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Serves 6-8 as a appetizer

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 6-inch wheel of brie


• 1 sheet puff pastry (defrosted overnight in the fridge)


• approx. 1/2-3/4 cup apricot jam


• approx. 1/3 cup sliced almonds


• 1 egg yolk


• 1 Tbs water


• 1 buttered pie dish

PROCEDURE:

Make sure that the wheel of brie is nice and cold when you're starting this and use a thin bladed, sharp knife to carefully slice it in half from top to bottom.

Next, put a good dollop of the apricot jam (the same size as the wheel of brie) in the center of one defrosted sheet of puff pastry and put half of the brie on top of that, cut side up.

Add about 1/3 cup of sliced almonds to the top of the brie and then place the other half of the brie on that, cut side down. Fold the edges of the puff pastry up over and on to the brie and carefully flip that over and place it into a well buttered pie dish, so that the folded edge is on the bottom.

At this point, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and, while that's coming up to temperature, pop the brie into the freezer so that, when it's baking in the oven, the cheese won't melt too much as the puff pastry is browning.

While you're waiting for the oven, add a Tbs of water to 1 egg yolk and mix that together for brushing on top of the puff pastry later.

When the oven has come up to temp, pull the brie out of the freezer and liberally brush the whole outside of the puff pastry with the egg wash and pop that onto the center rack of the preheated oven. Keep your eye on it...it'll take just about 25 minutes to bake.....and it'll be a nice, light golden brown when it's done.

HINTS:
You don't want the brie to "freeze"....you just want it nice and cold so that the timing works out with the browning of the puff pastry and the softening of the cheese. Toast the sliced almonds in a 1/2 tsp of vegetable oil, in a saute pan on medium heat, until they just start to brown and then take them out of the pan to cool. This will give the almonds a much deeper flavor.