Maison de la Truffe Brie, also called Brie aux Truffes, comes out of Maison de la Truffe in Paris, the truffle specialist that has been working with black truffle in the city for decades. The recipe is straightforward in the way the best decadent things usually are, a wheel of cow's milk Brie de Meaux is split horizontally, layered with mascarpone and slices of black truffle, then closed back up and rested so the perfume works its way through the paste. The paste is soft, ivory, and folds rather than crumbles, with a visible dark line of truffle and mascarpone running through the middle like an ice cream sandwich. The bloomy rind keeps ripening the cheese from the outside in, so the cream line under the rind goes properly oozy while the truffle layer holds the center together. On the palate it leads with buttery fresh cream and the mushroomy lift of a ripe Brie de Meaux, then the black truffle takes over, deep, earthy, and perfumed, and lingers well past the bite. This is a special-occasion cheese, the kind of thing people walk in and ask for by name. Super decadent, in a class of its own among truffle cheeses.
