Baked Camembert with Black Cherry Spread

Published April 13, 2021

I’ve been inspired to try cheesy recipes now that I’ve made Rotini with baked Feta. The other day while I was reading an article about Trader Joe’s best products, I learned about Camembert cheese.

Camembert cheese is a cow’s milk cheese from Normandy, France. It was created by a farmer named Marie Harel in the late 1700s.

Camembert and Brie cheeses are often compared and substituted for one another, as they both have creamy textures with bloomy rinds.

Since Camembert seemed like it would be best served baked and bubbly from the oven, I decided to make a simple baked Camembert with black cherry spread to serve as a snack.

Ingredients for Baked Camembert with Black Cherry Spread

If it’s cherry season in your area and you want to be fancy, you can make a homemade black cherry preserve / spread for your baked Camembert.

However, since cherries are not presently in season, I bought a jar of St. Dalfour’s Black Cherry Spread. If you do not like cherries, you can use whatever spread you like best. The goal of adding the spread is to have an additional level of flavor when baking.

I purchased the black cherry spread because I wanted to have whole pieces of fruit on top of my baked Camembert. You can try to use a jam instead of spread, however if there are not any fruit pieces in it, it may dissolve into a thin layer and color your cheese when baking.

How to Make Baked Camembert with Black Cherry Spread

Tools for this Dish

• Small-to-medium oven-safe dish

• Teaspoon (for the spread)

• Butterknife or spoon for serving the baked Camembert

Cooking Notes

Can I eat the rind on Camembert cheese?

Yes, you can. Though I’ve seen some videos where people cut off the rind before baking, it is edible. Others have also removed the rind post-baking. I left the rind on my baked Camembert to try its flavor.

Baking Time

I determined the baking time for my piece of Camembert based on past cooking experiences. I figured that for the width of the block of cheese that I had, 25-30 minutes in the oven would be enough.

After 25-30 minutes, the sides of my Camembert flattened and pooled into a golden puddle. This made it easy to scoop and smear the bubbly cheese onto the cracker. If you want the rind to be softer, you can leave it in the oven longer and see what happens.

How do I reheat baked Camembert?

Since I had a majority of the baked Camembert leftover, I reheated it in the microwave and served it again the next day.

It took about 7-minutes to get the cheese to bubble again. I would consider popping it back in the oven instead to warm through. Either way, my family enjoyed the cheese just as if it had come right out of the oven.

The Final Product

The baked Camembert had a rich buttery flavor with earthy notes. As someone who hates the taste of Brie, I was hesitant to make this dish. However, the Camembert cheese is delicious and baking it changes the texture so it is bubbly and buttery.

Eating the rind with the cheese had a bolder taste that I did not enjoy — probably because it reminded me of Brie. However, if you enjoy Brie, then you should like both the rind and the cheese.

Adding the black cherries was an extra level of flavor. I enjoyed that the cherries were not too sweet, and I think they paired well with taming the flavor of the cheese, especially if you were eating it with the rind.

I served my baked Camembert with black cherry spread on several different types of crackers. If you had a loaf of Italian bread you could tear and dip pieces, or make crostini to smear the cheese on.

Recipe Score

I would give Baked Camembert with Black Cherry Spread an 8/10 for the following:

• Recipe Level

  • Easy: This recipe doesn’t require any cooking skills. All you do is open the cheese, add a dollop of your fruit spread, and bake it. This recipe is great for parties or holidays if you have other dishes to prep — you can pop this in the oven and it’ll be ready in no time.

• Ingredients

  • True Camembert cheese is made with raw milk, so you won’t be able to buy the real-deal in the U.S. Most grocery stores should have pasteurized Camembert available for purchase. As always, Trader Joe’s has a wide cheese selection, which is where I purchased mine.
    
    You can use any type of fruit spread you prefer for this recipe. I would recommend that you select something that has chunks/pieces of fruit.

• Prep

  • The only prep required is to preheat your oven before baking.

• Flavor

  • 9/10: I was shocked with how buttery and rich this cheese was! As someone who dislikes Brie, this cheese was surprisingly tasty. Personally, I would remove the rind when baking, since that flavor is too strong for my preferences, but overall this was a tasty appetizer which required hardly any effort to prepare!

K. Martinelli Makes Baked Camembert with Black Cherry Spread

Have you made baked Camembert before?

Tell me about it in the comments below!

If you’re looking for more appetizer recipes you can click here to browse all of my appetizer videos.