French Toast Fantasia: Nancy and the Créme Brûlée French Toast

Editor's Note: And now a word from Nancy:


As you may have read from Terry’s earlier post on French Toast Cupcakes, I am taking control of the my-mess-their-kitchen ship for a brief while to present to you our other baking project of the weekend: crème brûlée French toast!  I have had this recipe in my email for a while, just waiting for the right day.  Terry’s mad kitchen skillz (yes, this deserves a “z”, folks) and a free Sunday morning convinced me it was time we give it a shot. 

We knew an egg with a double yolk was an auspicious start to our day of baking.

Crème Brûlée French toast

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Servings: 8 – 12 

Toasts
1 medium-sized loaf white bread, thickly sliced
1 1/3 cups whole milk
2/3 cup heavy cream
4 large eggs
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons Amaretto
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Caramel Topping
2/3 cup granulated sugar

1. Cut the bread into one-inch thick slices.
2. To make the creamy liquid custard, whisk together milk, cream, eggs, sugar, salt, Amaretto and vanilla extract.
3. Arrange slice of bread on baking sheets with rims.
4. Preheat the oven to 325 F.
5. Pour custard over the bread slices and let it sit for about 30 minutes, flipping the slices mid-way to allow for maximum absorption on both sides.
6. Line baking sheets with parchment paper, and transfer the custard-soaked slices of bread onto the newly prepared sheets. Be sure to leave a bit of room between the slices so they don't bake together.
7. Bake the French toast slices for 30-35 minutes, flipping at the halfway point. If you insert a small knife into the center of a slice and, after twisting it slightly no liquid is released, then the toasts are ready.
8. To caramelize the tops, leave the toasts on the baking sheet and have a spatula handy. Melt the remaining 2/3 cups sugar in a small, heavy saucepan over moderate heat. Stir with a small spoon until it is fully melted and turns the color of honey. Immediately spoon one tablespoon or so of caramel over the first slice of bread, spreading it evenly and thinly* over the top with the spatula. Working quickly, repeat with the remaining bread slices.

Caution: the melted sugar is super hot and will burn skin upon contact. Keep arms and fingers clear of the drips! Indeed, after our day of baking, Terry was sporting two new battle scars. The sugar was so hot it actually cut his finger not to mention the burn he got from an inadvertent sugar splash.

*Upon eating our French toast, we discovered that if there was too much caramel topping it was too hard to cut into and eat. Therefore, be sure to spoon only enough to thinly cover the top of the toast.

Note: Hot water will dissolve any remaining caramel in the saucepan. It might take a few hot water rinses, but it will eventually come off.

Serve with berries and a sprinkle of powdered sugar.

Ultimately this baking project was a delicious way to spend the morning.  The Amaretto really stood out and was a nice counter to the creamy crème brûlée taste.  We found that though maple syrup was not necessary, we were missing that cinnamon-y taste that accompanies traditional French toast.   It would be worth experimenting and adding some cinnamon to the custard the next time around.

And for those of you who are wondering, yes, Terry does indeed make a mess when he’s cooking:

French Toast Fantasia: French Toast Cupcakes with Bacon

Quite fortuitously, baking buddy Nancy and I had drinks last night. Naturally drinks evolved into talk of what I was making for my weekly Sunday Brunch, which quickly turned into what we were making for Sunday Brunch. She had a fantastic looking créme brûlée French toast recipe she wanted to try, and I had recently seen a few French toast cupcakes that I desperately wanted to fill my stomach with. So we reached a compromise. We would make both (See, this is how you do a win-win compromise. Maybe I should consider a profession as a mediator.). As I sit here typing with a headache having crashed from all the sugar, I know that it was totally worth it. Now on to part one of the single greatest brunch of all-time (with a cupcake involving bacon was there any doubt it would be).


French Toast Cupcakes
Adapted from Bakingdom.com
Servings: 24 cupcakes
Time: 40 minutes

Streusel

Streusel
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tbsp granulated sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
5 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut pea-sized


Cupcakes
3 cups all-purpose flour

Batter (with minor butter chunks)

2 cups sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sour cream
4 eggs, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp bourbon 
Maple Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe follows)
Sugar Decorations (recipe follows)
Bacon, pan-fried to crispy and cut 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Make the streusel by mixing all the ingredients in a large bowl then mashing the butter pieces in by hand. Chill in the freezer until the batter is ready.
3. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg together in a large bowl and set aside.
4. Cream the butter using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment at medium speed.
5. Add the sour cream, eggs, vanilla and bourbon and mix well.
6. Pour the dry ingredients in over three intervals at low speed. Scrape down the sides of the bowl in between rounds. Be careful not to overmix.
7. Use an ice cream scooper to fill lined cupcake tins 2/3 of the way with batter. 
8. Sprinkle the tops with streusel.
9. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until the toothpick test comes back clean.
10. Pipe on the cream cheese frosting and garnish with sugar decorations and bacon.

