Baked camembert

It does seem a bit of a cheek writing this up as a recipe, but it is very easy and delicious, not to say a life saver if people pop by unexpectedly and you want to give them something to eat.

I have a best friend who lives in Tennessee, USA and we were very lucky (and raided our savings) to go and visit her and her family last summer in the Great Smokey Mountains where they live. Whilst there I persuaded my husband that a trip to the Old Mill at Pigeon Forge was a necessity, he didn't believe me as all of the information he had read about Pigeon Forge suggested that there might not be much history to be found. Well, I won, and we drove the Old Mill, had a lovely Southern style lunch, I had fried cat fish, and then looked around the rest of the complex. We visited the pottery, from which I had on a visit years earlier bought an apple baker which I love to look at and use. Now with our own kitchen (and space in a suitcase!) I knew I would want to bring home another special reminder from this lovely store. We found a brie baking dish, I'm sure that this is something I could have found back in the UK but I love the pottery from this store and it is the most wonderful reminder of our trip. Now whenever I make this dish I think of that wonderful time with our friends and treasure my friendship even more.

Baked camembert

1 round camembert (it needs to fit into the size of dish you plan to use)

Optional - sprig of rosemary, or thyme, black pepper

Baguette

1. Preheat an oven to 160C. Remove all packaging from the cheese, place it whole into your dish. Your dish needs to be just a bit larger than your cheese in case it explodes (as ours did tonight!) If you are using herbs, make a small incision into the top of the cheese and poke the herb stalk in.
   
2. Place the dish into the oven. Cook for 45 minutes - 1 hour. You need to check on the cheese every 15 minutes, just to make sure that it isn't burning or needing more time. Whilst it's cooking slice some of the baguette ready for dipping.
   
3. When the cheese goey inside, remove from the oven and use a sharp knife to slice off the top of the cheese (discard this bit for the compost bin) and bring to the table.  
   

We like to eat our molten cheese with a fresh baguette. At the moment though, as our son is small, we take the cheese out with a teaspoon so that it has a chance to cool down before reaching little mouths. If you do decide to use herbs with this, I would recommend using more robust herbs (think thicker stalks) as they will survive the cooking process better.