Whiskey Custard French Toast
Some mornings call for decadence. Whiskey Custard French Toast is ready in under 10 minutes, rich and custardy in the middle, golden brown and lightly crispy on the outside, delicately sweet, and spiked with the vanilla and peppery notes of a good whiskey. Being back in school this week has meant rushed chilly mornings without time for breakfast. With the weekend here, I was ready for an indulgent start to the day.
Yield: 4 large slices, serves 2
Ingredients:
- 4 thick slices of your favorite bread (I use homemade sourdough)
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup cream
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons whiskey (we used local Wigle Landlocked)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- pinch kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons butter
Steps:
- In a wide bowl, combine the eggs, cream, maple syrup, whiskey, vanilla, and salt. Whisk the custard mixture until smooth.
- Soak each slice of bread in the custard mixture. Turn each slice 4-5 times in the custard, pressing and releasing gently on the top of the bread to soak up as much custard as possible. You are using the bread's sponge-like structure to pull custard up into the center of the bread. While most recipes call for a stale bread and letting the bread soak in the custard, you can avoid these extra steps by using this 'sponge' technique and moving quickly.
- Heat a wide skillet (cast iron or non-stick) over medium-high heat. Add the butter. When the butter is melted, and stops bubbling, add the soaked slices of french toast.
- Cook the bread on the first side for about 3 minutes. Flip, and cook for an additional two minutes. You are looking for the outside of the toasts to get beautifully mottled golden brown, and for the center to just barely set. For the nerds among us, the center should just cross 160 degrees...any hotter and the proteins begin to squeeze out the moisture, resulting in dry toast.
- Serve immediately with maple syrup, whipped cream, cider syrup, or whatever topping you prefer.
Simple Rhubarb Danishes
It is high rhubarb season here in Northern Indiana where Rebecca and I are spending these last weeks of her pregnancy. Since rhubarb is something we can't find in Haiti, Rebecca has been doubling down on it while we are here. We eat rhubarb strawberry jam on our toast, in yogurt, and as a topping for ice cream. We make batch upon batch of rhubarb strawberry jam bars, and of course many a rhubarb cream pie. These Simple Rhubarb Danishes are easy (for a pastry), delicious, and elegant -- great for a crowd, or in scaled down version for a weekend breakfast.
Buckwheat Buttermilk Pancakes
Buckwheat Buttermilk Pancakes are a healthy, delicious, and easy weekend breakfast with warm malty flavors not usually found in your run of the mill pancakes. The whole buckwheat flour gives these pancakes a rich brown flecked color and hearty nuttiness which pairs beautifully with tangy buttermilk and caramelly maple syrup and molasses. The result is a perfect pancake texture, dark earthy flavor, and enough nutritional goodness to make you feel good about slathering your Buckwheat Buttermilk Pancakes with butter and maple syrup. This recipe is adapted from King Arthur Four's wonderful Whole Grain Baking.
40 Minute Cinnamon Buns
Seizing the opportunity to be sweet and let my sick husband sleep in, I decided to get up early and make one of his favorite breakfast treats, cinnamon buns. Despite the best of intentions, I slept in, shoot! A little frantic, I needed a quick turn-around recipe if I was going to deliver. Rather than the traditional yeast variety, I opted for my tried and true 40 Minute Cinnamon Buns. I discovered this recipe a few years ago while surreptitiously reading a magazine article over someone’s shoulder on a plane. They turned the page before I could finish reading the intriguing looking quick cinnamon bun recipe, so I looked the recipe up when I got home, and here they are, delicious, moist and tangy cinnamon buns, ready in 40 minutes or less, no kneading required!
Buttermilk Panna Cotta with Peaches
For me, the panna cotta is the answer to my classic conundrum of low-dessert-making-confidence, contrasted with a voracious craving for custardy desserts. Panna cottas are a light-tasting Italian custard dessert made with cream and gelatin. If you are looking for a summer dessert with an outstanding work to reward ration and guaranteed guest appreciation, Buttermilk Panna Cotta with Peaches is your dessert. Simple to make and tasting of sweet peaches and tangy cream, we eat a lot of panna cottas in our household. My goal in Buttermilk Panna Cotta with Peaches was a recipe with a nuanced tangy buttermilk base, and found that I couldn’t resist the classic peaches and cream combination.
Looking for more creamy summer desserts? Check our funky Basil Yogurt Panna Cotta with blueberries and dead simple Meyer Lemon Posset.
Salted Maple Buttercream
In the countdown before our departure, we have been cooking and eating our favorite things... with maple syrup topping the list! We are both mad for maple; we like it in baklava, with smoked salmon, in granola, mixed into french toast, even baby back ribs, and we stockpile it compulsively. Last month we set out to make a fall/winter dessert that would showcase this extraordinary elixir at it's finest, and a dark almost bittersweet Blackstrap Molasses and Fresh Ginger Cake with Salted Maple Buttercream was the delicious result. This dessert was a team effort, while I whipped up a spicy molasses cake, Paul boiled down dark amber maple syrup, whipped eggs yolks and butter to a creamy consistency for a transcendent, incredible salted maple buttercream. Paul made Salted Maple Buttercream no less than 4 times in the past month, and while we try to avoid superlatives, I'm pretty sure this is the best flavor of buttercream I have ever tasted. Paul's comment, as he made batch after batch; "remember this one, I want a big bowl of salted maple buttercream for my last meal."
