French Baguette Bread Hors d’oeuvres Recipes by Ruth Paget
One of the reasons the French seem so adamant about eating their white bread baguettes is that they can easily turn them into rounds for toast, topping, and microwaving into hors d’oeuvres or dinners depending on how many hors d’oeuvres are eaten.
Baguettes from a bakery are pretty reasonably price, but if you make your own even for weekend consumption on a regular basis, the savings can be tremendous without sparing flavor or texture. If you are interested in seeing how baguettes can be made at home, I have provided the following link to my daughter Florence Paget’s forays in the kitchen. The recipe makes 2 to 3 baguettes:
Traditional French Baguette Recipe with Photos and Videos
The seven recipes below require you to cut 12 round slices from one baguette that are about ½-inch wide. Then, the baguette slices are grilled or toasted to make a solid base for your hors d’oeuvres.
*Baguette slice with melted gruyère cheese rectangle sprinkled with crushed Calabrian red peppercorns. It takes about 45 seconds to 1 minute to melt the cheese in the microwave. You can butter the toast first, if you would like.
*Baguette slice with melted goat cheese slice studded with halves of black Niçoise olive. It takes about 1 minute to microwave to melt goat cheese. You can drizzle on olive oil on the toast first, if you would like.
*Baguette slice with shrimp-mayonnaise spread made with Japanese mayonnaise or homemade mayonnaise (1/2 cup) and ¾ to 1 cup cooked shrimp without their shells. Place the mayonnaise and shrimp in a blender and mix to a paste. Spread shrimp paste on baguette rounds and sprinkle with Calabrian crushed red pepper.
*Baguette slice spread with sour cream with a slice of smoked salmon on top and garnished wit dill. Whipped cream cheese can also be used as a spread.
*Baguette slice spread with tapenade – a mixture of pitted black olives, capers, crushed garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, and parsley. My family does not like tapenade, but this spread is a popular one and is often served with melted goat cheese on top.
*Baguette slice with a cream cheese and walnut spread that is made by blending the two main ingredients in a blender. Other nuts can also be used in a spread this way.
*Baguette slice with a cream cheese and black olive spread that is made by blending the two main ingredients in a blender.
Suggested Beverages: San Pellegrino Sparkling Water, white wines like pinot grigio (pinot gris), sauvignon blanc, and dry Riesling, hard cider like Henry Hot Spurs, and lager beers like Peroni Nastro Azzuro (Official sponsor of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics).
Suggested Side Salads:
Grated carrot salad, lentil salad, and organic greens
Bon Appétit!
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of Teff: The Global Flour Game
