I’ve been known to refer to toast as “hot, scratchy bread,” but I’m beginning to come around, ever so slightly.
The six-strand challah I’ve been making on Fridays to celebrate Shabbat is massive. My husband tends to make challah French toast with the loaf during the weekend, but I’m often staring at nearly a whole normal-sized loaf once the plates have been cleared.
I tend to go savory with my challah, making layered tartines with herbed spreads and vibrant pickled vegetables, like bright pink pickled onions, or orange carrots which we lacto-fermented this winter. But when I saw a photo on the Instagram account of Tatte, a bakery chain in Boston that I adore, all I wanted to do was eat toast.
I’ll admit, their challah toast, spread with a goat cheese mousse, homemade preserves, nuts and cut-up fruit, was a bit more than I was able to do in my own kitchen. But I did have ricotta in the house, bought for an incredibly labor-intensive manicotti. What if I took my ricotta and sweetened it with maple syrup?
A few minutes of tinkering, and I had built myself a brunch masterpiece: Toasted challah, topped with maple-syrup-sweetened ricotta, a layer of Stonewall Kitchen peach amaretto jam and finished it with toasted almond slivers I keep in the freezer.
If I had berries in the house, that would have been wonderful, and I suggest you do it if you are using a berry preserves. A touch of fresh mint would also be lovely.
I toasted my almonds in the toaster oven set to 350F for six minutes, but honestly, that was cutting it close. I’d say do them for five minutes, then watch them very carefully. Burned nuts happen in a flash, and there is nothing you can do to salvage them. If you don’t have a toaster oven, toast them in a skillet over low to medium heat for the same amount of time.
If you don’t have challah, any hearty bread will do.
Ingredients
One slice of bread, sliced ½-inch thick
One half cup of ricotta
One teaspoon maple syrup
Approximately one tablespoon of jam or preserves
One tablespoon slivered almonds
Directions
Prepare the nuts first. Using a toaster oven set to 350F, toast the nuts for five minutes. Keep a close eye on them.
In a small bowl, measure out the ricotta and maple syrup and stir vigorously to combine.
Toast your bread to your preferred level of golden brown.
Place toast on plate. Spread the sweetened ricotta on the toast, followed by a layer of jam. Finish with the toasted nuts. Add the cut-up berries if using. Enjoy!
Molly Parr lives in Florence with her husband and two young daughters. She’s been writing her food blog, Cheap Beets, since 2010. Send questions or comments to molly.parr@gmail.com.