CHRISTMAS AGA BAKED WHITE WINE GARLIC THYME CAMEMBERT

Ooey Gooey Gorgeousness

Elevate your baked Camembert with white wine, garlic and thyme infusion and serve with roasted baked pear wedges wrapped in jamon serrano, warm crusty sour dough or for me just a spoon.

There is not many things that rival a spoon and a ooey gooey baked Camembert, this is not to be shared!  

Oven baking 30-40 minutes / Aga residual warming 1 hour

When choosing your Camembert if your going to bake in the box make sure the box is stapled not glued as the heat of the oven will melt the glue and you will end up with a mass of melted cheese.

Alternatively you can use a Camembert ceramic baker, there are lots a pretty designs available, the advantage of using a ceramic baker is the cheese stays hotter and gooey for longer, great if your serving on a Christmas buffet.

Ingredients 

(one)

1 Camembert in a stapled box room temperature 

150ml dry white wine

2 large cloves garlic sliced in to 3 lengthways 

2 sprigs fresh thyme cut into 6 pieces 

To serve with

2 pears quartered 

8 slices jamon Serrano

100ml apple calvados 

Warm crusty sourdough torn in to pieces 

A spoon…

Take the cheese out of the fridge at least 1 hour before baking.

Un wrap the cheese, place back in the box or ceramic baker, pierce holes with a knife, approx 12 in the top of the cheese, push the garlic slices in to half the wholes,  push the thyme in to the remaining holes, pour over the wine slowly making sure most of the wine soaks into the holes.  Pop the lid on, you can do this hours in advance.

If your using a Aga, place the Camembert on the hot surface of the Aga not the hot plates!  Leave to bake for around 1 hour until ooey, you can move the camemberts to the warming plate to keep warm or for a slower bake time.  My Aga has a piano back which is a wide shelf at the back of the Aga which is great for warming mulled wine and baking camemberts.

If your baking in a oven heat to 180 C /  356 F, pop the Camembert in and bake for approximately 30 minutes, possibly 40 minutes for a ooey Camembert.

For the pears

Quarter the pears, soak in the calvados, wrap a slice of jamon Serrano around each quarter, bake in the oven 180 C / 358 F for 20 minutes.