Olive Baked Brie

Learn how to make the best olive platter for National Olive Day by serving it with Olive Baked Brie with thyme and olive oil.

If there’s one thing I love more than dessert, it’s snacks. I have discipline over how many cookies I eat in one sitting, but give me a bag of chips and there will be nothing left but crumbs.

My love for snacking is no secret; I mentioned it before when I posted recipes for pickled red onions, cranberry baked brie, and more.

I’ve been posting dinner recipes using olives including my Mediterranean Chicken Thighs, but truth is I mainly enjoy them straight from the jar.

Of course that’s boring for a recipe blog. That’s why I came up with an idea to eat olives while also giving you a super simple recipe.

National Olive Day is June 1, but I’m posting today so you can have a few days to prepare for it. And if you’re reading this when it’s not June, well this Olive Baked Brie recipe also makes an easy party appetizer for your Charcuterie Board For Two.

Although I focus mostly on recipes for two, sometimes you need a snack to share with everyone. My parents and brother often visit. Usually we’re busy running around doing things in the city, so it’s easy to throw a bunch of snacks onto a board and letting everyone go to town on it.

I also like to treat myself and make a one-person cheese board for dinner. Sometimes I don’t feel like making dinner and want to snack instead (please tell me I’m not the only one).

Usually cheese boards focus on the meats and cheeses with olives as a side snack. However, I wanted to shift the focus onto the olives to celebrate National Olive Day. There are so many varieties, you can easily fill a whole board with them. Here we have:

• Pimento Stuffed Olives. Probably the most common olive everyone knows.
• Garlic and Jalapeno Stuffed Olives. You can also use other stuffed olives, such as feta or blue cheese.
• Sliced Black Olives. Slicing the olives gives a different shape and makes it easier to add to crackers.
• Pitted Green Olives. Fun fact: Green and black olives are the same thing. The difference is green olives are unripened black olives, which are picked before they have a chance to grow softer and darker.
• Kalamata Olives. Often used in Greek cuisine, kalamatas pair well with cheese.

In addition to the olives, you’ll also want crackers (the more shapes, the better), some nuts to snack on, salami, and of course cheese.

Brie is my favorite to use for a cheese board because it’s so easy to prepare (not to mention how good it tastes). You unwrap it and spoon things on top. Done.

There are several ways you can prepare the brie. As the title suggests, you can bake it for maximum cheesiness.

However, if it’s too hot to turn on the oven, you can either “bake” it on the grill in a baking dish, grill it directly on the rack (but be careful it doesn’t puncture and ooze everywhere), serve it at room temperature where it’ll be soft enough to spread, or keep it cold and cut into wedges.

I technically used cabrie cheese, which is brie made with goat’s milk. Traditional brie is made with cow’s milk. Whichever you choose, they both make an excellent melty cheese to pair with the olives.

On top of the brie are halved kalamata and pitted green olives with thyme and black pepper. The olives add a nice meatiness to the cheese.

To tie everything together, I poured a thin layer of olive oil on the plate. That way when you spread the cheese on the crackers, you can grab some of the olive oil as well.