Lilly Higgins: Baked Camembert with maple roasted pecans

Serves: 2
Course: Starter
Cooking Time: 0 hr 15 mins
Ingredients
  • 1 Camembert cheese, in wooden box
  • 1tbs honey
  • Sea salt
  • 3 sprigs rosemary
  • 1tbs maple syrup
  • 1tbs butter
  • 100g pecan nuts
  • 1tsp sugar
  • Generous pinch of ground cinnamon
  • TO SERVE
  • Grapes
  • Figs
  • Crackers

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Remove any plastic wrapping from the cheese and line the wooden box with a square of baking parchment. Sit the cheese back into the box. Sit the box on a baking tray and drizzle the honey over it.

Pierce the centre of the cheese with a few sprigs of rosemary and scatter with sea salt. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the cheese is completely melted inside. The crust will hold it together but it should begin to ooze out the sides.

While the cheese cooks, prepare the nuts. Line a baking tray with baking paper and mix the cinnamon with the sugar in a little bowl. Melt the butter with the maple syrup. Coat the pecan nuts with the butter syrup mixture. Once evenly coated, tip the nuts on to the baking tray. Roast for five to eight minutes, keeping an eye that they don’t burn. Once browned slightly, remove from the oven and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar. Set aside to cool and harden.

Place grapes, quartered figs, crackers and the nuts on to a large plate or wooden board. Once the cheese is cooked, place a few pecans on top and sit the wooden cheese box on to the plate. Serve right away.

Lilly Higgins

Lilly Higgins

Lilly Higgins, a contributor to The Irish Times, is a food writer