Do you have a favorite breakfast food? There are plenty of options to choose from I agree, but if you had to, could you pick just one?
I would be hard pressed but after all considerations I would have to say mine is French toast. Although technically it has nothing to do with the French and the earliest known recipe places it in Rome sometime during the 4th century. It’s technically a dish made with stale bread; too hard to eat plain, too good to go to waste. So perhaps we should call it Roman Toast.
During the Middle Ages it was called “knight’s bread” as it was commonly made while on campaign where bread tended to go stale quickly.
These days it all depends on the country. In Spain it’s made with wine. In Scotland it’s served as a sandwhich with sausage or with ketsup and in Italy it’s fried with mozzarella and not even considered breakfast. Blasphemy I say!!!
So how did the French end up with this dish as their namesake? Simple, they made it popular.
Like so totally high school ya know?
Truly this is ok with me because although France is in total political and economical upheaval right now, who cares, they make the best food on the planet. Granted I wouldn’t want to buy a house or pack up and move there at this point in the game, but I would like to eat my way all the way around the country. I know enough French to get myself in trouble. Why not right?
Okay so maybe Mr. Sweet Butter will have to agree and that’s not going to happen anytime soon (ugh why is he always the voice of reason?). OhKeeFine. We’ll stay here and I’ll live vicariously through my kitchen.
Frence toast. I like it baked; preferably soaked overnight. I have enough renditions and variations of the recipe I could post one every week until Summer, but I’ll spare you.
This version has it’s origins from MyRecipes.com. I initially made the recipe as listed and from there made it several more times, adjusting, tweaking, modifying etc. (those kinda sorta were all synonyms huh?)
Their recipe called for eight eggs and I found it was simply too many. It turned this into more of a sweet breaded omelet. I found six was plenty and a good overnight bath made it just right.
I took liberties with other aspects but did love the pattern and kept the diagonal symmetry.
I didn’t want this one to be overly sweet like the French make it so refrained from adding extra sugar, which took a bit of will power, trust me.
The blackberries were a last minute inspiration to add contrast in color and taste. I’m so glad I did. Hello pretty berries. Aren’t you gorgeous today?
I knew I had a hit when hubby nearly swooned with euphoria. He has since requested this as a new standing tradition for Sunday morning. Which brings me to this.
Remember what I said about having enough French toast recipes? Well I’m having way too much fun with them and there are more a comin’. I’ll space them apart but just sayin’, you’ve been warned.
You good with that? We good here? Excellent.
Eat better. Eat butter and enjoy life!
- 1 loaf French bread
- 6 eggs
- 1½ cup milk
- ½ cup cream
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon Nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon Almond extract
- 1 tablespoon Vanilla extract
- ½ cup Brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon Cinnamon
- ½ cup Oats
- 3 large Peaches, sliced
- 1 cup Blackberries
- ½ cup Heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon Sugar
- Cut bread into 1 inch thick slices.
- Butter a 13×9 baking dish and place a single layer of bread. If needed, cut up extra slices to fill in the gaps.
- In a medium bowl whisk eggs, milk, first part of the cream, extracts, nutmeg and sugar well.
- Pour over bread.
- Top with peaches and blackberries.
- In a separate bowl, combine brown sugar, oats and cinnamon.
- Sprinkle over top of fruit.
- Cover and let sit overnight in the fridge.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a small bowl add ½ cup cream and tablespoon of sugar.
- Bring to a boil and cook until reduced by half.
- Pour cream over dish and bake for 45-60 minutes.
- Serve
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