Mothers Day -

by ES Guest

Extreme Mother's Day Brunch Recipe: Francois Payard's Chocolate Brioche Pain Perdu

You”re not really gonna make plain old French toast for Mother”s Day are you? If you”re looking to kick that up a few notches, chef Francois Payard offers this Parisian take on Mother”s Day brunch, with an at-home recipe for his world-famous Chocolate Brioche Pain Perdu.

A counterpoint to American-style French Toast, Payard”s version is more of a sandwich with a chocolate chip filling, topped with sauteed bananas and whipped cream. OK wait, maybe it is pretty American after all. I mean, whipped cream and chocolate chips for breakfast? Doesn”t get any Yankier than that.

Best yet, this decade break-sert can be made ahead of time by freezing the sandwiches overnight (once assembled and soaked thoroughly), and then baked for 10 minutes before serving.

Chocolate Brioche Pain Perdu

Our Top 10 Favorite Mother’s Day Brunch Recipes

Cooking up Mother’s Day brunch this weekend? Check out Endless Simmer’s best bests:

10. Deep Dish Blueberry Maple French Toast

A can’t miss winner from the ES archives.

9. Nutella-Banana Pastry Pockets

This counts as eating fruit, right?

8. Asparagus and Goat Cheese Omelet

Taking the best of spring’s bounty…and submersing it in dairy.

Complementary Colors, Complementary Tastes

With an artist for a mom, we tend to think that the aesthetic presentation is equally as important as the taste. She always taught us that when red and green or purple and yellow or blue and orange are paired together in a work of art, the contrast intensifies the presentation. Like complementary flavors, complementary colors excite a dish.

So here’s a Mothers Day recipe that will impress Mom no both sight and taste levels. White fish is like a blank canvas. It’s delicious but has no range of color. To add dimension to a swordfish dish, we added slivered red onions (purple) served atop a base of sweet spaghetti squash (yellow). The resulting dinner was both visually enticing and delicious!

Mothers Day