Pain Perdu (French Toast)

The French invented Pain Perdu as a way to use leftover bread.  While any bread will do, brioche and challah work best as the dish is slightly sweet.  In America, French Toast is normally served at breakfast.  In France, it is more often served as a simple dessert at home.

I love this dish as it was one of my favorite breakfasts my mother would prepare if she had stale white bread on hand. She made hers with a heavy sprinkling of cinnamon and nutmeg added to her egg batter. While delicious, I’ve modified my mother’s recipe to reflect what Maison Plisson, my local specialty food shop and café, offers their clientele at breakfast time despite the break from tradition. In lieu of maple syrup, Plisson serves their Pain Perdu with either homemade jam or fruit compote.

Tip: Be sure your bread is stale so that it will withstand being soaked in egg and cream and not fall apart.

Ingredients:

For the apple compote:

3 apples (I use different varieties, tart and sweet, to add complexity)

1/2 cup orange juice

3 star anise pods

For the French toast:

1 cup sugar (divide this ¾ cup for the egg mixture and ¼ cup for the skillet)

4 star anise pods

4 large eggs

2 egg yolks

1 cup half and half

1 teaspoons vanilla

Pinch of salt

6 thickly sliced bread (1 to 1 ½ -inch thick of brioche, challah, white bread, cinnamon raisin, or even French bread. Allow to sit out for several hours to become stale.

½ stick (4 Tablespoons) sweet butter

Confectioner’s sugar, for dusting

Cooking instructions:

First, make the apple compote the night before.

1.    Wash, destem and cut apples into small chunks. (I keep the skins on but that is optional.)

2.    Put apples in a heavy saucepan with the orange juice and anise seeds. Cover and slowly simmer. Stir often until apples fall apart but still have some texture, around 20 minutes.

3.    Remove from heat and allow compote to come to room temperature.

4.    You can serve right away or even better, allow it to rest in the refrigerator over might.

5.    Remove the star anise pods before serving.

Also, do the next step the night before so that sugar has time to pick up the flavor of the star anise. Next, make the Pain Perdu.

1.     Put the star anise pods into the sugar and allow to sit overnight to flavor the sugar.

2.    In a medium sized Pyrex dish, beat together the eggs, yolks, cream, 2/3 cup sugar, vanilla, and salt.

3.    You’ll be working in batches so keep this in mind.

4.    Soak the bread slices in the egg and cream mixture for about 1-2 minutes per side.  Watch this carefully as you want to avoid over-soaking the bread or it will not maintain its shape during frying.

5.    While bread is soaking prepare the skillet.

6.    Put a 10-12-inch non-stick skillet over a medium flame and melt 2 Tablespoons of butter. Do not allow to burn.

7.    Add 1 ½ Tablespoons of sugar to the butter and allow to bubble and melt. (This is how you get the sugary crust on the Pain Perdu)

8.    Fry the 2-3 slices of bread until golden brown and crusty.

9.    Before turning, sprinkle the tops with another 1 1/2 Tablespoons of sugar.

10. Turn bread slices carefully and cook until golden brown on the second side.

11. Remove and put on a plate tented with foil to keep warm while you finish cooking the other slices of bread. 

12. Wipe the skillet clean and add fresh butter and sugar each time.

13. Serve immediately with freshly made apple compote (or any other fruit) on the side.

14. Sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar.

Serves: 6