By December 2021. The index card project has reached card forty-two. Five cards remaining. I have been thinking about what happens when the project is done, when all forty-seven recipes have been made and documented. The blog has been the living record of each card, and the project has given me the most consistent, most engaged readership I have had. People are following along week by week. They want to know how each card turns out.
Card forty-two is peach preserves, which I have been making every summer since the first year I helped her. This card is different from the preserve I have been making: it has a different ratio of sugar, higher, and it calls for lemon zest that I had not been adding. I made a test batch and it was brighter and cleaner than the version I know. I will make this version next summer with the last good peaches. The card teaches me something even now, even after six years of making this preserve. I have not learned everything yet. There is always more in the card.
Christmas will be at Gloria and James. Five days. James collared shirt. Gloria hands moving through the kitchen. The cast iron skillets on the wall. The ceiling fan turning. I will make everything from the cards. I will sit at that table and eat everything we made and James will have three pieces of pecan pie and we will do the dishes after and go to sleep and wake up in that house and do it all again the next day. That is Christmas. That is all of it.
Card forty-two changed the way I’ll make peach preserves from here on out—brighter, sharper, more alive—and as I was thinking about what to bring to Gloria and James’s table this Christmas, it felt right to let those preserves do something new. Chutney-Topped Brie is the kind of thing that disappears in the first ten minutes, warm and rich and just sweet enough, and it is the perfect home for a jar of something you made with your own hands from a card that still had more to give. This is what the project has always been about: the recipe teaching you something, and then you carrying it forward.
Chutney-Topped Brie
Prep Time: 5 min | Cook Time: 12 min | Total Time: 17 min | Servings: 8
Ingredients
- 1 round (8 oz) Brie cheese, rind on
- 1/3 cup peach or mango chutney
- 1/4 cup coarsely chopped pecans
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (optional)
- Crackers, sliced baguette, or apple slices for serving
Instructions
- Preheat. Heat oven to 350°F. Place the Brie round in a small oven-safe dish or on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Top the Brie. Spoon the chutney evenly over the top of the Brie. Scatter the chopped pecans over the chutney.
- Bake. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the Brie is soft and just beginning to ooze at the edges but has not collapsed. The top should be bubbling gently.
- Finish and serve. Remove from the oven and scatter fresh thyme leaves over the top if using. Serve immediately with crackers, baguette slices, or apple slices for scooping.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 145 | Protein: 6g | Fat: 10g | Carbs: 9g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 190mg