How Long To Bake Brie For The Perfect Melty Texture

What's there not to love about a whole wheel of brie that's been baked until the center is beautifully melty and gooey? Baked brie is often served with toppings like fig jam, honey, fresh herbs, or nuts, and is perfect to scoop onto a crusty baguette. It's a simple recipe, but for the best baked brie, it's important to avoid cooking it for too long to ensure the perfect degree of gooeyness.

Baked brie is all about getting the timing just right. If you underbake it, the cheese will be cold and more solid in the center and you'll miss out on that wonderfully creamy texture. On the flip side, overbaking can have the opposite effect — it can cause the cheese to re-solidify, which is particularly true if you haven't scored the rind. 

There are a few variables to keep in mind when calculating the timing of your baked brie. Baking times will vary depending on the size of your wheel and also on just how melted you want your cheese. For many, the ideal texture is when the cheese is nearly liquid in the center but is a little firmer just below the rind. If you're baking an eight-ounce brie without a puff pastry crust, to achieve this ideal state of meltedness, aim for 20 to 25 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

If you prefer your cheese completely liquid throughout, leave it in a few extra minutes, but remember that it will firm up again if you leave it too long so keep an eye on it. If you want a wheel of cheese that's slightly softened but not molten, you can leave it in the oven for around eight minutes, or until you get a bit of give when you press on it.

Another option, called Brie en Croûte, is to wrap the wheel of cheese in puff pastry, which results in a lovely crisp exterior to complement the melty interior. If you're planning to bake your brie in a puff pastry shell (which adds a delightful, golden crispness to the outside), you'll need to bake it for closer to 35 minutes. This extra time is necessary to ensure that the puff pastry cooks through and turns nice and flaky while the cheese inside melts into a gooey, luscious texture.

The oven isn't the only place you can make this tasty dish, though. In fact, you can make "baked brie" without baking it at all. If you don't have the oven space, a cast-iron skillet is all you need to make this TikTok-viral dish work. Keep your burner at medium-low so you don't scorch the bottom, and this method should take about 10 minutes. You can serve it hot straight from the pan with all your favorite toppings.