UItimate French Toast
A weekend treat for my wife is a lie-in, a cappuccino and some french toast.
Up until now, I’ve made it the basic way of just dunking a couple of slices of butter brioche into beaten eggs then frying it. Tastes fine - nothing wrong with it. But I always think it should be so much better.
Having turned to my trusted ‘Cooks Illustrated’ mag for inspiration I have now developed the recipe for ultimate french toast.
I wanted to get rid of the ‘eggy’ smell and flavour and also give more of a custardy taste and texture to the middle whilst maintiaining nice, golden brown crispy oustide.
The first thing to do is separate the eggs and only use yolks. The sulphury, eggy smell comes from the whites.
The second key tip I picked up was to dry the brioche out thoroughly before dipping - this helps keep it from being too soggy and moist.
Here’s the recipe a la Jonny this morning…
- beat together two egg yolks, 150ml milk, a tablespoon of vanilla essence, 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and three teaspoons of soft brown sugar such as muscavado.
- add to this two tablespoons of melted butter
- slice four 3/4” thick slices of brioche and place on a rack in a low oven for ten mins to dry out.
- pour your egg mix into a shallow dish and lay the brioche down for 20 seconds each side
- in a large non-stick frying pan heat up a tablespoon of sunflower oil and a knob of butter over a medium heat
- gently lay the brioche down and fry gently until golden brown and crispy on each side
- senve with creme fraishe and fresh fruit covered in a dusting of caster sugar
YUM YUM YUM
PS - brioche makes this recipe extra sweet and buttery, but any decent thick csliced fluffy white bread will work
