I'd been thinking about this French toast for about two weeks. As soon as I cut into one of Acme's sweet loaves, French toast was my first thought. It's the perfect white sandwich bread. It has much more substance and flavor than grocery store bread. It's buttery, and with a nutty crust. But it also has a tight crumb, almost a bit like brioche. And that's what made me think it would be great as pain perdu.

All the circumstances came together last Saturday morning to be perfect for this breakfast. I had to get up early that morning to finish some work. Urgent filing on Monday, yadda yadda yadda. But the work went faster than expected, so I was mostly done by around 10:00am. After two weeks of craving, there was nothing I wanted more at that moment than some French toast. Luckily for Jeanette, who was still asleep at this point, this also became her breakfast in bed.

I had bought another of the sweet (as opposed to sourdough) loaves on Tuesday as part of the Tuesday market. I've been working out of my firm's San Francisco office on Tuesdays (instead of Mountain View, where I have to work about 75% of the time--it's not by choice, believe me). One of the cases I'm on has team meetings in SF every Tuesday, so it's a great excuse for me to work downtown, and then cut out for a long lunch at the Ferry Building, meeting Jeanette for lunch, getting some spectacular Blue Bottle coffee, then doing some shopping at the Tuesday market.

Having bought it on Tuesday and failed to eat more than about 1/3 of it before Saturday, there was plenty left, and it was just a bit stale since it had been cut into, but not rock hard. I also had fresh eggs, whole cinnamon, and some (somehow delicious even in January) California bing cherries. So I cut the loaf into slices about 3 cm thick. I made a batter using these proportions:

French toast batter:

• 85g whole milk
  
• 85g heavy cream
  
• 1 egg
  
• sugar, to taste (I think I probably used 3 tbsp, maybe more)
  
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
  
• pinch nutmeg, grated
  
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  
• pinch salt

I whisked the egg with some sugar until broken up, then added the milk and cream. I whisked it until it was well combined, then added sugar, whisking and tasting after each addition, until it was the proper sweetness. Then I added the spices and whisked them in. I poured half this mixture into a baking dish just large enough to fit the bread in a single layer, then added the bread, in--you guessed it--a single layer. Then I poured the remaining egg batter over the top of the bread. I let the bread sit in this mixture for about ten minutes, flipping it a couple times. Then I fried the pain perdu in butter over about medium heat, until the outside was crispy and the inside measured 175F.

I should note that I prefer not to use clarified butter unless I'm going to be frying on high heat. I find that whole butter imparts a pleasant nuttiness to certain foods as the milk solids gradually brown.

During this process, I pitted some cherries, sliced them into quarters, and then macerated them in maple syrup, pressing them just a bit to extract some of their color and juices. Obviously, I served the pain perdu with the maple-macerated cherries and cherry-maple syrup all over the top. So fucking good. Crispy outside, smooth and custardy in the center. Perfect pain perdu.

Posted by Barzelay on 2009/01/15 @ 20:52 | Comments (4) | Sauces, Condiments, Veggies, Fruit, Grain, Cheese

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