This was for me
When I was at McGill I adored going out for lazy breakfasts and lingering brunches. I loved everything: the food, the endless cups of coffee, and the laughs/ hot goss of last night’s events. I always tended to go for the classic fried breakfasts —eggs: over easy, toast: whole-wheat, sometimes dry sometimes not, bacon: extra crispy, coffee: with milk, maybe a bit of sweetner/sugar if I was feeling wild…and if I went to Dustys I would say yes to the baked beans (I always thought it was weird that they asked if you wanted the beans when you were ordering! Do people usually display feelings of prejudice towards beans or something? I do not relate to this! After spending four years in Quebec where they like them with maple syrup and one year in England where they like them on toast, I have come to almost expect them with a fried breakfast.) Anyways, yes, so I’m a big fan of the classic breakfast and would also occasionally order more brunchy type food like eggs benedict or bagels with cream cheese, lox and capers (mmm heaven ), but I never seemed to choose the sweeter items on the breakfast menu such as pancakes or French toast.
These days I’m apparently a changed woman because I’ve made a tradition of weekend morning French toast. There is typically a Friday night Shabbat dinner in my family which of course includes a challah bread. While my friend and I learned how to make a delicious sweet challah this past fall (perhaps I’ll write a future post including challah/brisket/other traditional Shabbat recipes) and my great aunt often bakes a delicious one we all love, my family usually just buys one, often from a bakery like Harbord or Open Window. We always have a lot left over and I have found that it’s perfect for French toast the following Saturday or Sunday morning. I have not looked into the etymology or anything, but I imagine that French toast is called that because bread a bit on the stale side soaks up egg much more efficiently than fresh bread and baguette goes stale virtually the next day. That, or maybe the French invented it first. They call it ‘pain perdu” or lost bread, again referring to the resourceful conversion of what could have been stale bread gone to waste into a new dish. The Brits sometimes call it “eggy bread”. I call my recipe “Easy like Sunday morning French toast”.
Ingredients:
- 2 pieces of bread (challah, brioche, raisin bread etc)
- 2 eggs
- Dash of milk or cream
- Drop of vanilla
- Sprinkle of salt
- Sprinkle of cinnamon
- Half of a sliced banana and blueberries if seasonal
- A handful of crushed walnuts or pecans
- Pure maple syrup
- A tablespoon or two of butter
Instructions:
- Beat eggs together and add dash of cream or milk, vanilla and salt
- Soak pieces of bread in mixture
- Heat butter in skillet and fry bread until cooked golden to medium brown
- Put onto plate and sprinkle with cinnamon
- Drizzle a bit of maple syrup and then spread bananas and nuts
- Pour more maple syrup (to whatever your taste preference may be)
Another suggestion:
- If you still have leftover bread try this easy & delicious recipe for vanilla bread pudding courtesy of NYTimes‘ Mark Bittman, otherwise known as”The Minimalist”. When I tried this recipe I added raisins, cinnamon and shredded coconut; if you’re looking for an easy winter comfort food indulgence this is perfect. I have Bittman’s book How to Cook Everything and I use it constantly. It’s akin to The Joy of Cooking or other all-purpose, extensive, but pretty basic (in the best sense of the word) type cookbooks.
good morning & at times, afternoon
