Ciabatta French Toast with Warm Apple Maple Syrup

This recipe for Ciabatta French Toast with Warm Apple Maple Syrup has been silently taunting me for a few months.  First of all, anything with McIntosh apples has me at hello.    Second, these are stuffed with Gruyère cheese, a pale yellow cheese similar in flavor to Swiss, so the combination of the savory and sweet flavors in the dish peaks my interest.  Slices of ciabatta bread are stuffed with the cheese, soaked in an egg and buttermilk custard seasoned with nutmeg and black pepper and cooked in a skillet until golden brown.  The French toast is served with a thickened syrup cooked of apples and shallots.  There is something very homey, almost holiday-ish about this recipe.  The combination of the cooked shallots, apple and ciabatta reminds me slightly of Thanksgiving stuffing (not that it tastes that way, it just reminds me of it!)  This is not your mom’s French toast which probably has puddles of melted butter and maple syrup (albeit delicious!) but insteads appeals to a more savory palette.   Looking for something different for brunch?  Look no more!

 

The ingredients:

Wisk together apple cider and cornstarch in a bowl and set aside.

Melt butter in a skillet and add shallots, cooking until soft. 

 

Add in the apple cider/cornstarch mixture, apples and maple syrup to the shallots.  Bring to a boil and reduce heat, cooking until apples are soft.  Set aside to cool.

Cut a deep slit into the ciabatta bread and stuff with Gruyère cheese.  (I used individual ciabatta rolls because that was what my grocery store bakery carried.)

In a shallow dish, combine milk, buttermilk, nutmeg, egg, egg white, salt, and pepper.  Place cheese-stuffed ciabatta slice (one at a time) into the mix until coated on both sides.  (If using ciabatta rolls like I did, slice a thin layer off the top and bottom of each roll first to expose the inside of the bread for better coating.)

Melt butter in a skillet and add two ciabatta slices at a time, cooking until golden brown.  Repeat for the other two slices.

Serve french toast with apple/shallot maple syrup and top with toasted pecans.

 

Additions:  None

Omissions:  None

Substitutions:

  • Shredded Gruyère for slices
  • Ciabatta rolls for bread

Overall Rating:  Love It

Source:  Cooking Light Magazine

 

Pomegranate Vodka Punch

I whipped this cocktail together with some ingredients I already had on hand so…ta-da!  My own recipe!  At least as much as a cocktail can be your own recipe.  With cranberry and vodka in mind, I mixed together pomegranate juice, cake-flavored vodka and a splash of diet lemon-lime soda to come up with this cocktail that I’m calling Pomegranate Vodka Punch.  Because pomegranate juice can be pretty tart, the soda adds a much needed sweetness that makes this cocktail go down a little too easy.  If you try this, let me know what you think!

Pomegranate Vodka Punch (makes 2 servings):

  • 2 oz. cake-flavored vodka (like Pinnacle) or regular vodka
  • 3 oz. pomegranate juice
  • Splash of lemon-lime soda (diet or regular)

Mix together juice and vodka in a shaker or bowl.  Pour into a glass with ice and top off with a splash or two of lemon-lime soda.

The ingredients:

Overall Rating:  Love It

Source:  ME!! 🙂

Butternut Squash, Caramelized Onion, and Spinach Lasagna

I have a very vivid memory of the last time I ate butternut squash: It was March 2003 and I was in a restaurant in the MGM Grand in Las Vegas where I ate butternut squash soup while President Bush declared war on Iraq on a nearby television.  I’ll never forget it.  It was the first time I’d had butternut squash and may be why it’s been so long since I’ve tried it again.  I was a vegetarian then and although I liked the soup, I remember thinking it was very rich and I couldn’t finish it.  This recipe for Butternut Squash, Caramelized Onion, and Spinach Lasagna is the first time I’ve ever cooked anything with butternut squash before.  If you aren’t sure how to peel or cut a butternut squash, check out this website which helped me.  The butternut squash is roasted in the oven with garlic until soft and sweet.  Meanwhile, onions are slowly caramelized and spinach is wilted in a pan on the stove.  These soft veggies are all piled between layers of no-boil lasagna noodles (one less step!) and a creamy, cheesy bechemel sauce.  This vegetarian lasagna takes a little preparation but if you like a savory dish with a hint of sweetness, you’ll probably like this.

The ingredients (ignore the diced tomatoes, my mistake!):

Peel and chop the butternut squash.  Add to a baking sheet with sage and garlic (leave garlic whole, not chopped like I did) and roast in the oven for half an hour at 425°F.  Once mixture has cooled slightly, pour into a bowl and mash with a fork.

While squash roasts, sauté the onions in oil for a few minutes.  Lower the heat and cook for 20 minutes until soft and caramelized.  Set aside in a bowl.

In the same pan used to cook the onions, add water and spinach and cover until spinach is wilted.  Add spinach to bowl with onions.

In a separate saucepan, bring milk, thyme sprig and bay leaf to a boil.  Set aside for 10 minutes.

Discard the thyme sprig and bay leaf and return the pan to heat.  In a small bowl, combine remaining milk and flour.  Add mixture to the saucepan and bring to a boil.

Once bechemel is thickened, add salt, cheese, cayenne pepper, and nutmeg.

In a baking dish, layer bechemel sauce, lasagna noodles, and veggies (in that order) and repeat, ending with noodles. 

Cover last layer of noodles with remaining bechemel sauce and bake at 425° for 30 minutes.  Sprinkle remaining cheese over top of lasagna and broil until golden brown.

Additions: 

  • Parmesan cheese on top

Omissions:  None

Substitutions:

  • Italian four-cheese for fontina (because I had it on hand)

Overall Rating:  Like It

Source:  Cooking Light Magazine

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