Camembert in a Sourdough Jacket

My niece Flo whose beautiful and passionate blog, Makanai, is a treasure trove for gourmets and gourmands of all ilks as well as a mine of information on food intolerances and ways of coping with them - in French, I know, but there is always Google Translator) recently called attention on her Facebook page to a most appealing and ingenious appetizer, Camembert rôti en croûte de pain (literally Camembert baked in a bread crust), posted by Cindy of Food for Thoughts.

Baked Bries or Camemberts are nothing new. But a French cheese baked inside a miche au levain (a sourdough boule), now, that's something I had yet to see. As luck would have it, we had just bought a pair of French Camemberts at Costco.

I had no boules in my freezer and no immediate prospect of baking one since my levain was still in reactivation mode after our long absence. However our local Trader Joe's came to the rescue once more: I found there a boule of just the right size, made exclusively of flour, water and salt. Perfect!

I followed the original recipe to a t (except that I didn't use sugar and that, having no garlic powder on hand, I just rubbed the inside of the hollowed-out miche with a fresh clove). I am not kidding myself that our baked Camembert was as flavorful as Cindy's. It did come from France but it wasn't made from raw unpasteurized milk, so it was certainly a good bit tamer than the one she was able to find in London. But it was still good enough that nobody seemed to mind (the bread was crisp on the outside and the cheese deliciously velvety and smokey-spicy). At least I imagine that's the reason why it vanished so fast. Thank you, Cindy, for this great idea! Just in time for holiday entertaining too...

Make sure the cheese fits inside the hollowed-out boule

but don't bake it with the wrapper still on!

Ingredients:

• 1 Camembert from France (preferably made from raw unpasteurized milk if available in the country where you live)
• 1 small sourdough boule (not San Francisco sourdough though as the sourness might overpower the cheese)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon chili powder (I used chipotle chili)
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (see above for possible substitution)
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
• 1 tablespoon salted butter

Note: the original recipe also calls for 1/2 teaspoon of sugar but I didn't use any.

Don't you love the fragrance of garlic on fresh crumb?

To maximize it, split the clove in two

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 356°F/180° C (using convection if available)
2. Cut off the top of the boule and set aside
3. Hollow out the center of the boule and of the lid (making sure the Camembert easily fits into both)
4. In a small bowl, mix chili, garlic powder (if using. If not using, rub the inside of the bread and of the lid with raw clove of garlic) and mustard powder
5. Lightly butter the inside of the boule and of the lid
6. Generously sprinkle the inside of the boule and of the lid with spice mixture
7. Pre-cut the boule all around to make it easier to pull out croûtons later on (see picture)
8. Scrape the Camembert all around, not forgetting the sides and bottom
9. Place inside the hollowed boule, scatter rest of spice mixture over it
10. Place the lid over the cheese making sure it fits the bottom snugly
11. Bake in pre-heated oven for 30 minutes
12. Let cool a few minutes before serving (serve the top alongside so that guests can rip chunks of it to dip in the melted cheese when the sides of the boule are all eaten up).

Printable recipe

All dressed up and ready for the oven

The Camembert in a Sourdough Jacket goes to Stefanie whose marvelous blog, Hefe und mehr, is hosting this week's issue of Yeastspotting.

Egg-in-a-cradle

I had some leftover pâte fermentée (old dough) from the Chestnut Flour Bread and I didn't feel like freezing it. So instead I baked 4 little rolls and I made myself this comfort food (I was by myself for dinner). Now that I have tried it, I'll have to do it again... and again. It is just delicious (and very simple to make. If you don't have pâte fermentée or don't feel like baking, just cut up a fat baguette or smallish batard into as many mini-logs as you need, remove some of the crumb and you are in business). I had shaped and scored the rolls in different ways as I didn't know which one would be easier to turn into an eggcup.

The fan shape? The purse?

The tulip?

The tulip (i.e. the one with an X-shaped score) turned out to be the most convenient to open up and hollow out.

What you need is this: bread + fresh eggs + crème fraîche (now that I have attended a cheesemaking class, I make my own and quite frankly you don't need to take the class to know how. You just need the culture which you can get here and a way to keep the cream and the culture warm and snug for 12 hours) + some chives (from the garden or the window sill) + some grated Parmesan cheese. You hollow out the bread, pour in two spoonfuls of crème fraîche, add some salt and freshly ground pepper, cisel some chives over it, break in the egg (if the egg is too large, the white will overflow. Just wipe out the surplus), top with grated Parmesan cheese and bake at 400ºF for about 10 minutes (if necessary, turn on the broiler for a minute or two to brown the top). (I overcooked mine by 1 minute but it was still very very yummy!). Enjoy!

This Egg-in-a-cradle goes to Susan, from Wild Yeast, for Yeastpotting.

Pear & Roquefort Babycakes

The recipe for these delicious babycakes comes from Craquez pour les moëlleux salés!, by Isabel Brancq-Lepage, a yummy little book which I bought on my latest trip to France. I changed almost nothing, except that I used 30% white whole wheat flour instead of all all-purpose. Next time, I may even go 50 or 100% white whole wheat and see what happens. Roquefort is an expensive cheese, I know. They used to carry it at my local Costco many many years ago but no more... Now I get it from time to time at Trader Joe's as a special treat for the family (our 15-year old grand-daughter is crazy about it, especially when spread on a slice of baguette!). To my mind, there is a special affinity between the taste of sheep milk and the taste of pear but other cheeses might work just as well. For instance, if I could find here Saint-Agur, a lovely blue cheese made from cow milk, I would definitely give it a try. Let me know if you experiment and come out with other flavor combinations. The babycakes look like muffins but they contain no leaveners (no yeast, wild or otherwise, no baking powder and no baking soda). Yet they are airy and light. They are great for lunch with a green salad but, sliced, they are lovely for the apéritif with a glass of Prosecco and...they are quickly put together, which never hurts, especially during the work week.

Ingredients (for 9 babycakes) 1 firm pear 90 g Roquefort (or other blue cheese) 50 g grated Swiss cheese (I used Jarlsberg) 3 eggs 70 g unbleached all-purpose flour 30 g white whole wheat flour 20 g milk (I used unsweetened almond milk which is all I had) 20 g sliced roasted almonds (optional - chopped walnuts can also be used) Pepper (according to taste) but no salt (the cheeses provide it, especially the Roquefort) Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 410F/210 C
2. Beat the eggs as you would for an omelet in a big bowl, slowly add the sifted flours and whisk with a fork until incorporated
3. Heat the milk in a saucepan on the stovetop, add the Roquefort and the grated Swiss cheese, stirring with a wooden spoon until the cheeses melt
4. Let the milk-cheese mixture cool down a bit and slowly pour it in the flour-egg mixture
5. Stir well
6. Peel and slice the pear and dice it into the bowl
7. Pour the batter in the muffin tray, using liners if you like
8. Sprinkle almond slices on top
9. Put in the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until golden
10. Allow to cool before unmolding.

These babycakes go to Susan, fromWild Yeast, for Yeastpotting.