Croquettes de Camembert

Appetizer, Appetizers & Snacks, Snack

Croquettes de Camembert are crispy, golden-fried cheese balls with a molten, oozing centre. The outside is all crunch and crumb, the inside is pure Norman indulgence. These are great for apéro, serve them hot and watch them disappear.

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Total Time 30 minutes mins

Servings 8 Croquettes de Camembert

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Ingredients  

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• 1 camembert preferably raw milk Camembert de Normandie AOP
• 1 shallot
• 1 tbsp chives
• 1 tbsp flat-leaf parsley
• 2 eggs
• 150 gr breadcrumbs
• vegetable oil or sunflower oil, for deep frying
• salt and black pepper

Equipment

• 4 mixing bowl 1 big bowl, 3 shallow bowls (for breading station)
• spatula
• saucepan or deep fryer
• kitchen thermometer helpful but not essential
• skimmer spoon

Instructions

1. 1. Prepare the camembert

   Take the Camembert out of the fridge 30 minutes before you start, it's much easier to work with when it's not fridge-cold. Carefully slice off the white rind from all sides (don't throw it away; it's edible, just not what you want here). Cut the cheese into rough cubes and put them in a large bowl.
2. 2. Mix the filling

   Add the finely diced shallot, chives and parsley to the bowl. Season with a small pinch of salt and a good grinding of black pepper. Using a spatula, mash and fold everything together until you have a smooth, workable paste. If your Camembert is particularly ripe and runny, you might want to pop the bowl in the fridge for 10 minutes to firm things up a bit.
3. 3. Shape the croquettes

   Using your hands, roll the mixture into small balls, roughly the size of a large walnut. You should get about 8–10 from one Camembert.
4. 4. Set up your breading station

   Get three shallow bowls ready. Put the beaten eggs in one, and the breadcrumbs in the other. This is the classic French pané setup. Have a clean plate standing by for the coated croquettes.
5. 5. Bread the croquettes (twice)

   Take each Camembert ball and roll it in the eggs first, then coat it generously in breadcrumbs. Here's the key: do it all again. Back into the egg, back into the breadcrumbs. This double coating is what gives you that properly crispy shell and stops the cheese from escaping during frying.
6. 6. Fry until golden

   Heat your oil to 180°C in a heavy-bottomed pan or deep fryer. If you don't have a thermometer, drop a small cube of bread in, it should sizzle immediately and turn golden in about 30 seconds. Carefully lower 3–4 croquettes at a time into the hot oil (don't overcrowd the pan). Fry for 4–5 minutes, turning occasionally, until they're deep golden brown all over. Use a skimmed spoon to lift them out and drain on kitchen paper.
7. 7. Serve immediately

   Croquettes de Camembert wait for no one. Serve them hot, scattered over a handful of fresh salad leaves. They don't need much else, perhaps a drizzle of honey if you want to be fancy. Cut one open and watch the cheese ooze out. That's the moment.

Notes

• Cheese choice: A proper raw milk Camembert de Normandie AOP will give you the best flavour. If you can’t find one, any good-quality Camembert will work. Avoid the rubbery supermarket basics if you can
• The double breading: Don’t skip this. Single coating means cheese explosion in your oil. Not in a good way.
• Make ahead: You can bread the croquettes de camembert and freeze them for up to a month. Fry straight from frozen, adding an extra minute or two to the cooking time.
• Air fryer option: Spray generously with oil and cook at 190°C for 6–8 minutes, turning halfway. Not quite the same as deep-fried, but still pretty good.

About this recipe

The technique of breading and frying soft cheese goes back further than you’d think. The earliest known croquette recipe dates to 1691, in the court of King Louis XIV, those first versions were filled with minced meats, sweetbreads, truffles, and cheese. François Massialot’s 17th-century recipe binds meat, truffles, marrow, breadcrumbs, and cheese with egg, then breads and fries the lot in lard.

But the real story of fried Camembert-style cheese belongs to Central Europe. Fried cheese likely originated in northern Italy before spreading to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. By the end of the 19th century, impoverished Viennese families were substituting a triple-coated piece of cheese for wiener schnitzel, same technique, cheaper ingredients. These days, fried cheese is pub food across the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Austria, served in everything from mountain chalets to student canteens.

Back to France, the Camembert itself has its own story. It was 1863 when the cheese really took off, Napoleon III stopped at Surdon during the inauguration of the Paris-Granville railway, and Victor Paynel (grandson of the legendary Marie Harel) made sure the Emperor tasted his family’s cheese. Napoleon was charmed and started ordering it regularly for the Tuileries Palace. In 1890, the invention of the poplar wood box meant Camembert could finally travel properly, and the rest is history.

These croquettes de Camembert bring together two brilliant traditions: the Norman cheese that won over an emperor, and the Central European technique of triple-coating cheese and frying it until the outside shatters and the inside runs. It’s proper apéro food, though honestly, three or four of these with a green salad makes a pretty decent lunch.