french-toast.md

Cinnamon Orange French Toast

Notes

• Serve with bacon strips for breakfast
• The syrup reduction described in this recipe should be thick and applied to the meal with a brush. It should be viscous enough to coat the top of the toast without soaking into it very much.
• Yields 8 filling slices of French toast

Ingredients

• Most of a loaf of last week's sourdough bread
• 12 eggs
• 1/2 cup half-and-half
• 1.5 tsp vanilla extract
• 1.5 tsp almond extract
• 2 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
• 1 orange
• ~1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup AAA actual maple syrup (do not use corn syrup-based imitations)
• 1/2 stick butter

Tools

• Griddle or shallow cast iron pan for frying toast
• Gallon sized zippie bag for soaking bread
• Long spatula for flipping big, delicate toast pieces
• Small rubber spatula for working with syrups
• Mixing bowl
• Hand mixer
• Zester or planer
• Juicer

Directions

• Cut 8 slices of bread from the loaf, about 1/2" thick and stagger them in the gallon bag so they form layers of bread. If they are neatly stacked, the batter will not soak right, hence the staggered pattern of bread slices.
• In the mixing bowl, combine the eggs, half and half, vanilla and almond extracts, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Mix with a hand mixer until completely smooth.
• Carefully pour the batter over the bread in the bag. Press as much air out of the bag as possible and seal it. Flip the bag over a few times to coat all of the bread thoroughly. All throughout the next several steps, all the way up until cook time, flip this bag over every few minutes to allow the batter to run all over the bread and soak in completely.
• While this is soaking, and while you are continually turning it to encourage a proper soak (this is super important, so don't forget it), process the orange to separate its zest and juice. This should produce about a tablespoon of zest and a quarter cup of juice.
• Place the juice in a medium saucepan over medium heat, measuring it as you add it. Also add an equal amount of sugar. So if your orange produced 1/4 cup of juice, add 1/4 cup of sugar.
• Bring this to a boil and stir it until it is a thick syrup, then remove from heat. Reserve the syrup, but clean out the saucepan and dry it.
• Don't forget to turn your battered toast.
• Put the saucepan back on the stove over medium-low heat and melt down the half stick of butter. Shake the pan a couple times a minute as the butter heats to brown it.
• When the butter is just about done browning, throw in the orange zest and stir. This will cause a great deal of bubbling and foaming. About 30 seconds after, use a rubber spatula to scrape in all of the orange syrup. Also add the maple syrup. Stir to combine.
• You're still turning your French toast in the batter, right?
• Allow the syrup mix to boil and heat for a bit until it thickens into a sticky, viscous reduction. Remove from heat and let stand. You can heat this back up over medium-low heat right before serving.
• Now that your toast is full of custardy batter, bring a shallow cast iron skillet or other evenly-heating griddle up to just below medium heat. In batches, melt butter into the pan, spreading it out with the flat spatula. Carefully place the bread slices, which will be very tender and delicate, to the pan. Fry them, flipping them halfway, until the centers of the slices are just set, roughly 2 minutes per side. Reduce heat if you need to.
• Remove French toast to a plate, brush syrup over their top, then garnish with a dusting of powdered sugar by dropping a spoonful into a fine seive, then - while holding the seive over the food - tapping the rim of the seive with the spoon.