French Toast with Maple Syrup and Summer Berry Compote
With term over now I’m getting into full holiday mode, and a big part of that requires making breakfast at midday in m’ PJs, dancing crazily round the kitchen to Panic at the Disco. Pancakes would probably be my go-to brunch dish, but I’ve made a lot of them recently so I thought I’d branch out. There’s a tonne of different names for this, but whether you call it egg bread, gypsy toast or French toast, it all tastes insane. For those of you who’re as unfamiliar with French toast as I was about a week ago I’ll explain what it is. Basically you take some bread, or brioche in my case because the concept of dieting has flown from my mind, then you soak it in a gently spiced egg/milk mixture, before frying it in a pan with some butter to get a beautifully crispy, spongy piece of bread. You can then serve it with a good drizzle of maple syrup and some stewed red fruits to make an irresistible, comforting brunch dish.
The egg/milk mixture you soak the bread in isn’t sweetened, so you could easily make this into a savoury breakfast if that’s more your thing. To do this use some thick white bread instead of the brioche and don’t add the spices to the milk mix. Then top it all off with bacon and maple syrup, cheese and tomatoes, or scrambled egg!
Recipe
Serves 4
Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients
- 2 Large eggs
- 120ml Milk
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- ½ tsp Ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp Ground ginger
- 4 Thick slices of brioche
- 1 tbsp Vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp Butter
- 2 tbsp Maple syrup
- Fresh berries to serve
For the compote
- 100g Mixed frozen berries (e.g strawberries, blackberries and raspberries)
- 1 tbsp Lemon juice
- 2 tbsp Caster sugar
Method
- Whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla, cinnamon and ginger.
- Cut the brioche slices in half to make triangles, then lay them out in a single layer in a shallow dish. Then pour the milk mixture over them and leave to soak for 5 minutes, turning the slices over half way through.
- Heat 1 tbsp of the oil and butter in a non-stick frying pan until melted and bubbling.
- Carefully pick up two of the bread slices and fry in the pan for 3 minutes on each side till golden and crisp. Repeat with the rest of the bread.
- Serve with the berry compote, a drizzle of maple syrup and some fresh berries!
Thanks for reading!
Emma x