Chef Juliette
Allumettes
Allumettes make one demand before the tray reaches the oven: reduce the Gruyère Béchamel until it holds on a knife, so the puff paste rises into butter-gold layers instead of soaking flat.
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Croquettes de Camembert
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 2313, Croquettes de Camembert, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Small Camembert quoits with a crisp double crumb and a rich, yielding centre. Chill the flour-and-rice paste hard before shaping, because the cold is what keeps the cheese inside the crust.
Appetizers & Snacks
French
Dinner Party
Make Ahead
Comfort Food
35 min
Active Time
25 min cook•3 hr total
Yield4 servings (8 croquettes)
Croquettes de Camembert (Camembert croquettes) teach the first law of filled frying: the crust can protect only what the cold has already made firm. The centre is a cooked paste of Normandy cheese, flour, crème de riz, milk, and butter, not a bare piece of cheese. Chilled hard and panée à l’anglaise (egg-coated and breadcrumbed) twice, each quoit fries into a bronze shell around a rich, yielding middle.
The original kitchen assumed a brigade-sized batch, crème de riz waiting in the dry store, trays passing through a cold room, and a fryer held ready by another pair of hands. At home, half the written proportions make eight generous croquettes. Superfine white rice flour is the honest equivalent of the old rice cream, a shallow tray and refrigerator replace the cold room, and a heavy pot with a thermometer replaces the station fryer. Only the scale and equipment have changed; the full measure of butter, the cooked paste, the quoit shape, and the double coating stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.
The brigade logistics were scaffolding. Cooking the paste until it leaves the pan clean, cooling it until rigid, and sealing every surface beneath two coats are the dish itself. Before you heat the oil, give the paste its full cold rest. That is the one step that decides everything.
Camembert belongs to Normandy’s Pays d’Auge and takes its name from the village of Camembert in Orne, where the soft, bloomy-rinded cheese became a defining part of the local dairy table. Croquettes traveled between bourgeois households and grand kitchens as a disciplined way to turn a rich paste into neat portions protected by an egg-and-crumb casing. This canonical version is sometimes mistaken for cheese breaded directly, but its flour-and-rice-cream base is essential: it gives ripe Camembert enough structure to be moulded into quoits and fried without surrendering to the fat.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
plain flour
Quantity
3 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons (55 ml / 28 g)
crème de riz (rice cream; superfine white rice flour)
Quantity
3 tablespoons (45 ml / 28 g)
whole milk
Quantity
⅓ cup plus 1 tablespoon (95 ml / 98 g)
cold
cleaned Camembert
Quantity
about 2 cups diced (225 g / 8 oz)
rind trimmed; weigh after trimming
unsalted butter
Quantity
5 tablespoons (75 ml / 70 g)
diced
fine sea salt
Quantity
¼ teaspoon (1.25 ml / 1.5 g)
cayenne
Quantity
⅛ teaspoon (0.6 ml / 0.25 g)
freshly grated nutmeg
Quantity
⅛ teaspoon (0.6 ml / 0.25 g)
plain flour for dredging
Quantity
⅓ cup (80 ml / 40 g)
Anglaise (for Egg-and-bread-crumbing)
Quantity
½ cup (120 ml / 120 g) Anglaise (for Egg-and-bread-crumbing) (No. 174)
chilled and whisked smooth
fine dry white breadcrumbs
Quantity
1½ cups (360 ml / 150 g)
neutral frying oil, such as sunflower or peanut oil
Quantity
6 cups (1.5 L / 1.38 kg), or enough for a 5 cm depth
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| plain flour | 3 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons (55 ml / 28 g) |
| crème de riz (rice cream; superfine white rice flour) | 3 tablespoons (45 ml / 28 g) |
| whole milkcold | ⅓ cup plus 1 tablespoon (95 ml / 98 g) |
| cleaned Camembertrind trimmed; weigh after trimming | about 2 cups diced (225 g / 8 oz) |
| unsalted butterdiced | 5 tablespoons (75 ml / 70 g) |
| fine sea salt | ¼ teaspoon (1.25 ml / 1.5 g) |
| cayenne | ⅛ teaspoon (0.6 ml / 0.25 g) |
| freshly grated nutmeg | ⅛ teaspoon (0.6 ml / 0.25 g) |
| plain flour for dredging | ⅓ cup (80 ml / 40 g) |
| Anglaise (for Egg-and-bread-crumbing)chilled and whisked smooth | ½ cup (120 ml / 120 g) Anglaise (for Egg-and-bread-crumbing) (No. 174) |
| fine dry white breadcrumbs | 1½ cups (360 ml / 150 g) |
| neutral frying oil, such as sunflower or peanut oil | 6 cups (1.5 L / 1.38 kg), or enough for a 5 cm depth |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy 1.5 to 2 litre saucepan
- •Firm heatproof spatula
- •Shallow quarter-sheet tray or large plate
- •Three shallow coating dishes
- •Deep, heavy 3 litre pot
- •Clip-on frying thermometer
- •Wire rack set over a tray
- •Slotted spoon or frying spider
Instructions
- 1
Prepare the cheese
Trim the rind from the Camembert, then weigh 225 g of the cleaned cheese and cut it into small dice. Line a shallow tray or plate with baking parchment. Have the butter, salt, cayenne, and nutmeg measured before the pan goes onto the heat; once the paste begins thickening, it needs your uninterrupted attention.
