Fig and Goat Cheese Crostini

When I spoke at the North Scottsdale Farmers Market 2nd anniversary celebration a few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of sampling a delicious crostini appetizer from Leonardo and Roberto's Gourmet Blends.  This local company sells flavored, gourmet vinegars and olive oils at farmers markets and online.  They feature unique flavors, such as Black Current Balsamic Vinegar and Blood Orange Olive Oil, are delicious on salads, entrees, side dishes, and even desserts!  Check out some of their awesome recipes here.

An amazing and thoughtful client of mine who came to the anniversary event bought me a bottle of the Vanilla Fig Balsamic Vinegar, knowing that I loved the flavor.  The folks from Gourmet Blends were also sampling this flavor as part of their fig and goat cheese crostini.  We inquired about the ingredients and decided to make our own crostini during a recent trip to Carmel.  I didn't bring the vinegar with me, as I didn't want to spill it in my suitcase, but I highly recommend that you pick up some of this awesome vinegar and try it out yourself.  Our finished product tasted pretty similar to what we sampled, so hopefully the recipe is close enough to the real deal!

The best thing about this recipe?  It looks fancy and has a complicated flavor profile but is super simple to make.  This crostini is going into my cocktail party arsenal!

Ingredients:

French baguette, sliced

8 oz goat cheese

3/4 cup walnuts, chopped

Jar of fig butter

Leonardo and Roberto's Gourmet Blends Vanilla Fig Balsamic Vinegar

Instructions:

Assemble ingredients.

Mix walnuts and goat cheese in a small bowl.  You can add more or fewer walnuts, depending on your preference.

 

Place the sliced bread on a baking sheet and pop it in the oven at 400 degrees for 5-10 minutes, or until lightly toasted.  You can also broil at 450 degrees for 3-5 minutes.  Don't bake/broil it for too long or it will become hard to chew.

 

Once the bread is toasty warm, spread each piece with fig butter.  We bought ours at Trader Joe's.

 

Top each crostini with some of the goat cheese walnut spread.  Again, you can use more or less than I did to your preference.  I used 1 1/2 - 2 tablespoons per piece.

 

Now here's the fun part.  Drizzle each crostini with vanilla fig balsamic vinegar.  Here I used balsamic vinegar glaze, which is a bit thicker than regular vinegar, and it was definitely delicious.  However, I missed the hint of vanilla and fig!

 

Here was my presentation to the family.  Pretty, huh?

 

Official taste testers.  The verdict?  Delicious.

 

Enjoy!

*M*