Line up Your Cheese Board With a Wheel of Baked Cheese
Cheese platters are a staple of holiday party snacks , but finding new ways to feed common suspects can be tricky. Let me introduce you to your new best friend: baked cheese.
Like fromage fort , baked cheese combines the best of all party snacks: cheese, lightness, and whatever you have in your fridge. All you have to do is cut into fine shading on a circle of soft washed cheese, stuff with tasty slices of your choice, and bake at 350ºF until melted. A tiny cast iron skillet earns extra presentation points, but you can also bake cheese (unpackaged) right in a wooden box; in any case, place them on a baking sheet for better thermal conductivity and protection from dripping. Serve your delicious creation alone – with lots of carbs to dip in – or as a resisting platter against a killer cheeseboard .
To show you the power of this technique, I’ve prepared two different flavors: savory and sweet. For piquancy, I stuffed camembert with thinly chopped garlic cloves and sprinkled it with herbal olive oil ; For a sweet treat, I doused the cute goat brie wheel with honey, toasted walnuts, cinnamon, sea salt, and Aleppo pepper flakes. They were ready in less than half an hour, and since all the flavors were from my fridge or pantry, I just needed to buy some cheese.
Garlic Camembert and Spicy Goat Brie are just two of the avenues you can take. Any soft cheese with zest will do, just like any flavoring you have. Caramelized onions and thyme make something like a French onion fondue; a spoon or two of canned fruit turns a brie wheel into a cheesecake sauce; damn it, throw in the grated cheddar and pepper and hot sauce . Follow your heart – there is no wrong way to eat liquid cheese.