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APOLLONIA POILANE: Bread is not only a food.
It's also an ingredient.
That is what I call bread cooking.
Using bread as an ingredient, whether it's in a full slice
or into breadcrumb.
A tartine is a slice of bread on which
you're going to be able to slather a topping that's
going to be thin enough for you to pick it up
with your single hand.
The word tartine comes from the French verb tartiner,
which literally means to spread a topping.
A tartine is a very typical French thing.
You might find it in Paris at any little bistro,
whether it's with roast beef, ham and cheese,
or another seasonal ingredient.
And one key element as you're making your tartines,
whatever ingredients you decide to put it on,
is to make sure that it's not too thick.
The tartine we're going to make today
has been my best seller at the cafe
my father started next to our shop on Rue du Cherche-Midi.
It's cheese that's been melted with some cured ham on top
of it.
So for this recipe you need bread,
one big slice of the center parts,
especially if you're hungry.
You need cheese, one that will melt. I use the brie,
but you can use a Camembert.
Anything that melts in heat.
Then a little bit of prosciutto.
Any type of prosciutto will do, as long as it's not too salty.
As you're cooking this tartine, the water content
will evaporate.
And the salts will concentrate.
So try and choose one that's not too salty.
The bread I'm using can be fresh.
Not ultra-fresh, because it doesn't toast as well.
This specific tartine calls for an oven.
You need to boil the tartine.
However, if you're using a topping that's raw
or that doesn't need to be melted or cooked,
then you can use a toaster.
And here's the trick use one of those long slices.
Cut it in two and put them side by side.
And put two slices in one slot of the toaster.
This way, you only toast one side of the bread.
When you remove it, put the topping on the toasted side.
It works the other way around, but that's my preference.
Toasting two slices in one slot of a toaster
is a Poilane bakery hack.
We do this so that we can keep the two slices moist and warm,
so that your toast can last for 15 minutes on a plate
without going dry.
So whether you have lots of friends over,
and you only have a limited number of slots
in your toaster, not only have you doubled the amount of toast
you do at a time, but you also keep them fresher longer.
Take a slice of bread.
And then you simply cut large pieces of cheese,
even if you don't do a very beautiful slice or layout.
The main thing here is covering up the bulk of the tartine.
I love using brie.
But I can also use a crottin chavignol
or another goat's cheese that tends to melt quite well.
Both work.
There's no right or wrong answer.
This tartine will be rich.
It'll be very gourmand, as the French would say.
Then I just take the ham, lather it on the top.
What's nice is actually to create a small little texture.
It gives it a third dimension without bringing
it too high up.
And you're good to go.
I add a little bit of freshly milled black pepper
on top of it.
And here you have two options.
If, like me, you're going to eat this on your own,
then maybe just cut it in half.
Put it on the baking sheet and put it into the oven
until you can see the cheese melting and the ham
on the top moving.
That's a sign that it's ready to be eaten.
And if you're greeting friends, then you
can leave it as a whole.
And then once it's out of the oven,
start cutting pieces that are about two fingers thick, so
that people could use it as a finger food.
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So straight out of the oven.
The cheese is melted.
The ham, it's colored.
It's taken a little bit of a form.
You can grab it and cut it again in smaller pieces
for presentation purposes, or leave it whole.
I'm showing these two options, really for your eyes
and to feed your ideas here.
Because if you're eating on your own,
I can grab this tartine with one hand.
Here we go.
Eating ham and cheese, yes.
This is a very quintessential French experience.
It's got gormandise.
It's the French bistro favorite.
It's a way of having a little bit of France in your kitchen.
Over the years, restaurants and bistros, cafes using my bread
have often used it as tartines.
So much so that if you look at a typical bistro or cafe serving
my breads, they might have a whole section
of Poilane tartines.
A typical ham and cheese as delicious
and as rich as this tartine is, or some roast beef
and some mustard, some fish, some vegetables.
Even an avocado toast.
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