Use Your Air Fryer to Turn a Box of Brie Into “Instant Fondue”

I’m sick of arranging things on boards. Cheese boards, charcuterie boards, and now “butter boards”—enough. I’m not sick of cheese, however, and neither are any of my holiday party guests. Instead of the same old board, I’m using my air fryer to bake brie right in the box it came in, turning it into instant fondue.

Chris Kimball is also a fan of this particular concept; he originally heard about it from chef Eric Ripert, and it couldn’t be easier. (Watch Chris make it on Instagram.)

You can bake the cheese—either camembert or brie—in a conventional oven or air fryer, the process is pretty much the same. Each method results in a box of gooey, stretchy cheese, ready for dipping crisp apples, hunks of crusty bread, blanched vegetables or roasted potatoes—all in 15 minutes or fewer, and without a fondue pot. Here’s how you make it.

Grab a box of camembert or brie at the grocery store, making sure to snag one that’s secured with staples, not glue. (The heat of the oven will melt the glue.) Remove it from the box and unwrap it, then score the top with a sharp knife, making three or four cuts in one direction, then rotating 90 degrees and making three or four more running perpendicular to the first set.

Nestle it back in the box and place a peeled garlic clove in the center. Drizzle it with a little honey, then grab your favorite jam or confit. Chris likes to use our shallot confit, but raspberry jam, cherry preserves, or any tangy fruit spread that pairs well with cheese will work. Dollop it around the garlic, then heat your oven or air fryer.

If using a conventional oven, set it to 400℉ and bake your fondue for 15 minutes. If using an air fryer, drop the temperature down to 375℉ and bake for eight to 10 minutes, until the cheese is completely melted and starts to bubble slightly through the scoring.

If you go the air fryer route, note that your confit or jam will caramelize and darken, due to its proximity to the heating element. It adds a delightful deep flavor note to shallot and onion confit, but if you don’t want your raspberry jam to brown, cover it with piece of aluminum foil.

Serve your short-order fondue immediately, with lots of crusty bread, apple slices, and roasted baby potatoes. If you’re throwing a real shindig, you can make multiple versions with a variety of jams and spreads. You can even set them on a board if you like.

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Claire Lower

Claire Lower is the Digital Editor for Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, with over a decade of experience as a food writer and recipe developer. Claire began writing about food (and drinks) during the blogging boom in the late 2000s, eventually leaving her job as a lab technician to pursue writing full-time. After freelancing for publications such as Serious Eats, Yahoo Food, xoJane and Cherry Bombe Magazine, she eventually landed at Lifehacker, where she served as the Senior Food Editor for nearly eight years. Claire lives in Portland, Oregon with a very friendly dog and very mean cat. When not in the kitchen (or at her laptop), you can find her deadlifting at the gym, fly fishing or trying to master figure drawing at her local art studio.