Brûlée Camembert

Melted camembert cheese, with a caramelised sugar shell top, and some crispy pastry parcels.
I’m absolutely making this at Christmas.

Recipe

THE PASTRY
1 sheet puff pastry, cut into the size of your stone/ circular baking dish
1 tsp cranberry sauce per bit
1 egg & splash milk (for egg wash)

THE CHEESE
1 block brie or camembert
1 heaped tbsp sugar (brown or white works)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C.

2. Cut your puff pastry to the size of your baking tray/ pizza stone, then place it on the tray.

3. Cut out the centre using the camembert as the stencil, or use the lid of the cheese to cut out a hole in the middle.

4. Place the cheese, out of it’s plastic wrapper, but in the wooden packaging, in the centre of the pastry.

5. Cut lines round the pastry (from the edge, to almost the centre), leaving 5cm ish between each line, then add 1 tsp, or less, cranberry sauce, to the centre of each piece.

6. Wet the inside circle of the pastry with some water, then fold over each piece of pastry, and press around the edges, to seal the cranberry sauce inside, as if you were folding a dumpling.

7. Using a knife, remove the top from the cheese, leaving the edge intact, so you have a shallow well.

8. Sprinkle your sugar over the top of the cheese.

9. Mix your egg and milk in a bowl, then brush over your pastry and bake for 10-15 minutes, until your pastry is risen, crisp and golden brown, and your cheese has melted.

10. You want your cheese to have a crisp sugar top, which resembles creme brûlée, so if it doesn’t at this point, take your pastry out, and put the cheese back in the oven until all the sugar has melted and caramelised. Alternatively, use a blow torch to brown & melt the sugar on the top.

11. Smash the sugar top, and dip the pastry parcels in the cheese to serve.

Notes + Variations:

Fill the pastry with anything you fancy. It could be cranberry sauce, apple sauce, any other jams or chutneys, or even honey.