Baked Camembert With Wine, Mustard and Honey and a Cheese Plate Review

I was sent a set of cheese plates to review by Culture Vulture Direct, a UK-based company that sells gifts and homewares inspired by traditional crafts and artisans around the world. They have a great tableware section and you can see the set of four gourmet cheese plates they sent (RRP £19.99). The plates are in an attractive presentation box so would make a nice gift.

Each one bears the name and depiction of a different cheese; the plates are what I would call quite rustic, French farmhouse in style, and the four cheeses depicted are all French. These are good quality bone china but helpfully both dishwasher and microwave save.

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I decided to test them out by, well, eating some cheese! I have made a baked camembert before, where I baked the cheese in the wooden box it came in and didn't do anything to it, though I did bake my own bread sticks to dip into it. This time I decided to see if I could find anything more interesting to do with the cheese and found this recipe on the BBC Food website for a baked camembert with garlic, mustard and honey - but discovered at the last minute that I had run out of garlic. Regular readers will know I'm not very good at making sure I have the correct ingredients in advance! Still, I followed the rest of the recipe and this still turned out really well.

I have a ceramic camembert baker I was given a year or two ago which consists of a pot with a lid that you put the cheese in and put in the oven, and a wooden knife to go with it. I preheated the oven and placed the cheese in it. Cut a cross in the top of the cheese.

In a small bowl mix 1 tbsp honey, 2 tbsp white wine and 1 tsp wholegrain  mustard then pour over the cheese.

Bake in the preheated oven for ten minutes. I put the cheese still in the pot on the camembert cheese plate from the set to serve. It was just the right size and looks really good.

We ate this simply with some fresh bread dipped in. When I have baked camembert I always think it needs something either sharp or sweet to cut through the richness of the cheese - a quince jelly perhaps - so this dressing ticks both the sharp and sweet boxes. I highly recommend it!

Thanks to Culture Vulture Direct for sending the cheese plates to review. I was not required to make positive comments and all opinions are my own.

I am sending this to Speedy Suppers, the blog challenge hosted by Sarah at Maison Cupcake, as the theme this month is cheese.