Crispy streusel topping gives a great crunch.

The cupcake itself was already a nice breakfasty treat. As soon as I tasted the batter, I knew this was going to be amazing (although I was unnecessarily concerned with how dense it was). The cinnamon and nutmeg really came through in the cupcake to give an authentic French toast taste. The streusel on top also added a nice level of sugary crispness to add texture to the moist cake. But the fun (and deliciousness) was only just beginning.

Maple Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Adapted from My Maker's Mark Cupcakes

Servings: Enough for 30 cupcakes

Time: 5 minutes

16 oz cream cheese, softened

1 cup butter, softened

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 tbsp maple syrup

6 cups powdered sugar, sifted

The world's most perfect frosting

1. Cream the butter in a stand mixer until soft (this will help melt it and prevent lumps) then beat in the cream cheese, cinnamon, vanilla and maple syrup.
2. Add the powdered sugar about a cup at a time and mix at medium speed.

I have used various iterations of this frosting for Maker's Mark Cupcakes and Bananas Foster Cupcakes, so I knew it was a winner. I really wanted to bring the cinnamon flavor across since our créme brûlée was sadly lacking in it (more on that to come in a future post). This was jam packed with all that cinnamon our hearts desired without being overpowering. There was also a nice sweetness added by the maple syrup that would be key to the interaction with the bacon. To top it all off, this also may have been the best I've ever made this frosting as it had the perfect cupcake topping consistency.

Sit down. We're nowhere near done.

Sugar Decorations

From Bakingdom.com

Originally Seen in Chocolate Caramel Cupcakes

Time: 15 minutes plus cooling

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

1 tbsp light corn syrup

1. Stir the sugar, water and corn syrup together in a saucepan.
2. Bring to a boil swirling occasionally until it turns amber colored then quickly remove from heat (it will rapidly burn if you let it keep going).
3. Drip onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper to make fun shapes. Also, you can wrap a rolling pin in parchment paper for cool curved shapes.
4. Let harden.

The parchment rolling method

The goal of the sugar decorations was to mimic the syrup drip on your standard French toast (and to play with scolding hot sugar for yet another culinary Rorscharch test). I think the end result provided a fun and playful garnish to help these somewhat color deprived cupcakes stand out. Just be sure you make your decorations thin so your teeth don't become coated in hard sugar (it's like the exact opposite of a filling).

The results up until this point definitely gave that French toast sensation in one sweet package, which is where the bacon comes into play. In order to cut some of that sugar (and further establish a complete brunch), we added the salty bacon. At first, we were both a little hesitant, but by the end we found ourselves crushing up more bacon to put on our cupcakes. It might seem a little unorthodox, but it plays a vital role to one well-rounded brunch dessert.

The sugar crown. One day I will rule the cupcake throne!

When all the flavors came together in our finished cupcake, I couldn't help but get weak in the knees and unleash uncontrollable mmm noises. I think I'll have to thank the four hour Cupcake Wars marathon I watched yesterday for its inspiration leading to what is perhaps my favorite cupcake yet (that shockingly didn't have a filling). Stay tuned for part two of our ode to French Toast as Nancy will present a special guest post on the Créme Brûlée French Toast. For now, enjoy some more of our sugar artwork (Nancy does work at an art gallery, so it should come as no surprise that she was a natural).

In the game of cupcakes, you win or you die(t).

I'm pretty sure there's a swan in there.

And Nancy shows how to make the cupcakes even more adorable and awesome.

The Ultimate Brinner: Granola French Toast with Chocolate Covered Bacon

I realized today that I hadn't had brinner since I got to Texas. Normally I don't go more than a week between brinners, so this had to be corrected post-haste. I had a craving for bacon and wanted to make it special, so chocolate seemed like a natural choice.  To keep with the crunch theme, I decided to make my go-to granola French toast.

