Getting into the Spirit- Dorie Style

This year I decided to bake something completely different for some of my friends. No cookies, no lemon curd squares, no brownies, bars, or cakes.  No, this year I chose Savory Cheese and Chive Bread straight out of my best loved copy of Around My French Table, page 34.  (See how best-loved it is in the above photo. It's totally falling apart!)

I'm not sure if my fellow Doristas have made this recipe for our French Fridays with Dorie group or not, but I highly recommend it.

Not having received reviews from my gifted recipients yet, I included myself on the gifting and made an extra loaf so I could blog about it.  Every one of my in-residence tasters loved it.

I made the recipe as stated, but the cool thing is that Dorie lists multitudinous ways this recipe can be tweeked according to taste and ingredient availability.  I used the basics as listed: fresh ground white pepper, Gruyere cheese and fresh chives snipped from my garden. Plus I included the optional toasted walnuts.

Dorie lists, under Bonne Idee, the cheese used can be any hard cheese, or combination of cheeses you have on hand.  Likewise, the herbs can be varied including basil, or skipped entirely.  Other add-ins can include diced ham, bacon bits, other toasted chopped nuts, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, or minced shallots.  I'd like to try these, in turn, some time- they all make my mouth water.

Honestly, the most difficult thing about this recipe was snipping and washing the chives, toasting the walnuts, and grating the cheese.  I'm not whining- the results were outstanding.

Dorie suggests slicing into strips or squares and serving with s salad or wine.  Okay, she didn't really mention wine. That part was my bonne idee. She also suggests that a couple of days later it's good toasted- and she's right. This morning I had mine with my fried eggs- Fantastique!