Crunchy French Toast: A Recipe Review

So, here's the thing: I don't really like french toast. I mean like, typical, traditional, made with sandwich bread french toast.  Because I'm a texture gal, and french toast is just...mush. You can put real maple syrup on it, powdered sugar, fresh bananas or strawberries...whatevs. It's still soft on soft on soft.  And I just don't dig it. 

But...you add an element of crunch or crustiness, and I'm all in. I've talked about the UH-MAZE-ING Bananas Foster French Toast I had at Surrey's in New Orleans, and I've had dreams about this stuff called rabanada from Brazil that's essentially deep fried french toast with a creamy custard inside and crunchy churro-like outside.  Or a good french toast casserole or bread pudding where the corners that stick up have had a chance to get crusty while the interior is soft and delicious?  Count me in.

Surrey's banana's foster french toast. (Click on photo for recipe)

Well...we have a big loaf of Italian bread in our fridge, so I was thinking, hey, maybe it's time I finally try to make pain perdu ("lost bread", or traditional french toast)... But then I was thinking...what if pain perdu is just an even bigger chunk of soft on soft?  I mean...you're supposed to soak it overnight...what if it's just a big blob of squish?  (Also, the recipe called for like, 6 eggs, and what if I WASTE six eggs on squishy toast?)

Pain Perdu, from Time Life's "Creole & Acadian Cookbook", 1971. 

And I couldn't pull the trigger.

So...instead, I did a search for "crunchy french toast"...and the first recipe that popped up was from The Pioneer Woman.  And while I've never met Ree Drummond, I have a lot of faith in her.  Mostly because she's never let me down.  She seems to share my appreciation for relatively easy recipes that taste darn good.

So I showed the pictures to the Hubs, who said, "yeah, I'd eat that", and decided to go for it.

Now--the original recipe calls for regular sandwich bread, but I still wanted to make fancy french toast with my fancy bread.  So that's the only change to the original recipe--I used about 1-inch thick slices of the Italian bread.  I still made 4 big pieces of toast--and probably could have made a little more, I had plenty of egg mixture but would have had to mix up more of the crust. Plus, if you serve with some fruit on the side, one piece is PLENTY for the average appetite.

Since it's not my recipe, I'm not sharing here, but I've littered this post with links back to the original recipe so you can snag it.  The secret to the crunch?  Panko breading (mixed with sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and butter). SOOOOOooooo good.

I made this on a Sunday morning before church.  Takes about 5-10 minutes of prep, and then, depending on how big your pan is and how many servings you're trying to make, about 10-20 minutes to cook (I could only fit 2 slices at a time in my pan).  I think if I'd used my 14-inch skillet, I could have fit 3 pieces at a time, but I didn't want to risk splattering butter everywhere in the frying process.

And everyone in the house loved it. I cut it up into sticks for the toddler, who devoured them (even without syrup--I just put a little powdered sugar on his).  I will DEFINITELY be making this again.

And maybe someday I'll woman-up and try out pain perdu. I'm sure it's amazing. ...Maybe.

In case anyone is braver than I, here is the recipe for pain perdu from the 1971 Time Life Creole & Acadian Cookbook. This recipe also calls for a pound of lard and "orange flower water"...both of which I don't exactly stock in my pantry.

Andouille Biscuits & Gravy

So, I've shared our recipe for homemade biscuits & sawmill (aka white) gravy here before, but the other day we made a really fun (and DELICIOUS) spin on it:

We subbed out the traditional pork sausage for andouille.  Our local meat market has house-made andouille sausage that's pretty on par flavor-wise to what you can find down south.

Now, you won't get quite as much fat drippings from the andouille as you would with pork sausage, but that's okay since we typically discard about 2/3 of the grease when we make it with pork, so less mess/waste.

This go-round we used canned biscuits, but please feel free to make homemade if you have the time. (NOTE: I had a version of this at Surrey's Cafe in New Orleans recently that was made with whole wheat biscuits, if you want to health things up a bit.  ...I also tried their famous Banana's Foster French Toast (recipe behind the link) during this same visit, which was most definitely NOT healthy, but freakin' DEVINE.  Highly recommend.)

*drools* Err...wait...sorry, got distracted.  Back to the gravy.

