i go through phases with french toast, and right now i've just entered a peak. to be fair, i go through phases with most foods. i don't think i can explain it. regardless - i have a pretty limitless supply of high-end artisan bread, and who doesn't like french toast? (amazingly, i didn't like it until about a year ago)
i'm sure mama would say this is closer to pain perdu, but i'm too impatient to let the bread slices stale first. they hold up just fine soaked fresh, so i'm not changing my ways. if you're using lesser bread, you might want to stale it pretty hard first.
i'll also point out that the nitwits at epicurious.com had a big discussion about how you don't have to salt french toast. for some reason, we've decided as a culture that sweet things should be insipid. i think this is a holdover from that period a decade or two ago when salt was the prime culinary evil. it was before carbs - was it before fat too? i'm too young to remember.
assembly:
4 eggs
1 C milk
2T sugar
a pinch of salt
booze! - a very generous slug of brandy or cachaça or rum or anything else that makes sense
around six large slices of good, crusty artisan bread
mix everything together very thoroughly. arrange the bread slices on a pan, and pour the egg mixture on top. turn them over a few times, and throw the whole mess in the fridge overnight.
finish:
way more oil than you think you need
maple syrup or honey or jam or whatever
the next morning heat a nonstick pan swimming with oil over medium heat. i can't overstate this - i'd deepfry the damn things if i could. these are an indulgence and should be treated as such. oh, and don't try to be clever and use butter; the solids will scorch. anyhow, fry the slices one or (if your pan is big enough) two at a time until deeply browned on both sides. like many other things in food-life, darker is better. serve immediately.
i can eat about five slices at a sitting, though i shouldn't. a more reasonable serving is two slices per person.
2 comments:
Yer pop says:
SEE! I told you it was good!!!
There, now that I have that out of my system (no, it is not truly out and I will revisit it every chance i get, especially when you get over the burny phase and start to love single malts and burbon) I want to say that stale is important because the best part of really great french toast is the tough crust. If you don't get the bread kinda stale the crust is too soft and you might as well use wonderbread.
I agree on the whole salt thing. I salt the crap out of stuff I cook at home, at least by the standards I was brought up on, where salt was evil. Probably most seasoned (no pun intended) chefs would look at my salting and go, "Bah! Not enough salt."
(Also, hi. Our mutual friend Abby pointed me at your blog, so now I'm reading it.)
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