A 250 g wheel usually leaves close to the required weight after trimming. Weigh the cheese after the rind comes off, because the book’s proportion is based on cleaned Camembert. - 2
Cook the paste
Whisk the 28 g plain flour and the crème de riz with the cold milk in a heavy saucepan until perfectly smooth. Add the diced Camembert, butter, salt, cayenne, and nutmeg, then set the pan over medium-low heat. Stir constantly with a firm spatula, scraping the floor and corners, until the cheese and butter melt into the starches and the mixture becomes a thick, glossy paste that pulls from the sides and leaves a clean trail across the pan floor, about 8 to 12 minutes. If butter begins pooling, take the pan off the heat and beat vigorously until it draws back into the paste, then return to gentler heat. Ça se rattrape. Do not add more flour, because the written ratio already supplies all the structure required.
- 3
Chill until rigid
Scrape the hot paste onto the lined tray and spread it into an even layer about 1.5 cm thick. Press a second sheet of parchment directly against the surface so no skin forms. Let it lose its fierce heat for 15 minutes, then refrigerate for at least 2 hours, until cold and genuinely firm rather than merely cool. If a fingertip leaves a deep impression, give it longer. Flour cannot compensate for warm cheese paste.
- 4
Mould small quoits
Divide the cold paste into 8 equal portions, about 55 g each. With hands lightly dusted in the dredging flour, roll each portion into a ball, flatten it into a round about 6 cm across and 1.5 cm thick, then open a neat 1.5 cm hole through the centre to make a small quoit. Smooth any cracks now. If the paste slumps, sticks heavily, or refuses to hold the hole, return every portion to the refrigerator for 20 to 30 minutes. Ça se rattrape, but only with cold, not with a burial of extra flour.
- 5
Coat twice
Arrange the dredging flour, the Anglaise (for Egg-and-bread-crumbing) (No. 174), and the breadcrumbs in three shallow dishes. Roll each quoit lightly in flour and shake off every loose patch. Dip it completely in the Anglaise (for Egg-and-bread-crumbing) (No. 174), paying attention to the centre hole, then press it into the breadcrumbs. Dip it a second time in the Anglaise (for Egg-and-bread-crumbing) (No. 174) and coat it again with breadcrumbs. The second coat is not brigade fuss; it is the resisting crust that keeps the cheese paste inside. Patch any bare place with more Anglaise and crumbs, then chill the coated croquettes for 20 minutes.
Use fine, dry white breadcrumbs rather than coarse panko. Fine crumbs make a close shell with fewer gaps through which the softened filling can escape. - 6
Fry at high heat
Pour the oil into a deep, heavy pot no more than halfway full and heat it to 180°C. Lower in two croquettes at a time and fry until evenly deep gold, about 2 to 3 minutes, turning once if needed. Let the oil return to 180°C between batches; cooler fat delays the setting of the crust and invites leaks. If the first croquette releases a thread of filling, stop and lift it out, chill the remaining croquettes for another 20 minutes, and patch any visible crack with the reserved Anglaise (for Egg-and-bread-crumbing) (No. 174) and breadcrumbs before continuing.
- 7
Drain and serve
Lift the croquettes onto a wire rack and leave them for 2 minutes, just long enough for excess oil to fall away and the crust to settle. Serve them bare on a warm platter while the shell remains crisp and the Camembert centre is soft. They need no sauce and no decorative greenery. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Choose a ripe Camembert that yields gently under a finger but does not smell sharply of ammonia. A cheese already collapsing in its box brings too much free moisture and makes the paste harder to set.
- •The source’s rice cream is crème de riz, a finely milled white rice flour used as a thickener. It is not dairy cream and not a sweetened breakfast cereal. Ordinary fine white rice flour is its honest home-kitchen equivalent.
- •Keep the quoit shape. The centre opening gives more crisp crust against the rich filling and shortens the time the croquette must spend in the oil.
- •A dry Normandy cider is the proper companion: cold, brisk, and just bitter enough to clear the butter and Camembert from the palate.
Advance Preparation
- •The cooked paste can be spread, covered, and refrigerated up to 2 days before shaping. Its texture improves with a full overnight rest.
- •The croquettes can be shaped and double-coated up to 24 hours before frying. Keep them in one layer, covered and thoroughly cold.
- •Do not fry them early for a dinner party. Prepare everything ahead, then fry just before serving; reheating softens the double crust that the method works so carefully to build.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 150g)
Calories
610 calories
Total Fat
48 g
Saturated Fat
21 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
25 g
Cholesterol
110 mg
Sodium
825 mg
Total Carbohydrates
28 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
17 g
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