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Field Day Poundcake
Jennifer Steinhauer, Denise Moseley
1697 ratings with an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars
1,697
1 hour and 45 minutes
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Place apricots in small saucepan and add water just to cover. Bring to full boil and immediately remove from heat. Mix in capers, mustard and olive oil. Pulse in blender to chunky consistency; set aside.
Spread one side of each bread slice evenly (to the edges) with ½ tablespoon butter. With buttered sides down, top four slices with 2 tablespoons of apricot mixture, handful of arugula and equal portions of cheese. Top with remaining slices, buttered side up.
Place large skillet over high heat, and melt remaining 1 tablespoon butter. Reduce heat to low and add sandwiches. Cook until browned and crisp on both sides, about 2 minutes a side. Transfer to a platter lined with paper towels, and sprinkle each with a pinch of fleur de sel. Cut in half and serve.
Sounds like an interesting recipe and worth a try. When in season fresh apricots could be an alternative. I prefer capers packed under salt rather than in brine, whichever you use make sure they are well rinsed to get rid of the salt or brine. Also go easy on the salt, both the mustard and capers tend to be a bit salty, and use unsalted butter, it's the only butter I use and it is the preferred butter in Italy. Buon appetito
To Chef Pace— Fresh is not always the best choice. Dried apricots have a sweet tart/tang that is missing in fresh apricots. Fresh apricots may also add too much moisture to a sandwich.
I made this with fancy Taleggio, raisin pecan bread and the wonderful apricot spread. And it was good, very rich but maybe just a little bland. The second time, I made it with sharp cheddar cheese, French bread, and the spread. I know that's a different recipe but it was great and I think I prefer it this way.
Never mind. I put it under the broiler for 3 minutes, & it was a no good, very shoddy idea. The cheese sort of thins out & goozes everywhere in a not sexy way. HOWEVER, rough chopping the apricots along with the mustard & whole, intact capers was indeed more effective. My suggestion is to leave the taleggio out for 20 minutes so it's soft like a brie, & make a killer (cold) turkey club with apricots, mustard, & capers. Word.
Am eating this now, and I'm finding it a bit too rich and greasy. The apricot chutney is yummy but not sharp enough to counterbalance the taleggio. Maybe as Chris W suggested, a sharp cheddar would be better. Maybe add some white wine vinegar to the chutney? Or add some pickled red onion to the sandwich? Also, extra salt on top not needed.
The spread and cheese were delicious on country bread but next time I will add a thin slice of prosciutto to each sandwich!
Like the melted Taleggio but the apricot spread turned out too sweet - would have needed more caper, more mustard, maybe some vinegar, and fewer apricots.
The best thing about this recipe? The spread. The second time I made this, I drained the rehydrated fruit, then manually minced the fruit and capers and added the mustard. Much better texture. I omitted buttering the bread the second time and dry toasted the sandwhich in the pan. The flavor of the other components were more pronounced without the added fat. I hadn't purchased taleggio before. At $29.99/pound at my Italian market it wasn't worth the price. Is that a typical price?
This was delicious, especially the apricot spread/mixture, which I will be making again (I think it would be delicious on ham sandwiches, pork chops, grilled lamb or chicken, etc.) The only change I'm likely to make is that instead of pulsing the Dijon mustard in, I'll pulse the apricots and capers first, and then add coarse-grain Dijon mustard after. I like the flavor the mustard adds, but pulsing in the smooth style mustard changes the color of the spread to kind of a dull color.
Few things I loathe more than dried apricots, but I love the thought of another drive fruit...maybe peaches...
I want to try this but cannot find raisin bread! It's nothing but cinnamon raisin and that drives me nuts. I love savory sandwiches on raisin bread, like roast beef.
To Chef Pace— Fresh is not always the best choice. Dried apricots have a sweet tart/tang that is missing in fresh apricots. Fresh apricots may also add too much moisture to a sandwich.
What is flour de sen, please?
Fleur de sel is sea salt; which is large and flaky compared to table salt or kosher salt.
Fleur de sel is sea salt. (“Flower of the sea”). Crystals are flaky.
Sorry, I mistranslated. It’s literally “salt flower”. Still, the designation reflects the flaky crystals.
I made this with fancy Taleggio, raisin pecan bread and the wonderful apricot spread. And it was good, very rich but maybe just a little bland. The second time, I made it with sharp cheddar cheese, French bread, and the spread. I know that's a different recipe but it was great and I think I prefer it this way.
I cheated & paired this with brioche, so you may blame my tackiness. Blame society. Whatever you please. However - & maybe this was due to the thickness of my bread - but the taleggio melted, yet it also remained cold/sad. I think your best bet is toast the bread some, then add the butter & broil the cheese some in the oven/let the powers both giveth & taketh away. I'd even forgo the chunky spread contraption for cut dried apricots, capers, & a schmear of mustard.
Never mind. I put it under the broiler for 3 minutes, & it was a no good, very shoddy idea. The cheese sort of thins out & goozes everywhere in a not sexy way. HOWEVER, rough chopping the apricots along with the mustard & whole, intact capers was indeed more effective. My suggestion is to leave the taleggio out for 20 minutes so it's soft like a brie, & make a killer (cold) turkey club with apricots, mustard, & capers. Word.
Very tasty! I used blueberry bread and made my sandwich with taleggio, hubby's with mozzarella. I could hardly tell the difference, but he refused to try mine. I only had 10 dried apricots, which was fine for the two of us, but next time I'll pour off a bit of the water before adding the capers and mustard. And I used a 50-50 mix of arugula and baby spinach. We will be having this again.
Sounds like an interesting recipe and worth a try. When in season fresh apricots could be an alternative. I prefer capers packed under salt rather than in brine, whichever you use make sure they are well rinsed to get rid of the salt or brine. Also go easy on the salt, both the mustard and capers tend to be a bit salty, and use unsalted butter, it's the only butter I use and it is the preferred butter in Italy. Buon appetito
When I read the words, grilled taleggio, my heart skipped a beat how about mango or white peach slices instead of apricots.glad to see dojo mustard in there. I'm making it tomorrow after I go to the store with the really great taleggio.
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