Chanterelle Toast on Sourdough

Chanterelle toast is what we make the week the first golden chanterelles show up — a slice of two-day-old sourdough fried in butter, piled with mushrooms cooked hard and fast. It takes 25 minutes and turns two ingredients into something that tastes like a restaurant plate. This is the recipe we come back to every autumn.

Chanterelle Toast on Sourdough

Golden chanterelle toast on buttery fried sourdough — a simple Nordic autumn lunch made with two-day-old bread.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 25 minutes mins

Servings: 2 toasts

Course: Appetizer, Lunch, Snack

Cuisine: Nordic, Norwegian, Scandinavian

Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients

  

Toast

• 2 slices sourdough bread ½ inch (1 cm) thick, two days old
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp neutral oil

Chanterelles

• 200 g fresh chanterelles 7 oz
• 2 tbsp neutral oil
• 2 tbsp butter
• ¼ tsp sugar
• 1 small shallot about 30 g / 1 oz, finely chopped
• ½ tsp salt or to taste
• ¼ tsp black pepper freshly ground
• 2 tbsp chives finely chopped

To serve

• 6 thin red onion rings
• 2 tbsp chives finely chopped

Equipment

• Mushroom brush Chanterelles hold water like a sponge — brush them, never rinse them.
• Small paring knife For trimming stem ends and splitting larger mushrooms.
• Carbon steel or cast iron skillet Holds heat when the mushrooms hit the pan, so they sear instead of steam.
• Serrated bread knife For clean ½-inch slices from a rustic loaf.
• Wire rack The fried bread rests on it so the underside stays crisp.

Method

 

1. Clean the chanterelles. Brush them clean with a mushroom brush and trim the stem ends. Split any large ones lengthwise so all the pieces are roughly the same size. Don't rinse them.
   
2. Fry the bread. Heat the oil and butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Fry the sourdough slices until deep golden and crisp on both sides, about 2 minutes per side. Set aside on a rack so the bottom stays crisp.
   
3. Sear the mushrooms. Wipe out the pan and add fresh oil and butter over high heat. Add the chanterelles in a single layer and leave them alone for a minute before stirring — you want color, not steam.
4. Season. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle over the sugar. Cook 3–4 minutes until the edges are browned.
5. Add the shallot. Cook one minute more, until it turns glossy and translucent.
6. Finish. Stir in the chives and take the pan off the heat.
   
7. Assemble. Pile the chanterelles onto the toast. Finish with the fresh chives and a few thin red onion rings.

Notes

Chef’s tip: the pinch of sugar is the whole trick. Chanterelles carry a faint bitterness that gets sharper as they brown, and a quarter teaspoon of sugar rounds it off without making the dish sweet — you’ll taste more mushroom, not more sugar.

Foraging? Only cook wild mushrooms you can identify with certainty. In North America, the toxic jack-o’-lantern mushroom grows in the same season and can look similar to a chanterelle. If in doubt, buy them from a trusted source.

How to clean chanterelles

Never put chanterelles in water. They soak it up like a sponge and then steam in the pan instead of browning. A mushroom brush and a small knife are all you need — brush the dirt and pine needles off the caps, scrape the stem ends, and split the big ones so everything cooks at the same rate. It takes ten minutes and it’s the difference between golden mushrooms and grey ones.

Keep the Heat High for Golden Chanterelle Toast

We fry the bread in butter and oil over medium-high heat. The oil raises the smoke point so the butter can brown and give you that nutty flavor without burning before the bread is properly golden. Same principle for the mushrooms — high heat, a single layer, and don’t stir for the first minute. Nothing here needs to cook through, so you want speed and color.

Why the loaf should be two days old

A fresh loaf is too soft for this. Two-day-old bread has lost enough moisture that it crisps hard on the outside and stays firm under a heap of buttery mushrooms. If you bake your own sourdough, this is one of the best reasons to let a loaf sit — and only one of many ways to use a loaf past its first day. Our sourdough-crusted salmon is another that wants exactly this age of bread.

Make it your own

A splash of dry sherry in the pan at the end lifts everything. A spoonful of crème fraîche turns it into something closer to a sauce — good on a cold evening. Swap the chanterelles for any firm mushroom you trust — the method doesn’t change. If you forage, only cook what you can identify with certainty.

More Nordic bakes you’ll love

• Beginner Sourdough Bread — the bread we used here
• Sourdough Bread Salad with Tomato Water Dressing — another savory way to use a loaf past its best
• Norwegian French Toast (Arme Riddere) — the sweet version of the same idea: bread fried in butte