The odds and ends of brie, Comté and blue cheese from the cheese board, on good bread with pear, walnuts and a drizzle of honey: eight minutes under the broiler, and dinner is done.
The Christmas cheese board always leaves a collection of little ends: a wedge of brie, a heel of Comté, a bit of blue. Together, on a slice of country bread with pear and walnuts, they make the best toasts of winter.
The golden rule: mix the families. A hard cheese that browns, a soft cheese that oozes, a blue that adds bite: it's the blend that makes the flavor. The broiler gets them bubbling in minutes without drying out the bread.
Good to know · Raw-milk cheeses are not recommended for pregnant women and young children unless thoroughly cooked, until bubbling. Remove the rinds and serve them well-broiled toasts, or choose pasteurized-milk cheeses.
Set the oven rack at the top, about 10 cm from the heating element, and turn the broiler (grill) on to 230 °C (450 °F). Line the tray with baking paper.
Take the cheeses out of the fridge and cut them cold: they slice better. Remove rinds that are too hard, ashed or waxed; keep the brie and camembert rinds, which melt beautifully. Slice the hard and soft cheeses 3 to 4 mm thick, crumble the blue.
Toast the walnut halves for 3 minutes in the dry small pan, stirring, until fragrant. Let them cool slightly, then roughly chop them.
Lightly brush one side of each slice with olive oil and lay them on the tray, oiled side up. Slide under the broiler for 2 minutes, until just golden. Turn them over: the toasted side is the one you'll top.
Quarter the pear, core it and cut it into thin slices. Lay them on the bread (or spread with fig jam). Cover with cheese right to the edges, mixing the families on each toast, and add a grind of pepper.
Put the tray back under the broiler for 4 to 6 minutes, and don't walk away: the broiler works very fast. The toasts are ready when the cheese bubbles and browns in places.
While they broil, whisk the mustard, vinegar, salt and oil in the salad bowl and add the greens. Take the toasts out, scatter with walnuts and thyme, add a thin drizzle of honey and serve right away with the salad.
Check off every step to celebrate.
The toasts are best eaten right away, the bread softens as it cools. The leftover cheeses keep 1 to 2 weeks in the fridge, wrapped separately in parchment paper then in a box, so they breathe without drying out. Slice and prep everything in the afternoon, and only top the bread right before it goes in.
Hard cheeses (Comté, Beaufort, tomme, raclette) and soft bloomy-rind cheeses (brie, camembert) melt and brown very well. Blues and goat cheeses mix in with the others, in small amounts, for bite.
Yes, in a regular oven at 220 °C (425 °F), fan if you have it: allow 8 to 10 minutes instead of 4 to 6, on the top rack.
Only rinds you don't eat or that are too hard: wax, ash, Comté rind. The bloomy rind of brie or camembert stays on, it melts with the rest.
Add this recipe to your meal, then come back for appetizers, a drink, cookies with coffee: Popotam brings them together, with the shopping for your whole table and the timeline up to dessert. Free, no account.
