Herb and Garlic Baked Camembert
The first time Deb Perelman, the blogger behind the award-winning Smitten Kitchen, hosted Thanksgiving, she wildly underestimated the amount of time it would take the turkey to cook. By some miracle, or perhaps foresight, she remembered that she had bought the ingredients for a melted fontina dip. A little chopping and a few minutes under the broiler later, a mess of cubed cheese, minced herbs, garlic and olive oil was bubbling and glorious in a skillet. When Deb put it out on the table, it was like a pride of lions came out of nowhere and eviscerated their prey with chunks of crusty baguette—within 5 minutes, there was barely a scrap left.
Deb learned a few important things that Thanksgiving: Appetizers are a very good thing, especially when people have been drinking wine for nearly 2 hours on empty stomachs. Cheese baked until gooey with herbs and garlic is the most unbelievable party snack there could ever be. And it doesn’t need to be an investment. Camembert is especially party-sized, available at all price ranges (the low-end stuff is just splendid here), and most wheels come in little wooden baskets you can warm the cheese in directly.
Ingredients:
- One 8- to 9-oz. (250- to 280-g) wheel Camembert
- 1 large garlic clove, very thinly sliced
- 1 Tbs. olive oil
- 1 tsp. minced fresh thyme
- 1 tsp. minced fresh rosemary
- Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
- Crackers, preferably long enough to dip with, for serving
Directions:
Preheat an oven to 350°F (180°C).
Most Camembert comes in a little wooden crate. If yours does, remove the crate lid and any packaging or wrappers around the cheese, then place the cheese back inside the basket. Yes, it is safe to bake it right in there for the short time that this recipe calls for. If you’re nervous about leakage, you can wrap the Camembert in foil or line the basket with parchment paper as a layer of protection. Place the cheese in the wooden crate on a baking sheet.
With a thin sharp knife, make gridlike cuts in the cheese, 3 or 4 in each direction, about 1 inch (2.5 cm) apart and going about 1 inch (2.5 cm) deep into the cheese but without cutting through the bottom rind. Use your knife tip to “open” each cut and your fingers to press a little sliver of garlic into each cut. In a small bowl, combine the olive oil with the thyme, rosemary, 1/4 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. pepper. Spread thickly on top of the cheese.
Bake until the cheese is loose inside the rind, 15 to 20 minutes. Serve immediately with crackers. Serves 4.
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen Every Day by Deb Perelman (Knopf, 2017)
Recommended Products:
-
$35
-
$34.95
-
$16.95
-
$19.95
-
$14.95
-
$24.95
-
Sugg. Price $64.95 Our Price $49.95
(21)
-
$24.95
(9)
-
$89.95
-
$99.95
