TIP OF THE DAY: A Goat Cheese Crottin For Dessert

April 14, 2013 at 8:22 am · Filed under Cheese-Yogurt-Dairy, Desserts, Recipes

Sophisticated diners don’t indulge in sweet desserts on a daily basis. Instead, they finish the evening meal with cheese; perhaps with some fruit, but often just with a knife and fork. While we love all cheeses, a mild, creamy goat cheese is always a perfect choice for us.

The next time you’re near a cheese store or the cheese department of your market, pick up a crottin, a small goat cheese (often two inches in diameter) shaped like a drum (it’s the signature goat cheese shape of France’s Loire Valley).

Crottins are typically served with a mesclun salad (mixed baby greens), lightly dressed in vinaigrette, as a way to end the meal. It can be divided between two people or eaten as a single portion.

Use whatever greens you have on hand. We prefer to serve goat cheese with with a Champagne, sherry or white vinegarette and good olive oil or an olive oil/nut oil mix (hazelnut oil and walnut oil are absolutely delicious). Other special salad mixes to serve with crottin or other goat cheese:

Arugula, sliced apple or pear and pistachio nuts

Crottins are generous individual portions. If you just want a bite of cheese, split a crottin in two. Photo of aged crottin by Elvira Kalviste | THE NIBBLE.

Baby spinach, orange segments and grape tomatoes

Endive, radicchio and toasted walnuts

There’s no need to serve bread or crackers with the cheese. But if you want to, consider raisin, raisin-walnut or semolina, lightly toasted.

A fresh crottin drizzled with honey and
topped with chopped walnuts. We’d like to
add some dried cherries! Photo courtesy Vermont Creamery.

TURN THE CROTTIN INTO “CHEESECAKE”

If you want more of a dessert, simply dress up the crottin. You can use individual crottins or slice a goat cheese log or round to create a dessert that’s essentially a deconstructed cheesecake.

Sauce. Drizzle honey, maple sugar or maple syrup over the top of the cheese. You can also use a fruit syrup, melted jelly or a dab of preserves,

Nuts. Sprinkle with chopped almonds walnuts, pecans or pistachios. Toasting the nuts adds a dimension of flavor (how to toast nuts).

Fruit. You can add a fruit element—dried blueberries or cherries, chopped apricots or dates, or a small dice of fresh strawberries, one blackberry or raspberry, melon or anything you have at hand.

Fresh herbs. Use ‘em if you’ve got ‘em: a rosemary plume, a chiffonade of basil or a scattering of anything minced to add color to the plate.

Bread. For an optional finishing touch, head to the bread group: graham crackers; toasted raisin, semolina or walnut bread; wheatmeal biscuits or other crackers. Almondina biscuits and biscotti also work for us. Assembling a lovely dish is often a function of looking through the fridge and cupboard to see what’s waiting for you.

Find more delicious recipes with goat cheese at VermontCreamery.com, a spectacular producer of irresistible goat cheeses. They’ve been a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week (here‘s the original review), and continue to delight us with wonderful new products. Look for them at the store: You’ll be delighted with anything you buy.

Brush up on the different types of cheeses in our Cheese Glossary.

Find more of our favorite cheeses in our Gourmet Cheese Section.

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