Warm wheel of brie + garlic-butter mushrooms + toasted baguette = the cozy, utterly shareable dish your holiday table needs
Welcome to the decadent meal I dream about every late December, when I want even simple foods to feel festive. Yes, I am seriously making the argument that baked brie should be a dinner dish. Or, if not dinner, maybe a luxe part of it, so perfect for this blustery, celebratory time of year. For dinner you might eat this with a big green salad and a cup of soup. You might set this out as a side dish with a big roast. You might put it out as part of a party spread too, an oasis of savory among all of the cookies and molten cakes.
About the dish
We start with the Garlic Butter Roasted Mushrooms in the archives, the ones that I describe as giving mushrooms the “escargot” treatment — which is to say that they’re cooked in a not‑insignificant amount of butter and garlic, then finished with lemon juice and a shower of parsley until they’re complex and wildly more delicious than it would seem so few ingredients could be. But why stop there? Once you nestle in a small brie (or camembert) at the end and let it warm up in the oven, there’s no looking back: you’re probably going to end up scooping it again and again onto toasted baguette slices and entirely forgetting to eat dinner — there really are no rules right now and I say we lean into it.
Servings: 2 to 4 Time: 45 minutes
• 1 pound mushrooms, any kind (here: cremini and oyster)
• 2 tablespoons capers, drained and chopped
• 3 large garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt (Diamond Crystal recommended; use half the amount for other brands)
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• Juice of half a lemon
• 1/4 cup chopped flat‑leaf parsley
• 8‑ounce wheel of brie (or camembert)
• A few sprigs of thyme (optional)
• Toasted baguette slices
Heat oven to 450°F.
In a 2‑quart baking dish, toss mushrooms with capers, garlic, oil, salt and many grinds of pepper.
Dot with butter and roast, turning over once, until mushrooms are more deeply browned and a bubbly garlic sauce begins to form below, about 15 minutes.
While the mushrooms roast, trim the top off your brie with a sharp knife — it’s totally edible but this makes it easier to dip into when warm.
Make space in the center of the mushrooms and nestle in the brie and top with thyme, if using.
Return to oven for 10 minutes, until brie is warm and loose, adding more minutes if needed.
Squeeze lemon juice and scatter parsley over mushrooms.
Arrange baguette slices around the brie and mushrooms.
Place a small spoon for the brie and a larger spoon in the mushrooms.
Serve immediately, swooping brie and scooping mushrooms and their juices on the toasty bread.
• I usually use cremini mushrooms but I had a few oyster mushrooms too, and tore them in — use whatever you have around.
• Favorite market for cremini, shiitake and oyster mushrooms in NYC: Bulich Mushroom stand at Union Square Greenmarket (north end on Wednesdays and Saturdays).
• If you dislike capers, anchovies are a recommended substitute. If you dislike anchovies too, skip the briny addition — mushrooms roasted in garlic butter alone are excellent.
• The mushroom portion of this dish is adapted from the late Gourmet Magazine. The garlic butter roasted mushrooms recipe is available in the archives.
