I’ve always been a breakfast person. It’s the first thing I learned to cook on my own as a child. It’s my first love when it comes to meal time.
French toast is no exception. It’s top on the list of things I would consider for an ultimate breakfast menu! It’s also something that I am usually skeptical about on the menu of a new restaurant. One thing I do know is if the French Toast is prepared the way I like it, I’m ready to try everything else they’ve got.
I like French Toast to have a light and airy inside with some crispness on the outside. It makes a great brunch and there are plenty of ways to enjoy, I’ve even tried a savory version that took a piece of my heart!
Over the years I’ve learned a few tricks and tips that have helped me prepare praise worthy French Toast and know I’m passing on the knowledge!
I’ve prepared for you my top TEN tips for the best French Toast right at home. Oh and did I mention I included a French Toast recipe I made with fresh peach puree that will get you dancing! It got me dancing, I mean literally… I did the happy dance with a mouth full of maple syrup saturated peach flavored french toast! I’m having an urge to dance just thinking about it!
Of course you need to start with a good recipe. Play around a bit with ingredients to find the perfect mix for you. I enjoy my french toast creamy, light, and airy on the inside with a crisp and buttery exterior. Alton Brown has a good mix that is not too eggy and made with heavy cream which is a lot like the way I prepare mines. I also have an easy recipe which is perfect if you’re making french toast for the first time. No fancy ingredients just the basics. Get the Alton Brown recipe here. Or check out my easy and basic recipe here.
One mistake I would make with french toast early on was quickly dipping in batter and immediately putting it on the skillet. I ended up with bland piece of toast that was nothing like the tender, custard’ piece of bread I was looking for. Make sure to submerge bread in batter and allow it to sit for a few minutes to make sure the custard get’s evenly distributed throughout the bread.
Make sure the skillet is not too hot, or you’ll end up with a scorched on the outside but soft and gooey inside piece of bread. Although you don’t want the skillet too high you also need to make sure it is hot enough to instantly sizzle when you put the toast on the surface. I adjust my skillet temperature throughout the cooking process. I start it off on 375° and move it down to 300º during the first 30 seconds of the cooking process.
After each batch I always wipe down the skillet to prevent burning the next batch. Start with a fresh coat of non-stick spray, and butter for a new piece of toast. I promise this step will save you some frustration and smoke later.
Make a puddle of melted butter in the spot you’ll cook the piece of toast. It allows for a good sizzle which leaves a nice crust. Plus the butter gives it another layer of protection from burning and/or sticking. It also helps to assure there will be plenty of butter on you toast ;)
I add a little flour to my mix, it gives it the extra crunch I like and assures a nice texture.
Instead of flipping with the spatula which can cause some damage if not careful, opt for tongs. You can look at the bottom to check if it’s done without damaging the crust and if it’s not finished simply put it back down and let it sizzle a little longer.
It can be tempting to treat these bad boys like pancakes and try to flip and flap them around but be careful. Carefully place, flip, and remove this custard filled bread. Your final product will result in a more visually appealing plate.
I use an electric hand blender to make sure everything is fully incorporated. It’s worth the extra trouble to get a fluffy and consistent piece of French Toast.
Serve straight off the skillet. French Toast will lose their airiness and fluff after sitting too long. Get em’ while it’s hot!
I’ll admit it, I grew up on can biscuits, and I liked them the Pillsbury ones that is, unfortunately every once in a while my mother would sneak some store brand canned biscuits up in there and I’m not sure how they were made but I’m certain milk and butter were not a part of the equation.
As a new wife, I wanted to wow my husband and I started a mission, operation homemade biscuits if you will. It was top secret, I didn’t want him to know, I was messing up biscuits left and right and with all the butter, cream and specialized flour, I threw away a fortune! I’m being a bit dramatic but there was food wasted. Finally I had figured out a method and a mixture that was superb. I got faster and nicer with each biscuit batch turned out.
So after being able to turn out the tastiest biscuits ever, I decided to challenge myself a bit more and I started to create the best sweet potato biscuit around.
When I first made these they came out dense so I played with the ingredients a bit but nothing worked. Finally I considered it may be the technique, and I was right.
I was using warm to room temperature potatoes and it was melting the butter which is what you don’t want. The butter and shortening should stay cold at all times.
