Did she say toast for dessert?

January’s Food and Wine Magazine came through once again. I found a gem located five pages after the Nordic Winter Vegetable Soup recipe. There weren’t any photos, but based on the description, I knew I needed to recreate New York City chef April Bloomfield’s Toasts with Ricotta and Warm Balsamic-Caramel Apples. The Food and Wine article shared that April will be publishing her memoir and cookbook, tentatively titled A Girl and Her Pig, in 2012. The book will feature recipes from her three restaurants – including The Spotted Pig.

It was back to the grocery store for me. I picked up items I didn’t have on hand and got my ingredients ready for the photo shoot.

I used a more rustic bread than was suggested and I substituted white almonds in sea salt (I already had them) for Marcona almonds. I could have sautéed my white almonds in a little oil, but didn’t think it was necessary.

Link to the recipe and ingredients on the Food and Wine website.

The recipe suggested using a white bakery bread or Pain de mie – I went with a Pugliese bread, my local store has a great artisan bread selection and it was fresh out of the oven. I don’t know about you, but I can’t ever walk by fresh bread without adding some to my shopping basket or cart.

I sliced my bread and melted my butter in the microwave.

I used a rubber brush to give both sides of my bread a good coating. Once browned (it took a little longer than the recipe suggested  – 6 to 7 minutes in my oven)  – I set them aside on a plate while I prepped the apples.

I put the remaining butter in the sauté pan and cooked the apples over high heat for a good 5 minutes before I started seeing some browning around the edges.

Once more apple pieces started turning brown, I added the sugar and cooked them over moderately high heat until they caramelized. The process took just under 5 minutes. I then added my balsamic vinegar and water to the apple pan.

I simmered over low heat until the sauce became syrupy. I then used a slotted spoon to place the apple mixture onto my toasted bread pieces.

I measured out my ricotta cheese and chopped up my almonds and then added them to my apple toast pieces.

I made four of them for the photo shoot and Shhh, don’t tell anyone – I ate all four of them – one after another. They were incredible! The flavor profile pretty much rocked my world. I had some goat cheese and used it on one of the four pieces – it was also delicious, but I just loved the texture and flavor of the ricotta.

Sweet and savory, now that’s my kind of dessert. Food and Wine suggested a frizzante Moscato d’Asti as a good pairing – I happened to have a bottle of Moscato in the fridge, so I was good to go.