Baked Brie in Bread Bowl

This was another recipe I made for my grandma's 94th birthday party. If you're on Pinterest, it's entirely possible you saw this recipe because it definitely made the rounds. I normally do some kind of baked brie for the party, and this looked awesome. I'm a sucker for a bread bowl--be it clam chowder, spinach dip or whatever--so this appealed to me on many levels!! Plus warm, melty cheese INSIDE bread?! Yes please!

Baked brie in bread bowl
Source: McCormick website via Pinterest

1 1/2 teaspoons McCormick® Chili Powder
1/2 teaspoon McCormick® Garlic Powder
1/2 teaspoon McCormick® Mustard, Ground
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 loaf round sourdough bread (about 1 pound)
1 tablespoon butter, softened
1 round (8 ounces) Brie cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix spices and sugar in small bowl. Set aside. Place bread on baking sheet. Cut circle in top of bread and remove bread center to make room for the Brie. 

2. Spread butter on bread. Sprinkle with 2 teaspoons of the spice mixture. With knife, make 2-inch cuts at 1-inch intervals around edge of bread. Remove rind from Brie and place in bread. Sprinkle Brie with remaining spice mixture. Replace top of bread. 

3. Bake 20 to 30 minutes. To serve, remove bread top and break into bite size pieces. Dip bread pieces in hot Brie.

per serving
Calories: 263
Fat: 11 g
Carbohydrates: 30 g
Cholesterol: 32 mg
Sodium: 545 mg
Fiber: 2 g
Protein: 11 g

*****

I gotta say, I was most excited for the bottom layer of this, the bottom of the bread bowl that would be coated with melty brie. Kind of like the best part of a clam chowder bread bowl is the bottom of the bowl that's soaked with chowdery goodness. It was pretty awesome having cubes of bread along the side of the brie to just tear off and smear with cheese. Oh, cheese, how I love thee! This was dedfinitely a cool take on baked brie. Not sure if I like this or the typical brie-wrapped-in-puff-pastry baked brie better. The puff pastry version is faster/easier, but this one is awesome having bread right there to dip in it.