Breakfast Bruschetta

I woke up this morning in a bit of a panic.  We're off to see Father Christmas at Longleat later today.  Once I've worked 1.5 hours (daft fake flexi-time rules!), we're heading out for a jaunt around the safari park, a trip on the Santa train and to see Europe's largest singing Christmas tree.  Indeed.

Who wouldn't want to eat this? Well other than a berry-phobe...

That means no chance to cook during the day and quite frankly, I know the husband will end up twisting my arm to let him have a takeaway when we get back because I have a feeling we'll all be exhausted, cold and as I still feel pretty rubbish from the lurgies, I won't be in any mood to cook multiple different dinners (excuses excuses!)

So I bounced out of bed, looked around my kitchen.  Ocado are arriving at 10am or so with next week's goodies.  Yipes!  The fridge is full of half open jars of jam, curd and pickles, some grapes as it's the only thing Miss A will eat at the moment and some berries.  The bread bin turned up a third of a stale baguette. Double Yipes!!

Les ingredients

Hmmm....  I was thinking bruschetta.  But would I be able to find myself a recipe for sweet bruschetta?  I've been making eggy bread or pain perdu for as long as I can remember so that was out.  And then I happened across the Noble Pig blog.

Okay so I had the wrong kind of bread, the wrong kind of fruit (I know there were some strawberries in the fridge yesterday - the husband was obviously peckish) and no fresh basil, but I made a pretty good stab at a very similar recipe to this one with what I had at my disposal.

It worked really well with blackberries and raspberries and I used lime juice with the berries and lime zest in place of the basil.

In fact, I was thinking of doing a brunch at some point over Christmas and these will make a really great alternative to the usual pastries - something else I intend to master in the next couple of weeks with the help of the lovely Joanne Wheatley from the Great British Bake Off's recipe :)

And as I had time this morning, I even managed to take a slightly more artistic picture of the finished dish.  You'd think I'd be better at this photography lark being married to a pro photographer, but I'm all about the eating of the food.  He drives me  potty if I make something he considers worth of his artistic bent and often dinner is cold by the time he's finished photographing it!


This is my take on the original recipe

Breakfast Bruschetta with Strawberries and Tangy Creamadapted from Noble Pig
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 small French stick, sliced diagonally and buttered on one side
150g mixed fresh berries

A work of art

2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp chopped fresh basil leaves
Zest of one lime and juice of 1/2 a lime
6 tbsp creme fraiche cream
2 tbsp plain yogurt
2 tsp maple syrup

Garnish Bruschetta With:Sprigs of fresh basil

Preheat gril to High with rack 6" from the heating element.

Combine sugar and cinnamon in a dish.  Sprinkle mixture on buttered sides of bread, then broil on a baking sheet until toasted, 2-3 minutes.

Toss fruit with sugar and lime juice.  Stir creme fraiche, yogurt and maple syrup together in a separate bowl.  To assemble bruschetta, spoon a few berries with juice on each piece of toast; dollop with 1 teaspoon creme fraiche mixture.
Garnish with lime zest before serving.