Granola French Toast
Servings: 4 pieces of toast
Time: 15 minutes

2 eggs
1/4 cup milk or cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 tsp almond extract
Pinch of salt
Pinch of sugar
4 slices of thick bread
Granola
Maple syrup
Strawberries

1. Whisk the eggs, milk, vanilla extract, almond extract, salt and sugar together in a bowl. 
2. Dip your bread slices into the mixture (about 2 seconds per side). Let excess drip off.
3. Press one side of the bread into the granola spread out on a plate.
4. Toast the bread over medium heat in a lightly greased pan starting with the plain side down. Use your spatula to press the granola into the bread. Let cook until lightly browned (about 2 minutes) and repeat for the other side.
5. Top with syrup and strawberries (and maybe a little powdered sugar to boost the sweetness) and serve.

This meal gets a D... for Delightful (I promise you one bad joke per entry).

This is one of my favorite French toast recipes thanks to the crunchy granola making it interesting. As with most things, I really like the hint of almond extract in the background (if you use Whole Foods granola you can skip this since they put it in their granola). The strawberry is also a perfect companion to the french toast that almost makes the syrup unnecessary. My only complaint about this was that my French toast wasn't thick enough, which really just meant I was forced to eat more slices.

Chocolate Covered Bacon

Time: 1 hour

Bacon

Cayenne pepper

Milk chocolate

Why did I not try this sooner?

1. Preheat the oven to 375.
2. Sprinkle the cayenne pepper on one side of the bacon
3. Lay the strips of bacon on a baking sheet coated with aluminum foil and bake for 20-25 minutes making sure to turn once halfway. Note: go the full 25 for crunchy and 20 for chewy bacon. Be careful not to make it too crispy or the bacon will snap in the chocolate. 
4. Remove excess bacon grease with paper towels.
5. Melt milk chocolate using a double boiler or in the microwave. To do this in the microwave and avoid burning the chocolate, heat for 30 seconds at a time on MEDIUM power until it melts.
6. Dip half of the bacon in the melted chocolate. Wipe excess chocolate off on the side of the bowl.
7. Refrigerate the bacon on a plate lined with parchment paper for half an hour so the chocolate can set. 

If I could find a way to incorporate beer into the recipe, it'd have all the world's greatest things.

This is pretty much the ultimate in sweet and savory combinations. I was a little worried about eating cold bacon, but it still tasted fantastic (really how can bacon not be incredible?) and actually helped make it more crispy. Next time, I'll be sure to add more cayenne to help it pop more. I might even have to coat the entire piece of bacon in chocolate next time because I was always sad to see the glorious coat end. This was a fabulous side for the French toast, and the chocolate left behind was a great and only mildly decadent dipping "sauce" for the toast (because honestly syrup and strawberries weren't decaying my teeth enough).  Fun fact: I discovered that 8 pieces of chocolate covered bacon is my limit before I feel gross and start to regret my life decisions.

Strawberry Banana French Toast

Add fake bacon for a complete meal.

Today was a let's see what I can throw together from random things in the fridge kind of dinner. But it was oh so much more than that because it was a BRINNER! Since I had the thick bread from last night's Truffled Egg Toast, I decided to make some fruit based French toast.

Strawberry Banana French Toast
Servings: 4 pieces
Time: 10 minutes

Just a tad lumpy.

Strawberry Banana Topping
10 strawberries
1 banana
4 oz cream cheese


French Toast
4 slices of thick bread
2 eggs
1 tsp bourbon
1/3 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup soy milk
Pinch of brown sugar and white sugar

1. Prepare the topping by pureeing the strawberries and banana in a blender. Then combine it with the cream cheese in a mixer. Set aside.
2. Prepare the coating for the toast by whisking together the ingredients in a bowl.
3. Dip your slices of bread for about 2 seconds per side.
4. Cook over medium in a lightly greased frying pan until each side is golden brown (about 2 minutes per side).

I thought this came out pretty well considering I spent about five minutes thinking about it. A few adjustments would go a long way to making this a brinner staple. The strawberry overpowered the banana in the topping, and it came out a little lumpy. It still tasted great, and the cream cheese base was a nice choice because it kept it from becoming too sweet while adding a delightful tanginess. The dip for the French Toast also needed a little refinement. The bourbon (which as you should know by now is one of my favorite ingredients) was completely lost. Similarly, the almond extract was nice but could have been featured better. Despite these shortcomings, I'm still fairly satisfied with the way this turned out and will definitely try it again.