Apple-maple baked brie

This festive baked Brie is both dead simple -- made in 30 minutes with grocery store ingredients -- and delightfully over-the-top, featuring warm cheese piled high with a sweet and savory apple compote cooked in browned butter. This version forgoes the usual pastry wrapper to let the cheese and apple star, which also gives it a slightly lighter touch alongside a rich holiday meal. The key is to use the kind of basic grocery store Brie or Camembert that has a firm, bright-white papery rind. (If you use a fancier cheese with a natural, bloomy rind, it will quickly collapse in the oven--though it will still be delicious.) Scoring the top of the cheese before baking, like you would the side of a ham, makes it easier to scoop onto apple slices, crackers or even thick pretzels, almost like fondue.