french toast -

by bakersroyale

How to Make French Toast for a Crowd

You really shouldn’t be surprised that I have another breakfast dessert. After all breakfast is the meal of champions right? Following that logic I’ve whipped up a sweet hand-to-mouth breakfast exercise that will build your biceps and get your day started right with some sweet goodness.

But let’s clear something up first — that’s no muffin. That, my culinary enthusiast, is an Apple Walnut French Toast served in a cupcake liner with a walnut and graham cracker streusel.

My idea was to make French toast for a large group without running two or three pans and trying to time it so everyone is served in unison. Now of course you can opt for a large French toast casserole, but the problem I have with those is the center is always soggy — and well, that’s no good. So I decided to scale things down for more even baking.

Result: Loveliness between the pleats. (I know — it’s a recurring theme for me). No soggy mess and pretty much no leftovers.

Small note – Almost any bread will do for this recipe. You can use a plain loaf like an Italian or French bread type or a flavored one like I did. For this recipe I used an Apple Walnut bread from one of my favorite local bakeries. Alternatively, if you use plain bread, a quick flavor adjustment can be made by using a flavored dairy creamer instead of regular milk or cream.

Apple Walnut French Toast

What is French Toast, Alex?

Yup. The title is in the form of a question. The answer is: “The end pieces of a loaf of bread can be successfully used this way.”

I’m not sure I’ve ever really used the end of commercial loaves before. Growing up my mom would always sacrifice and eat them for us which led me to deem them mutants and therefore inedible. But that all changed this weekend.

How could a coating of egg, milk, vanilla extract, honey, salt and cinnamon NOT transform something into deliciousness? I let a few slices—and the mutant slice—sit in that mixture for a few minutes before they were fried in butter. To ensure the mutantness could be hidden even more, I covered the slice in cinnamon-sauteed banana slices and real maple syrup.

Here’s to nose-to-tail eating. Sort of.

in Breakfast / Recipe 2 comments

by BS

Top 10 All-Time ES Recipes

Ever wonder which recipes your ES co-readers are ogling most? Well here’s the rundown. From our humble beginnings throwing all our leftovers into a sushi roll to our more refined recipes for putting an egg on everything, here are the Top 10 all-time most-read recipes from the Endless Simmer archives. Click the pics to check ’em out.

10. Hot Dog Sushi

9. Feta and Roasted Pepper Egg Sandwich

8. Bacon-Wrapped Date ‘Cannolis’ with Pine Nuts

7. Homemade Ketchup

6. Marshmallow Nachos

Next: Top 5 All-Time ES Recipes

in Bacon / Eggs / Lists / Pig / Recipe / Sandwich 2 comments

by gansie

Switching Savory for Sweet

It’s absolutely KILLING ME but I haven’t been to the White House farmers market yet. It’s only a few blocks from my office, but I’ve been out of town, then out at a conference and then this week I didn’t leave my desk until quarter after 6 and the market closes at seven. No Michelle Obama treats for me.

But I hid my disappoint and redirected my energy to the challenge at home. 80P had to leave for class by 7:30, meaning we had to start eating by 7 (or at least start taking pictures of what I made.) I got home 6:30. I literally had to make a 30 minute meal. This alone is comical.

My aunt bought me one of Rachel Ray’s 30 minute cookbooks, I think it was entertaining themed. The recipes easily took me triple the 30 minutes (probably because I refused to follow the instructions. Whatever). But that was years ago. Could I actually whip something up, and not just breakfast burritos, in 30 minutes?

Okay, so I mentally scan my kitchen on the bus ride home. What’s going bad? What’s fresh? What can be made quickly. And then I remembered what I almost made for dinner the night before. But then the Phillies gladly interrupted my life and I had to find a bar to watch the Phils capture the division. Yes, ma’am, that’s a three-peat.

My focus was on the rosemary country white loaf. Very about-to-go bad. And dude, isn’t that scary: how can a sliced loaf bought in the store last 3 weeks but an unsliced loaf bought at the market last for days.

Anyway, I had to use that bread. And I didn’t just want to cube it for croutons. I thought about a dish incorporating eggs, of course. I noticed that stratas require hours of marinating.

What about french toast? Those slices only take minutes to absorb the egg and milk. But wait. There’s rosemary in that bread. Syrup won’t work with rosemary. Hmm…

Going Deep for Breakfast

Editors’ Note: We’re very excited to have a guest post today from Aimee Bourque, who blogs her culinary escapades at Under the High Chair; great food guaranteed, clean floors unlikely.

I think we can all agree, breakfast should be a tranquil start to our day. Whether you like your mornings to begin with merely the perfect muffin or prefer a full-on trucker’s breakfast, assaults on the senses are not welcome, nor, I’ve discovered, are conversations with a three-year-old.

On an average Saturday morning in my house, I take the path of least resistance in hopes of maintaining the peace. This means serving up something featuring bread and covered in our own harvested maple syrup for the little monkeys—with bacon of course. (We’re talking about my offspring here—they’ve embraced bacon without hesitation; as for the maple syrup, well, we are Canadian, after all.) All week we’ve slogged through balanced meals, fighting bite for bite, and now I just want them to hush up and eat up while I wake up.

This Deep Dish Blueberry French Toast is assembled the night before so the only real effort required in the morning is to bake and serve. Unfortunately, the simplicity of this breakfast dish doesn’t guarantee the sought after ‘Zen’ morning. Case in point on a recent weekend: I have just pulled a bubbling French toast from the oven and things are shaping up nicely—that is, until my pre-schooler wakes up.

No ‘good morning’, no hugs, he stumbles out of his room with this announcement:

“Mummy, I just made a little bit of barf in my mouth.”

He can’t say his ‘R’s and so he says ‘barf’ with what sounds like a British accent. BAwf.

Wordlessly, I hand him his sippy cup with apple juice and glance at his father, who is present at the kitchen table but hidden behind the newspaper. As expected, there is no response from him. Uh huh, selective hearing.

My son continues:

french toast