INGREDIENTS (Gravy):

• 1/2 lb andouille sausage (this is about 1 large link from our butcher--NOTE: you need the raw andouille, not a fully cooked sausage like Johnsonville)
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1/4-1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups skim milk (more or less to desired thickness)

DIRECTIONS:

Cook the sausage in a large pan with some salt & pepper to taste. 

Once browned, add the flour & stir. You want enough flour so that it’s still runny in the pan—if it gets clumpy, add more grease to thin it out (you can use bacon grease). 

Mix for 1-2 minutes over medium heat until it becomes a dark brown (but not burnt). But don’t overdo it-- Remember that the roux you’re creating will absorb the milk, so the more roux you make, the more milk you’re going to have to add to turn it into a good gravy. So if you’re not wanting to eat gravy on everything for the next week, err on the side of less. 

Then add milk and continue stirring, about 2-3 minutes. Make sure to scrape the edges of the pan to keep everything well combined. At this point, you can add more milk if you need to thin things out a bit, and you can season with more salt & pepper to taste. Remove from heat when you’ve reached the desired consistency, otherwise it will continue to thicken. 

Spoon onto your biscuits, and chow down. Makes about 3-4 cups of gravy. Nutritional info & servings will vary depending on how heavy-handed you are with your gravy-to-biscuit ratio.

NutriFacts: (assumes 4 servings of about 3/4 cup each)

Calories		229.9
Total Fat		9.2 g
	Saturated Fat	3.1 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	0.0 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	0.1 g
Cholesterol		52.5 mg
Sodium		531.7 mg
Potassium		199.4 mg
Total Carbohydrate		13.1 g
	Dietary Fiber	0.2 g
	Sugars	6.3 g
Protein		14.0 g

Overnight Stuffed French Toast, of the Blackberry Variety.

Back in July, my mom hooked me up with a flat of blackberries.  We froze about half of those, so we’ve got a nice stockpile in the freezer still.  So when I saw a recipe on Pinterest for Overnight French Toast….yeahhhh….the pic might SHOW blueberries, but I had blackberries on the brain.  Nothing against blueberries, mind you.  But I don’t have a stockpile of fresh-frozen BLUEberries, now do I?  But seriously---this would be awesome with whatever berries you have on hand: strawberries, cherries, raspberries…heck, I think you could even attempt this with gooseberries, though you might want to add some extra sugar in that situation.

This recipe was nicely simple.  Just perfect for a weekend.  I prepped everything up on Friday night, woke up after a nice sleep-in, popped it in the oven, had my morning coffee, read for a bit, played around on Facebook, and then by the time the Hubs roused himself, breakfast was ready!

Oh…and it was DEELISHUSSSS.

Ingredients:

12 slices French bread, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 (8 ounce) package fat free cream cheese, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 cup fresh blackberries
6 eggs, beaten
2 cups skim milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg  
3/4 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup water
1 cup fresh blackberries
1 tablespoon light butter

Directions:

Lightly coat a 9x13 pan with cooking spray, and then place half of the bread cubes into the pan.  Place half the blackberries on top of that, then add the cream cheese cubes.  Cover that with the remaining bread and berries.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs, then add the spices, milk, vanilla, and syrup.  Pour over the pan evenly, cover, and place in the fridge until the morning.

 

The next morning, heat your oven to 350F, remove the pan from the fridge and let it sit for a bit (20-30 minutes) to come closer to room temp.  Then place in the oven for 30 minutes while covered with foil.  After 30 minutes, remove the foil and let finish cooking until the center is firm and the top is lightly browned.

While that’s cooking, we need to make a sauce for the top.  So in a small sauce pan, mix the sugar, cornstarch, and water and bring to a boil. Stirring constantly, cook 3 to 4 minutes. Mix in the remaining 1 cup blackberries.  Then reduce heat and simmer  for about 10 minutes or until the berries burst.

Stir in the butter, and pour over the baked French toast.

Serve warm and dig in!

 

Makes 12 servings.

 

NutriFacts:

Calories 249.0

  Total Fat 4.0 g

  Saturated Fat 1.1 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 1.0 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 1.5 g

  Cholesterol 96.7 mg

  Sodium 386.2 mg

  Potassium 207.8 mg

  Total Carbohydrate 42.5 g

  Dietary Fiber 2.2 g

  Sugars 22.2 g

  Protein 10.3 g