. apple cider
  • 1/4 t. crushed thyme
  • 1/4 t. sea salt

Method: Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat, pour into glass jar. Let cool and refrigerate until ready for use (this will keep up to a month in the fridge and longer in the freezer and leftovers can easily be saved for the holidays).

Savory Oven Crackers

inspired by this favorite cracker recipe

  • 1 C. whole wheat flour
  • 1/4 C. sesame seeds (I used black)
  • 2 T. extra virgin olive oil
  • 6-8 T. cold water
  • 1 t. smoked paprika
  • 1 t. veggie salt or sea salt

Method: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Process all ingredients but water til combined in your food processor. Add half the water, then add a water a tablespoon at a time (you may not need it all) while pulsing until a round ball of dough forms. Put dough on a sheet of parchment paper and roll out until PAPER thin (or as thin as you can possibly roll them out). Brush surface with water and sprinkle with a bit more sea salt or veggie salt. Cut into squares with a pizza wheel. Bake for on a baking tray for 8-10 minutes, then remove crackers from parchment paper and bake an additional few minutes  on the tray until golden.

Assemble the Brie en Croute: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out puff pastry a bit. (I reused the parchment paper I cooked the crackers on for this task) Spoon 1/2 C. Maple Cranberry Sauce into the center.

Top with Macadamia Nut Brie (smooth side touching the cranberry sauce). Leaving a few inches all around, cut puff pastry into a round following the brie as a guide. Tuck edges up in a pinwheel fashion.

Turn right side up and decorate spookily  (or festively for upcoming Holidays) with remaining scraps if desired. My attempt at a spiderweb is a little lame, but whateves. I brushed my pastry with 1 T. water and 1 T. pure maple syrup to make it extra glossy.

Bake for 20 minutes until pastry is golden. I broiled mine for 3 minutes to get the pastry to a deeper golden color and it ended up being 2 minutes too long.

Feed to Fellow Potluckers Vegan Zombies on a tray with the savory oven crackers and a side of extra cranberry sauce.

Thanks to the lovely Annie at An Unrefined Vegan for creating this incredible event, it’s been a complete honor to work side by side with her for this round of the potluck. Another thanks to Lidia at Vegan Bloggers Unite for hosting the shindig. Big fat hugs to you both.

I’m off to scare off the last of the Tricker-Treaters with my Vegan Zombie get up! See you in a week or so. 😉 Head back to check out Queens of the Wild Frontier if you haven’t all ready come from there. Continue on to The Soulicious Life to see what vittles they’ve cooked up! You can also use the cool navigation buttons below. Sometimes at a potluck there are some bad dishes and no-shows broken links along the way, if that happens and you get lost, please head back to Vegan Bloggers Unite to find the next blog on the list so that you can continue to feast your way through the potluck. This post has also been shared on the VVP Linky Potluck.

233 comments

  1. Pingback: Virtual Vegan Potluck: Armenian Roasted Eggplant | The Soulicious Life

    1. Thanks so much Linda! We had lots of fun, you should have seen K. he was running house to house like a mad man to get all the candy. He came home with a huge loot! It was awesome!

      Reply

  10. So, I thought I was all “bad-ass” because I made pasta from scratch. Then I saw this, and was reminded how amazing you are. Someday, Somer, I’ll catch up to you.

    BTW, where do you get your Pomona’s pectin? Do you order it, or is it carried in stores?

    Reply

    1. Like I said, you’re all ready there, I just happened to get an extra fancy camera at costco for Christmas last year 😉

      I buy pomona’s pectin in bulk now through http://www.azurestandard.com now since I use so much of it. Whole Foods has the best price on individual boxes, but Amazon has it as does http://www.pomonapectin.com Also, most health food stores carry it (although the price can be highly inflated at the ma and pa shops)

      Reply

  12. This looks so beautiful! I’m going to try making it this weekend. What brand of puff pastry did you use? I think pepperidge farm’s is vegan, but it’s full of nasty stuff like hydrogenated oil and HFCS.

    Reply

    1. Eileen, I’m doing the walk of shame right now. Yes I used pepperidge farm. It was the only one I could find period. I used to live in Australia and I know there are cleaner puff pastry options over there, but lets face it, puff pastry alone is a fatty indulgence, which is why this is a special occasion only food 😉

      Reply

  17. Wow, incredible images and what a great recipe! The pictures alone put my yeast-less country style bread to shame. Thanks for visiting The Lunch Table, it gave me a chance to check out your great site!

    Reply

    1. Hey, yeast-less bread is awesome, no shame there. This dish was for a super special event so of course I went all out. Gotta show people how beautiful and tasty vegan food can be so I can dispel the myth that we’re all eating rabbit food 😉

      Reply

  18. As I struggle with having to give up dairy, this recipe totally fascinates me. Even my dairy-loving husband is intrigued enough to want to try it. Thanks for the inspiration!

    Reply

    1. Haha Jason! That salsa would have gone over better with my guests. They honestly didn’t touch it!!!

      p.s. I’m totally rockin the kasba! Dude, I worship the Clash!

      Reply

    1. Thanks so much! I may be doing a repeat of it for Thanksgiving, but I may use cashews instead because I always have them on hand and can get them a bit cheaper. 🙂

      Reply

    1. I’m sure that a gluten free pie pastry creation would work just as well as the puff pastry! As for the crackers, I’m sure you could make gluten free or just use store bought. The brie is all ready gluten free 🙂

      Reply

  28. Simply amazing. It is gorgeous, looks delicious and I don’t think the spiderweb is lame at all. I knew what it was in the first pic!

    Reply

    1. Vegan cheez is so fun to make, it’s totally feels awesome to be able to create it yourself. Go for it! I have a couple others on the site. Just type cheez in the search bar.

      Reply

  32. Hahaha gonna eat your grains – that’s funny Somer! Baked Brie en croute was my fave prior to going vegan – this looks event better!!!! Those crackers are super simple to make which I love!

    Reply

    1. I had Brie en croute at my brothers wedding a decade ago, I hadn’t had it again, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it! Glad it came into my brain just in time for the potluck!

      Reply

    1. Sorry, fixed that! I thought I had done it last week, but I guess my post didn’t update properly. And I’m one of the hosts shame on me… 😉

      Reply
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  43. Somer, wanted to let you know: We have now made this *several times* – the first was for the Vegetarian Resource Group’s annual Thanksgiving Pot luck here in Baltimore. It was DEVOURED – the folks at the back of the line didn’t get any. We took it to my family meal – again, gone in 60 seconds. This recipe is *such* a winner. We’ve literally made 10 batches of the crackers. I just bought bulk poppy seeds to make more (I’m allergic to sesame so, we sub in unsweetened TJ’s almond butter in the brie and poppy seeds in the crackers). Thank you for posting this. It’s a new staple!

    Reply

    1. Rissa! I love that you love this! I also love that it’s been such a hit among your friends and family. Last time I made it I used 1/2 cashews and half macadamias and was out of tapioca flour so I left it out. Guess what, I liked it even better. So creamy!

      Reply
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  45. I so want to make this for xmas!! I was wondering about the dimensions of the “brie”, so I can get the right dish for it to set in. Thanks!

    Reply
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