Heidi Swanson's Goat Cheese Liptauer Cheese Crostini--the smidgen that remained after class

Heidi Swanson's Goat Cheese Liptauer Cheese Crostini

by Victoria Challancin

Heidi Swanson probably needs no introduction in the world of food and blogs. She not only hosts the popular blog 101cookbooks.com but is also the author of two cookbooks: Super Natural Cooking: Five Delicious Ways to Incorporate Whole and Natural Foods into Your Cooking and the newly released Super Natural Every Day: Well-loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen, both excellent books for practicing vegetarians and people trying to incorporate more natural foods (grains, local produce, and eggs into their diets.

This recipe was on her blog recentlly and it grabbed me as an accompaniment to the Chilled Zucchini Soup with Purslane recipe that I posted last week. And it worked perfectly. The dill relish and the caraway seeds gave it that perfect exotic touch. And I loved making it with goat's cheese instead of the more traditional cream cheese. I prefer the way Heidi served it on tiny pieces of dense, wholegrain bread, but as I only had baguette...Easy, fresh, tasty. What more can we ask for? Thank you, Heidi.

From Heidi's blog:

Liptauer Cheese Crostini

Use room temperature butter and cheese. It helps the spread cream up beautifully. And slice your bread much more thinly than what I've done here. I could only track down pre-sliced black bread the day I shot these. You can make the spread a few days ahead of time if needed.

8 ounces / goat cheese, room temperature
4 oz unsalted butter, room temperature
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 big pinches of salt, or to taste
1 1/2 teaspoons caraway seeds, toasted & crushed
1 teaspoon capers, rinsed, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped shallots or onion
1 tablespoon chopped pickles
a few dozen thin crostini or crackers*
one bunch of chopped chives, to serve

Cream the goat cheese in a large bowl wither by hand or with a hand blender. Add the butter and incorporate that as well. Add the paprika, mustard, and salt and cream some more. Now, by hand, beat in the caraway seeds, capers, shallots, and pickles. Taste and adjust until everything is to your liking.

Assemble no more than an hour before serving, so your bread doesn't go soft. Spread the liptauer across each crostini, and sprinkle with chives.

Makes about 1 1/2 cups.

*You can make crostini simply by tossing pieces of bite-sized, thinly sliced bread with a couple glugs of olive oil and the placing them on a baking sheet in a 350F/180C oven until deeply toasted. Cool and store in an airtight jar until ready to use.

Prep time: 10 min

Enjoy!