French Toast

I was first introduced to French toast by one of my boy friends. He was studying abroad and on one of his trips back home he requested "French toast". I personally had never heard of it until then! But he showed me how to make it and ever since then I've been making it. The smell of hot butter, cinnamon and melted sugar is comforting and Christmassy and puts everyone in a good mood.

Serve it as a side for your next Sunday brunch or try it out as a snack. If you are a light eater then just have a few slices for breakfast smothered in maple syrup.

Preparation time: 40 minutes; serves 3  (i.e. approx. 7 slices)

Ingredients:

5	Eggs, large
2 tbsp.	Milk
1/4 tsp.	Salt
7 slices	Sandwich bread (i.e. white, rectangular, spongy)
1/2 tsp.	Ground cinnamon
1 tbsp.	Sugar
50 g	Butter

Method:

These are super easy to make however please make sure you have a cast iron frying pan for the best results. You'll also need paper towels.

Basically all you do to begin with is to make a batter like for scrambled eggs or omelettes. So beat together the eggs, milk and salt. If you like you can add some freshly ground pepper and more salt if you like salty.

Cut your butter into cubes. This makes it easier to portion. It would have been great if I had 7 cubes but 8 was just so much easier! Note that you might not need all 8!

If you like you can cut off the crusts of your bread. I don't like to waste food and find that the crusts help make the soggy bread easier to handle so I always keep the crusts on. Cut your bread diagonally down the middle.

You can also use any kind of sugar, but I advise a smaller grain. The smaller grain will stick to the bread better and you'll have less sugar falling into the frying pan i.e. less clean up. Make sure you have proper cinnamon. The best, of course, is Sri Lankan cinnamon and freshly ground is so much more flavourful than the pre-ground stuff that you buy in the supermarket.

Heat your pan on medium-high and while it's heating start soaking your first slices of bread. My pan fits 3 pieces at a time. You should figure out how many you can fit in your pan so that you don't soak the bread for too long. We don't like our French toast to be soggy so I don't let the bread soak for too long. Just enough that all surfaces are coated. I achieve this by fully immersing the bread into the egg mixture. Leaving it in for about 10 seconds and then removing it. My bread is rather fluffy so also if I soak it for too long the bread falls to pieces.

Once the pan is hot enough add a cube of butter. Now we always have the problem of what is hot enough. In this case the butter should start melting as it hits the pan, but it shouldn't turn brown i.e. burn. If it does burn you should tip out the butter and wipe the pan out with a paper towel and after letting the pan cool a bit, try again. Once the butter has melted and covered the surface carefully place the egg soaked bread into the pan. Sprinkle a pinch (with 3 fingers) of sugar and a pinch (with 2 fingers) of cinnamon on to each slice. You can add more or less of sugar and cinnamon depending on your taste. Once the bottom is cooked, golden brown (lift up with a spatula to inspect the underneath surface) flip and cook the other side.

Here are some things to pay attention to:

• at some point your pan will be too hot and the butter will start burning. Reduce the heat, tip out any burnt butter and wipe out the pan. 
• the sugar may burn on your pan. This will cause subsequent toasts to turn black. Wipe out any residue sugar with a paper towel.
• add a cube of butter when ever the pan dries out, i.e. is not oily

Also note that you can use regular oil to make French toast, it just does not taste as good. 

Enjoy your toast by itself or with maple syrup or anything else that calls to you.

P.S. It's probably really good with bacon, but we are vegetarian and can't get vegetarian bacon in Germany :(