Everything in my life this morning pointed to French toast. Yesterday, I baked some fresh sourdough breads and one of my customers told me they made French toast with the last of their bread the previous week. This morning, I saw a video uploaded by YouTuber Adam Ragusea on Crispy French Toast. I knew that I wanted to make French toast this morning, everything pointed towards me making some. But me being me, I overcomplicated things and went overboard. But that is just me.
In this post or recipe, I want to showcase to you how you can make some unnecessarily complicated French toast. I fell in love with this way of making French toast a long time ago. If I am using anyone's recipe, please let me know, but as far as I know, this is just random bits and pieces of different recipes I have been using throughout the years.
The recipe consists of three elements: (i) Candied Bacon, (ii) Browned Butter, and (iii) the French Toast. This version is something you make once in a while, but when you make it it is a flavor explosion. The browned butter, the smoked sweet bacon, and (French) toasted sourdough bread come together into a cohesive whole that just makes you close your eyes with hedonistic pleasure. Eating this every day would ruin the complex and subtle flavors (i.e., palate fatigue). But I can see how you can crave this every day (because I am already salivating for more and I had some this morning!).
Without further ado, here are the steps I took to make this dish.
Ingredients
Breaking down this recipe into the three components, you will need the following things:
(i) Candied Bacon
- Bacon,
- Sugar, and
- Nuts/Seeds
(ii) Browned Butter
- Butter
(iii) French Toast
- Any bread (preferably Brioche, but I used Sourdough)
- Breadcrumbs (again, I used Sourdough ones)
- Egg,
- Milk,
- Vanilla,
- Salt and Pepper, and
- Oil.
Method of Each Component
A lot of the components are cooked simultaneously. Some components use ingredients from others. This is why my version is unnecessarily complicated. You can obviously skip various steps and make it easier and less complicated! I just had some free time and I like to experiment.
I will start with the French toast component.
French Toast Fingers
Just for the sake of being different, cut the bread into "fingers". The additional reason to do this step is to create more surface area that will get browned. More surface area equates to more flavor in my books. More browning = more flavor (but not always!).
To make some bread crumbs, I cut some of the bottoms of the fingers off. I cut them into small cubes.
I proceed to toast these crumbs in some bacon fat to make them crispy and brittle. Beware not to toast them too brown, they will be fried again.
Preferably use a food blender to make bread crumbs. I used a knife to crush them but I did not do the best job.
You want them a bit finer than this to stick better to the bread. In any case, prepare your "custard" mix. I added two eggs, milk, vanilla, salt, and pepper.
Dip and soak the bread in this mixture. The longer you leave them in the more they will soak up. Because the Sourdough bread is already highly hydrated, you preferably want to use staler bread. Or, per the video I linked above, dry them out in a mildly hot oven. It is all up to you. After they are soaked, dip them in the bread crumbs. (As you can see, my bread crumbs were not fine enough.)
Fry them in mild heat and a layer of oil or butter. It depends on how brown you want them. Just watch out not to burn them!
Set them aside or simultaneously prepare the other components. If you have the confidence, try to make everything in one go, just don't burn anything!
Browned Butter
This is the easiest step, yet it can be ruined in a second. It adds so much flavor to your dish it is incredible. There are various tips and tricks to make browned butter, but the tried and tested method is to use your nose. Smell that characteristic browned butter nutty caramel flavor and turn the heat off!
Candied Bacon and Seeds (or Nuts)
This "condiment" or element can be used in so many dishes. Pizza topping, salad addition, there are so many uses. It is very simple to make. Fry or cook your bacon until it is about 85% done. Add some sugar and nuts/seeds and cook until the sugar has melted. Be careful: it can burn so easily and burn you as well! Melted sugar is scary. Let it cool in the pan.
Plate
I like to "play" and plate fancy as if I am in a restaurant. You obviously eat with your eyes as well. So, be creative and make something look fancy with minimal effort!
The nuttiness of the browned butter, in combination with the sweet but smoked bacon and toasted sweet nuts/seeds, compliments the French toast with a hint of vanilla. This dish is needlessly complicated, but it is surely worth all the trouble in my view. It was one of those dishes you wish you could bookmark to come to later. I know if I am going to make it again it will not be this good. Maybe I surprise myself in the future!
I really hope you give this recipe a try. If you have ever made it yourself, please let me know how it was! If you plan on making this version, please let me know how it went! I hope it is as good for you as it was for me.
All of the photographs are my own, taken with my iPhone. The recipe is basically an amalgamation of various components I use in my cooking. Credit is given where credit was due. Please stay safe, and happy cooking! Life is short, experiment a little and treat yourself.