Breakfast For Dinner

I've been saving the recipe for a long time. A good friend actually cut it out of a magazine and gave it to me with the idea that she thought it would be interesting to watch me make it on my television program.

I've made other versions of French Toast on my program, including my most frequently requested version of "Creme Brulee French Toast." Overnight guests at my house crave this for Sunday morning breakfast and I always oblige.

But making a dish that's normally sweet into a savory one can frequently present challenges. Yet this one was a bit easier, in that I thought of it more akin to "Croque Monsieur" than I did to French Toast. For those of you who may not know Croque Monsieur, it's basically a batter dipped and pan friend ham and cheese sandwich.

The difference with this dish was that there was no real batter -- just beaten eggs. But the approach to the "sandwich" part of the dish presented the greatest challenge. The recipe calls for ciabatta bread -- a crusty bread from the Veneto region of Italy, characterized by large air holes in the body of the bread. The recipe calls for creating a pocket in the bread, but that's not always so easy, especially with ciabatta.

If you were to use two slices of the bread and just lay the cheese between them, problem solved -- since ciabatta was the original bread of choice when panini sandwiches became all the rage.

The other difference is that this recipe is adapted from Cooking Light, so many of the ingredients were low-fat and I changed those to what you would normally use to make a non-dietetic dish.

I decided to take a different tach and use a roll made in the ciabatta style, but called a "torta roll." I found them at Costco. Because they are relatively thin, they became the perfect vehicle for this dish, since the cheese will melt easily.

Take a look for yourself in this week's video:

And here's the recipe:

1/4 cup apple cider

1 tsp cornstarch

6 tsp unsalted butter, divided use

2 Tbsp shallots, finely chopped

2 cups Macintosh apples, cut into small cubes

1/4 cup maple syrup

6 Ciabatta or Torta rolls

3 oz Gruyere or Swiss cheese slices

1/2 cup milk

1/3 cup buttermilk

1/4 tsp salt

nutmeg and black pepper to taste

2 large eggs

3 Tbsp toasted and chopped pecan halves

Combine cider and cornstarch in a small bowl. Melt 2 tsp butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add shallots and cook 1 minute, stirring frequently. Add the cider-cornstarch mixture, apples and maple syrup, bring to a boil, stirring, then reduce heat to low and cook until apples begin to soften - about 3 minutes. Set aside.

Cut a pocket in the ciabatta or torta rolls and stuff a half slice of the cheese into each one.

Combine the buttermilk, whole milk, salt, nutmeg, pepper, and eggs in a shallow dish and whisk well.

Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium high heat. Melt 2 tsp butter and begin addition egg-dipped ciabatta to the pan. Cook for about 2 minutes on each side until lightly browned. Repeat until all of the rolls have been cooked.

Place one roll on a plate and top with the apple-maple syrup mixture and garnish with toasted pecans.

(Recipe adapted from Cooking Light)