Smoked Planked Camembert with Jalapeños and Pepper Jelly
This simple smoked Camembert delivers big flavors (and great looks) by combining two distinctly American live-fire cooking techniques: planking and smoking. The former imparts the aromatic taste of charred cedar, the latter endows the cheese with complex smoke flavors undreamed of by French cheesemakers.
Recipe Notes
- Yield: Serves 4
- Method: Smoke-roasting
- Equipment: Hardwood of your choice—enough for 10 minutes of smoking on a grill or 30 to 45 minutes in a smoker, 1 cedar plank or other wood plank, such as hickory, oak, or alder, preferably 6 inches square, available at grill shops and most supermarkets. I’m partial to my Best of Barbecue brand, available at amazon.com. Note: You can also buy cedar boards at a lumberyard, but make sure they’re untreated.
Ingredients
- 1 Camembert or small Brie cheese (8 ounces)
- 3 tablespoons pepper jelly, tomato jam, or apricot jam
- 1 large jalapeño pepper, stemmed and thinly sliced crosswise
- Grilled or toasted baguette slices or favorite crackers, for serving.
Recipe Steps
1: Set up your grill for smoke-roasting (indirect grilling, see page 262) and preheat to medium-high (400°F).
2: If you’re charring the plank (this step is optional, but it gives you a lot more flavor), place it directly over the fire and grill until singed on both sides, 1 to 2 minutes per side. Set aside and let cool.
3: Place the cheese in the center of the plank. Spread the top with pepper jelly using the back of a spoon. Shingle the jalapeño slices on top so they overlap in a decorative pattern.
4: Place the plank on the grill away from the heat and toss the wood chips or chunks on the coals. Smoke-roast the cheese until the sides are soft and beginning to bulge, 6 to 10 minutes.
5: Serve the cheese on the plank, hot off the grill, with a basket of grilled baguette slices or your favorite crackers.
Recipe Tips
WHAT ELSE: I like to smoke-roast the cheese at a high temperature (400°F), but you can also smoke it low and slow at 250°F.
