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Food French Toast

Discussion in 'Tilted Food' started by genuinemommy, Oct 20, 2014.

  1. genuinemommy

    genuinemommy Moderator Staff Member

    How do you love your french toast?
    Where's your favorite place to purchase french toast?
    Do you have any tasty french toast experiences or recipes to share?
    Do you like it on its own, or do you prefer to have a side (egg, hashbrowns, sausage, etc) with it?

    I adore french toast. I don't like it with syrup, rather I prefer to have it served with heaps of melting butter or some sort of fruit preserve.

    The other day, I came across a recipe for coconut-crusted french toast. It tastes like a donut, but it has zero added sugar. It instantly became a family favorite. It was really easy, too. Just scramble an egg with milk and a little vanilla extract, dip bread in the batter, then dip it in coconut flakes, and heat it on a griddle until it's crispy. I prefer mine a darker toasty brown than this picture, but I do adore it with fruit. This picture also shows it with a sugar glaze, which makes it far too sweet. I'm told it's also delicious with Nutella.
    [​IMG]

     
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  2. Levite

    Levite Levitical Yet Funky

    Location:
    The Windy City
    I like French toast very much, though I try not to indulge in it too often.

    There are a couple of places around town that make excellent French toast, and I do on rare occasions go and have some. But usually if I'm going to have it, I'm going to make it myself.

    I'll use any kind of good bread in a pinch (as long as it's not a savory bread, e.g. onion bread or cheese bread), especially brioche if I can get it; but ideally, I like to use raisin challah.

    For the custard, I use eggs and whole milk, with a splash of rum or calvados, and I beat in a little powdered sugar, a little grated orange zest, and a little grated ginger. I add a very little pinch of cinnamon, a very little pinch of allspice, a tiny pinch of powdered star anise, a tiny pinch of ground clove, some freshly grated nutmeg, some mace, and the contents of part or all of a vanilla bean (depending on how much I'm making).

    I soak the hell out of the slices of bread, because I like my French toast dense and eggy-- nothing disappoints me more than finding that the custard is just a thin layer shellacking a plain slice of bread.

    Once soaked well, I fry the slices over medium-high heat in clarified butter. When fresh, I like it served with high-quality pure maple syrup-- I tolerate no imitation "pancake syrups" in my house, nor will I stand for them in restaurants. I also usually eat it solo-- at most, I might make a little veggie bacon to go along with it.

    Since I often make a big batch, so that there will be leftovers, I sometimes will have the leftover slices cold, or only slightly warmed, and then I do like them with preserves. We get kickass sour cherry preserves from Michigan that go great on French toast, but Amish strawberry-raspberry jam is also nice.
     
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  3. Speed_Gibson

    Speed_Gibson Hacking the Gibson

    Location:
    Wolf 359
    I like how that crunch sounds, but I have a low tolerance for coconut just because it tastes dreadful. I am fine with it in Pina Colada yogurt but that is the only "acceptable use" for it I have seen for it so far.
     
  4. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member


    I love using challah in my French toast. If I make challah, I'll make a double batch just so I'll have extra for French toast. My twist on the custard is to add a little bit of my homemade marmalade into the mix. It adds that zesty citrus kick. Your additions make me wonder how it would be with a little applejack or pommeau. Maybe a little Frangelico for something nuttier?

    I like to make an overnight French toast. The only key thing is to make sure it bakes long enough. The last time I made it, my husband was responsible for taking it out of the oven, and it was underdone. I'd also skipped using day-old bread; toasting the slices before making it wasn't enough. Oh well. Not every batch of something turns out perfect.
     
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  5. fflowley

    fflowley Don't just do something, stand there!

    I make pretty "standard issue" stuff with a nice challah, an egg/milk batter.
    What makes it special for us is we usually have it in the winter and pull out a bag of our fresh picked blueberries from the summer.
    Then we serve it with homemade maple syrup and bacon that also was raised in the backyard.
    Makes for a wonderful, cozy mid-winter morning.
     
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  6. spindles

    spindles Very Tilted

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    Jamie Oliver's french toast is a bit of a staple for "celebration" breakfasts at our house. Something like this:

    Jamie's Home Cooking Skills

    In the Jamie's Dinners book the mashed banana and berries is also mixed with honey. We tend to serve it with maple syrup and mascarpone. As an alternative, replace the fruit in the centre with chocolate and have chocolate french toast (kinda turns out like a Pain Au Chocolat).

    FrenchToast.jpg

    I knew I'd have a photo somewhere :)

    I think the bread here is homemade sourdough (Mrs Spindles is a clever baker) and the filling includes raspberries. Yum!

    PS - I wonder why I'm not fatter than I am, eating things like this - yay genetics!
     
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  7. genuinemommy

    genuinemommy Moderator Staff Member

    This thread is serious food porn!
    @Levite, that combination of spices sounds divine.
    @snowy, how does one make it in the oven? I haven't encountered this variant.
    @ffowley, those blueberries sound like a real treat.
    @spindles, that looks like a French toast sandwich!

    Which reminds me of something my husband makes from time to time. He takes a PB&j sandwich, batters it, and transforms it into a gooey French toast.

    Other than that one, his french toast creations tend to be savory. He puts wine in the batter instead of vanilla and makes it with salty, hearty breads like pretzel bread, salted sourdough, or rye. They are invariably off-the-cuff, recipe-less, and delicious.
     
  8. Levite

    Levite Levitical Yet Funky

    Location:
    The Windy City
    I love the marmalade idea. Haven't done that with French toast, though I have used jam when making bread pudding, which is pretty similar.

    But I have made French toast custard with both pommeau and with Frangelico (not at the same time), and I can vouch that both work well. I have also occasionally used poire eau-de-vie, Grand Marnier, honey liqueur, Amaretto (which I actually thought worked better than Frangelico), and citron liqueur, all of which worked relatively decently.
     
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  9. girldetective

    girldetective Getting Tilted

    Ooolala! Like snowy, I use challah as it holds up well and I add all sorts of spices to the mix. Now that I think about it though, those spices always nudge toward the proverbial sweet desserts, such as cardamom, cinnamon, allspice, and so forth. Has anyone tried a savory French toast recipe, perhaps with dill, chili, cumin, or even garam masala? It might be served as an accompaniment to entrees or as an appetizer or even an entree in and of itself, maybe with a chutney?!
     
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  10. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member


    There are lots of overnight French toast recipes. I really recommend the overnight prep--don't put it off until the morning of (doesn't turn out nearly as well), and DEFINITELY use stale bread or bread that is VERY toasted. Don't use store-bought French bread the morning of and expect it to be delicious; it will be gummy, especially if undercooked :(
     
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  11. spindles

    spindles Very Tilted

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia

    Yep - would definitely call it a sandwich - you really can't pick it up and eat it (unless you are like my children who aren't concerned about getting it everywhere).

    I have an Indian friend who mentioned to me years ago that in India french toast is almost exclusively savoury, whereas my Oz take was that it was almost exclusively sweet. He got quite a surprise the first time he ordered french toast in a cafe in Oz :)
     
  12. Levite

    Levite Levitical Yet Funky

    Location:
    The Windy City
    I've never tried to do savory French toast, although I have done savory bread pudding, which I think is quite similar. For that, I left the milk out of the custard, used cognac instead of rum, spiced it with salt, pepper, paprika, some fresh thyme and sage, and dried celery, and mixed in leek, onion, garlic, chopped chestnuts, and a little carrot that had been sauteed in duck fat, then cooked down in a splash of white wine, and some broken up duck sausage. I thought it was pretty good. I served it as a side dish to roast chicken.
     
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