French Fridays with Dorie: Savory cheese and chive bread. With BACON. On Wednesday.

Yes, yes, bringing up the rear in last week’s French Fridays with Dorie entry.  I am still recovering from the inner ear infection (actually it’s viral meaning lots of rest is the only thing to fix it) but slowly am getting back to normal. I have taught a couple of classes this week (I miss the boys!) and starting to emerge from the fog.  With French Fridays with Dorie posts, I generally have a lot of them written up well in advance which is the case for this and the next couple – the only thing that stopped me from posting last Friday was, err, that I had not made the dish!  I might have skipped this but for two things: 1. It looked like something that  would go down well in my quest to start eating food other than soup and baked potatoes and 2. Dorie said it would only take 15 minutes to prepare – perfect for the recovering cook.

Actually I got lucky and when Neil invited our friend Jane over for some Charcutepalooza corned beef on Sunday (sadly, I have had no appetite for the spoils of this month’s challenge :-(), I decided to put them both to work. From my chair in the kitchen, I directed the proceedings, and my two sous chefs had this in the oven in no time at all.

Dorie says this bread has a French soul and she’s right.  It totally tastes like something that might be served in small cubes with a kir for an apéritif.

I can see a lot of potential in this bread – so many different addins you could include and different cheeses and herbs.  We stuck with cheese (Asiago and Emmenthal) and chives but chose to add some of our Charcutepalooza peameal bacon – cubed, fried and drained the day before and just tossed into the mix at the last minute.  It’s a pretty bread to begin with and the bacon just adds an even prettier dimension, the pale pink against the yellow cheese with flecks of chive…

And since this was ready to eat about an hour after it was started, I say this is a winning dish.  It’s been great this week with some soup, lightly toasted, sliced thin, for dinner and just as a mid-afternoon snack. Salty and cheesy with just enough chew factor.  I’ll definitely make this again – I can see it working very well for bread cubes, like these or these…  Imagine the flavour possibilities!

Want to join in the fun? Join French Fridays with Dorie here and follow along on Twitter.

French Fridays with Dorie participants do not publish the recipes on our blogs, rather, we prefer if you purchase Around My French Table for yourselves (trust me, you definitely want this book!) which you can do here on Amazon (great price right now) or here on Amazon Canada (it’s also on special!).  Go on, treat yourself – join us in 2011!

54 thoughts on “French Fridays with Dorie: Savory cheese and chive bread. With BACON. On Wednesday.”

  1. Yes, I was chuffed to see Mardi did not call us “Le Gros Chefs”!

    Have no fear, people…posts will come on brisket and peameal bacon and things. Food has been done and photographed, just waiting for Mardi to be able to return to computerland.

    (And don’t worry, she *has* been fed these past weeks…)

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  2. Good to have you back……..I certainly missed reading your post everyday. Look after yourself and don’t overdo it,

    Take care,

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  3. I am glad you’re starting to feel better!! Better late than never, eh? Bacon certainly is a perfect addition tho this, and I think it’s at its best toasted.

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  4. I take it the fact that the word BACON was crafted as BACON and not as bacon, was to ensure Mr Neil’s full attention

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  5. maybe Mr. Neil will up and start his own food blog, what with you being laid up and only able to feebly command from your perch. while i’m sure your director duties are responsible for the splendor of those slices, the sous chefs did a right nice job putting the loaf together.

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  6. I made this bread several weeks ago for dinner with some friends…and now thinking bacon would have been a great addition. My own bacon even better!

    Looks wonderful and hope you’re feeling better soon.

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  7. Well, way to bring up the rear with a bang! Beautiful bread!!!! Hope you’re on the mend…no fun for a grown up to get an ear infection 🙁

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  8. Mardi, the loaf looks so savoury. Love the combination of homemade bacon and chives. Really, really tempting and my type of bread.

    On another note, feel better soon.

    Maybe Neil can be your permanent sous chef and sommelier.

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  9. Love the look of this, Mardi (erm, not Mardo or Mardio… I really need more sleep). Looks like it takes much longer than it actually does, which is always a win when serving it to others!

    Keep on keeping on… heal heal! xx

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  10. Your bread turned out beautifully!! I’ve been eyeing this recipe and was sure it would be a winner – nice to have such great confirmation!!

    Thinking this would be perfect during the summer to with a light cocktail…

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  11. Looks like your sous chefs did quite well with your guidance. Sadly, I may be coming in last with my FFwD post for this bread later today!

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  12. Anytime you put bacon and cheese in bread you pretty much get high marks. We had something along these lines in Provence, cheese/olive/ham, and I couldn’t stop eating it! I don’t have any right now and that is a problem.

    Jason

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  13. Oh gosh, just looking at this took me back to when I was younger and my mom would make bread like this. Looks so delicious, we must make it again!

    Reply

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