Baked Cheese with Hot Honey

“This recipe for baked cheese is so simple and so perfect,” Christine Flynn writes in her new cookbook, A Generous Meal. You know how we feel about fromage, so yeah, we happen to agree. It’s simple yet satisfying, kitschy yet elegant and comes together in less than 30 minutes.

“There is nothing extra here,” she explains. “You will find only hot, oozy—and just a touch boozy—cheese. In a nod to the 1970s-era kitsch within which this dish was likely conceived, I like to serve it in the little wooden box the cheese comes in.”

Flynn recommends Époisses here, which is a particularly pungent, washed-rind, cows-milk cheese you can find at most specialty cheese shops, but a decent-quality Camembert or Brie will be fine as well. “Baked cheese is not here to be fancy,” she continues, “but it will steal the show, and it will, without a doubt, be replicated by all your friends in due course because, honestly, what’s not to love?”

_{Excerpted from A Generous Meal by Christine Flynn. Copyright © 2023 Christine Flynn. Photographs by Suech and Beck. Published by Penguin, an imprint of Penguin Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.}

Baked Brie with Figs, Pistachios and Orange

One 8-ounce (225g) wheel Époisses, Camembert or Brie cheese

1 garlic clove

2 tablespoons (30mL) dry white wine

2 tablespoons (30mL) hot honey

Charred bread and/or crackers, to serve

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F.

2. Remove the cheese from its round wooden box. Wrap the entire box in aluminum foil. Return the cheese to the foil-wrapped box and place it on a rimmed baking sheet.

4. Using a paring knife, poke a small hole in the top of the cheese and push in the garlic clove. Drizzle the wine into the hole and over the top of the cheese. Bake until hot and bubbly, 15 to 20 minutes.

5. Drizzle the cheese with the hot honey and serve immediately with charred bread and/or crackers. It’s unlikely you will have any leftovers—we’re talking hot cheese here, after all—but you can store any remaining cheese in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.