Baked Camembert Tear & Share

Whilst a baked camembert by itself is wonderful, it is nothing without a wonderful loaf of bread to go with it, and considering that my parents live in the middle of nowhere in the french countryside, this means that if I want decent bread without a months notice, then I have to make it myself.

The recipe given here makes something of a centrepiece which looks wonderful, however, this dough will also make a wonderful baguette if you shape it differently, should you not wish to faff around as I have.

Start by making your bread dough, add the dry ingredients to a bowl and stir to combine, add the water and mix with a fork until combined into a smooth dough, scrape out onto a floured work surface and knead for five minutes, return to the bowl and cover with a cloth, leave in a warm place to rise until doubled in size. When risen knock back on a floured work surface, with your hands form the dough into a long sausage, and join the ends to make a ring big enough for the camembert box to fit into the middle.

Using scissors cut slits in the edge of the ring almost to the centre without splitting the ring, wrap an empty camembert box in aluminium foil and place it in the centre, place the ring onto a baking tray and leave in a warm place to rise until almost doubled in size.

When risen brush the top with beaten egg and bake in a hot oven for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and carefully extract the camembert box from the centre. Return to the oven for a further five minutes.

Meanwhile, remove the camembert from its box and remove the plastic wrapping, return to the box and place on a baking tray, lightly cut a cross in the rind on the top, and push two peeled cloves of garlic into the cheese, bake on a medium heat for 10 minutes until fully melted.

Put the bread on a board and place the cheese, still in its box, in the middle as in the picture. Add a smearing of chutney and serve, with a glass of red wine.

ingredients

for the bread

150ml water
225g white bread flour
1 tsp salt
2tsp dried yeast

1 round camembert
2 cloves garlic, peeled

chutney, to serve

Moroccan Hummus

If you live in the Britain chances are you will probably have a wide range or hummus' available easily, and thus have probably never even considered making your own. Yes I appreciate that for many of you making something so easy to purchase might seem slightly pointless but firstly the hummus that you buy isn't nearly as good as when you make it, and secondly all the ingredients used here are non-perishable and thus you can always have the necessary ingredients in your pantry should you ever desire hummus even at the most inconvenient of times.

Start by placing your chickpeas in a food processor, I use a small processor that attaches to a stick blender though should you wish to double up or even triple up the recipe you can, of course, use a standalone food processor. Add two cloves of garlic and a large slug of olive oil and process until smooth, you may need to scrape down the sides of the processor with a spatula, season to taste with sea salt flakes and process again, the texture may be too thick for your liking, you can thin it slightly with some of the liquid drained from the can of chick peas. Add a heaped teaspoon of ground turmeric and process again, and serve.

ingredients

1 small can chick peas
2 cloves garlic
olive oil
sea salt flakes
2 tsp turmeric