Pound Cake Dessert Sandwiches



Pound Cake Dessert Sandwich with Strawberries by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

We all know about sandwiches for breakfast, lunch and supper, now meet a dessert sandwich - juicy strawberries dripping over whole milk ricotta, between two slices of buttery pound cake. This inspired and summery dessert comes from Susan Russo's delightful new cookbook, "The Encyclopedia of Sandwiches: Recipes, History and Trivia for Everything Between Two Slices of Bread." (Quirk, 2011).


The recipe is a terrific use for stale or leftover pound cake. It reminds me a little bit of the treat my husband's grandmother would fry up for him - mayonnaise-coated pound cake slices. Macerate some sliced strawberries in orange juice and zest, griddle the pound cake slices, spread with rich ricotta, and assemble all for a tasty dessert.

Begin with a loaf of my home-baked cream cheese pound cake, the only pound cake recipe you will ever need. Gather some berries and ricotta and you're in business.

Pound Cake Sandwich: The Ultimate Dessert Sandwich
from "The Encyclopedia of Sandwiches" by Susan Russo (Quirk, 2011)

Macerated Strawberries

2 to 2 1/2 cups fresh ripe strawberries, thinly sliced *see note
1/4 cup sugar, or to taste
3 tablespoons orange juice
Zest of 1 small orange
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

About 2 tablespoons butter, divided
1 pound cake, sliced thin
1 (8-ounce) container whole-milk ricotta or mascarpone

1. A few hours beforehand, prepare strawberries: In a glass bowl, combine all ingredients for macerated strawberries. Toss well. Let rest at room temperature at least two hours.

2. Butter both sides of cake slices. Place on a hot buttered griddle and cook 2 minutes per side, or until golden. Remove from heat. For each sandwich, spread 2 tablespoons ricotta on one slice of grilled cake, top with a spoonful of berries, and close sandwich. Serve warm. Makes 4 to six, depending on the thickness of the cake.

* Frozen strawberries can be substituted for fresh; just reduce the amount of orange juice since frozen berries will release more liquid.

Check out more sandwich recipes from "The Encyclopedia of Sandwiches":

• Chicken salad from the Loveless Cafe
• The Jucy Lucy cheese-stuffed burger.

The Jucy Lucy

Reading through Susan Russo's new cookbook, "The Encyclopedia of Sandwiches," (Quirk, 2011) something familiar caught my eye - my name. Not in reference to Lucille Ball and the Golden Era of Television, not a mention of Lucy Van Pelt pulling the football out from Charlie Brown's feet, and no reference to the Notorious Woman of her generation, Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd.




The Jucy Lucy by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books


This time, it's a burger, the Jucy Lucy, a cheese-stuffed burger originating in Minnapolis at either Matt's Bar or the 5-8 Club. And in case you want to correct my spelling, dear reader, Matt's motto is "If it's spelled correctly, you're at the wrong place." And what exactly is a Jucy Lucy? Why it's just a plump beefy burger on the outside, with a molten lava river of American cheese sealed inside, ready to ooze out and singe your tongue at the first juicy bite. How can I not make a Jucy Lucy?

The recipe for the Jucy Lucy can be found in Russo's wonderful new book - between the Italian Tuna Salad sandwich and the Kofta pockets. This book is truly an encyclopedia of sandwiches - from the All-in-One Breakfast Sandwich to the Minnesota specialty fried Walleye Sandwich. It's a fun reference book and also a great place to start for meal-planning.

Jucy Lucy, a Cheese-Stuffed Burger
from "The Encyclopedia of Sandwiches" by Susan Russo

Makes 6 burgers.

2 pounds ground chuck, preferably 85 percent learn

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

6 slices cheese, such as American or Cheddar, cut into quarters

6 hamburger buns

Hamburger fixin's such as lettuce, tomato, sliced pickles and fried onions

1. Preheat grill to medium. Season meat with salt and pepper. Divide into 12 equal patties, being careful not to overwork meat.

2. Neatly stack 4 quarter slices of cheese in the center of each patty and top with a second patty. Using your fingertips, seal patties together. (The patty will have a small bump in the middle from the cheese.)

3. Place patties on grill, with the cheese-bump side up. Cook 6 to 7 minutes, flip, and pierce sides with a knife to let steam from the cheese escape. Cook another 6 to 7 minutes. Remove burgers from grill. Serve on buns and top with your choice of garnishes. Let cool slightly before eating.

See more recipes from "The Encyclopedia of Sandwiches"

• Chicken Salad from the Loveless Cafe
• And Pound Cake dessert sandwiches with strawberries.

Chicken Salad Sandwich

Chicken salad on croissant by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Sandwiches get us through the day – from the ubiquitous fast food offering of a breakfast sandwich, to ham and cheese at lunch and meatball subs for supper, whatever meal you’re preparing, there’s a sandwich for it.

Susan Russo, author of the new "Encyclopedia of Sandwiches: Recipes, History and Trivia for Everything Between Sliced Bread" (Quirk, 2011) and blogger at Food Blogga knows this well. “The Encyclopedia of Sandwiches is a belly-filling book of over 100 of the world's most beloved sandwiches," she said recently. "It's got all sorts of tasty sandwich trivia, history and recipes.”

Food photographer and blogger Matt Armandariz (Matt Bites) photographed every sandwich for the book, artfully and attractively. Perhaps the handiest feature of the book is the alphabetic listing with colored index tabs along the page edge – looking for a Fluffernutter? – flip to “F.” Have a hankering for a Hamburger and its 8 variations, including vegetarian? Just skim to “H.”

Along the way, readers can pick up some helpful history, such as the origin of the Fluffernutter: “In 1913 brother and sister Armory and Emma Curtis opened the Curtis Marshmallow Factory, and their most popular product was Snowflake Marshmallow Creme, a spreadable marshmallow confection which Emma suggested would be delicious paired with peanut and sandwiched between two slices of white bread. They tried it. People loved it. And eventually it became known as the Fluffernutter, a trademark of Durkee-Mower Inc., the maker of Marshmallow Fluff.”

Narrowing the field of recipes to try, I lighted on chicken salad, the Southern standard, and served it to my writer friends for our ladies' lunch. Russo’s recipe delivers a delicious chicken salad filled with cranberries and pecans, and she assures me that it’s from the Loveless Café, in Nashville, Tennessee,  one of my all-time favorite restaurants (don't even get me started on Loveless biscuits, dripping with homemade blackberry preserves).

Chicken Salad
from "The Encyclopedia of Sandwiches" by Susan Russo

4 cups (2 ½ pounds) diced cooked chicken

1 cup finely diced celery

½ cup sweet pickle relish

1 cup mayonnaise

¾ cup dried cranberries, such as Craisins

½ Vidalia onion, finely diced (about ½ cup)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup pecan pieces, optional

8 slices white or whole grain bread, or 4 croissants

1. Combine chicken salad ingredients in a bowl. Cover and chill at least hours to let flavors meld.

2. To make each sandwich, scoop about ¾ to 1 cup chicken salad onto a slice of toasted to untoasted bread and top with a second slice of bread. Makes 4 sandwiches.

Be sure to check out these upcoming sandwich stories, also from "The Encyclopedia of Sandwiches."

• Pound Cake Sandwiches stuffed with strawberries
• The Jucy Lucy cheeseburger (that's right, Jucy)