Gruyère and Black Truffle Toasties
With winter now upon us and as we prepare to head down to Manjimup, the southern hemisphere’s Black Truffle Capital, for the first of our “Discover Southern Forests Black Truffle Hunt, Food & Wine Producers Experience”, I wanted to share with you this extremely easy recipe for this incredibly sought-after subterranean fungus!
I bought my first truffle of the season last weekend from Stonebarn, the truffière (truffle lodge) that we will be staying at and truffle hunting with our group down south. They have an office and retail space in North Perth* where you can go to purchase fresh truffle directly from them. As it is still a little early in the season, they were able to provide me with a 64g second grade truffle which we played with over the weekend in a variety of different ways such as Mushroom & Truffle Croquetas; in a risotto; on soft boiled eggs and in these decadent tiny toasties, which are perfect as a pre-dinner canapé served with a glass of French Champagne.
Sure it may be a little decadent but a little goes a long way, so the 20 or so grams of black truffle used in the recipe would set you back about $60. Remember that the mystique of the truffle is more about their intoxicatingly rich earthy aroma rather its actual flavour, and there is no substitute. In saying that, run as far away as you can from truffle oils or anything that indicates truffle essence is added as they are all poor imitations for the real black truffle experience, with most of them not having any truffle come close to them. If you think that you don’t like truffles, you can probably put it down to a bad truffle oil experience!
Get funky! Go the real deal and give it another chance!
(Makes 12 mini-toasties)
1 x good quality baguette
80g Gruyère cheese, thinly sliced
10-20g fresh black truffle, sliced paper thin (use a mandolin or truffle slicer)
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- Preheat your oven to 200C.
- Slice baguette into 24 x 1cm thick even slices. Place 12 slices onto a baking paper-lined baking tray.
- Cover each piece of bread with cheese, then top with a slice or two of sliced truffle.
- Cover each with remaining slices of bread then brush the top and bottom of the prepared toasties with extra virgin olive oil.
- If you have any remaining cheese, shred the cheese and scatter between the prepared toasties. They’ll get nice and crispy and will cling to each of the toasties on the baking tray once cooked.
- Bake for 10 minutes until the tops have gone golden brown and the cheese has started to melt. Remove from the oven and serve immediately with a glass of French Champagne!
Bon appetit!
*Stonebarn Truffles
54A Angove Street
North Perth WA 6006
Int +61 (0) 424 054 344
*Stonebarn have indicated that they do not use synthetic chemical additives in their truffle oil, and only use natural flavours as well as real truffle.