What I had to do was put the smashed sweet potatoes, butter and shortening in the freezer together and get it all cold. I put all ingredients into the food processor and pulse everything together. I have heavy hands and over mixing can cause tough biscuits and you do not want tough biscuits, you want a light and fluffy biscuit so here’s how you get 10!
1 small sweet potato
3 Tablespoon butter
5 Tablespoon shortening
3 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon Sugar
1 Teaspoon of nutmeg (optional)
¼ cup buttermilk
Preheat oven to 425ᴼ
Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, sugar and nutmeg (optional) nutmeg is completely optional. They turn out superb without it.
In a separate bowl cut up butter, shortening, and mashed sweet potato. Put this mixture in the freezer for about 5-10 minutes.
Take out of freezer and put your entire dry ingredient along with the cold butter, potato, and shortening mixture into the food proce
Pulse until everything comes together.
Lightly flour your work surface.
Lightly flour a small bowl.
Put biscuit mix into the floured bowl.
Very gently mix in the milk.
Dust hands with flour.
With a very light touch mix everything and roll out biscuits onto floured surface into a rectangle.
Fold over and lightly pat out into about a half an inch square. It should look like this.
Use a biscuit cutter to cut out round biscuits or cut them into squares, I cut mine into squares because reworking the leftover dough from circles is not a good idea.
Lightly spray pan with non-stick spray.
Place biscuits close but not touching and bake for 13 minutes.
Take out slather some butter or make some of this sweet and tangy blackberry jam.
Here it goes one more time…
Preheat oven to 425ᴼ
Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, sugar and nutmeg (optional) nutmeg is completely optional. They turn out superb without it.
In a separate bowl cut up butter, shortening, and mashed sweet potato. Put this mixture in the freezer for about 5-10 minutes.
Take out of freezer and put your entire dry ingredient along with the fat and sweet potato mix.
Pulse until everything comes together.
Lightly flour your work surface.
Lightly flour a small bowl.
Put biscuit mix into the floured bowl.
Very gently mix in the milk.
Dust hands with flour.
With a very light touch mix everything and roll out biscuits onto floured surface into a rectangle.
Fold over and lightly pat out into about a half an inch square.
Use a biscuit cutter to cut out round biscuits or cut them into squares, I cut mine into squares because reworking the leftover dough from circles is not a good idea.
Bake for 10-12 minutes until tops are brown.
If you have any questions ask them in the comments section I will help you get through this the best way I can!
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And OMG it is SO easy to make! I mean it was no work at all. I used my paring knife took off the stem sliced in half removed the seeds and gunk. Placed it open side down on the roasting pan and baked at 35 for about 30 minutes, let cool, peeled and put in food processor.
BAM! Fresh pumpkin puree, excuse the enthusiasm but I’m just thrilled it was so easy to make. *side note* this was a small pumpkin; I didn’t want to ruin a big one, so I tested the water with my little mini version.
Now let’s discuss this
1 ½ cup all-purpose flour and extra ¼ cup for dusting
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
4 tablespoons butter
¾ cup pumpkin puree
½ cup sugar
1 egg
Icing
¼ cup Maple Syrup
1 cup confectioner sugar
1 Tablespoons milk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
a drop of maple flavor
Pre-heat oven to 375°
Sift together flour, baking powder, and all the spices. Cut the butter into the flour until it reaches a crumbled texture.
In a separate bowl cream together the pumpkin puree, sugar and egg.
Add pumpkin mix to flour mixture and gently incorporate everything.
The mixture will be more moist then a normal biscuit.
The mix should have the consistency of a drop biscuit, so these next few steps are crucial.
Flour your work surface and hands generously. Roll the mixture onto floured surface, now flour the top well.
Press out the batter into a rectangle about ¾ of an inch thick.
Flour up a knife or pastry cutter whatever you would like to use, as long as it’s sharp. Quickly slice to prevent sticking and flour knife between each cutting. I like mine fairly big as if they were bought from a pastry shop, so I finished with 6 REALLY BIG scones. You can get a dozen good sized scones, more for sharing than I did.
Place scones on parchment paper and bake at 375° for 12-15 minutes.
For the icing, sift confectioner sugar in a bowl with maple syrup. Whisk together well. Add vanilla, imitation maple flavor and a pinch of salt. Now add milk and whisk in well.
Dip warm scones in icing and then pour more on top when they cool completely.
These are a real treat so share and enjoy!
I would love to hear how it worked out for you.
Please comment and click here to follow me on twitter, I’m always cooking and love to share!
]]>Spring to me is all about blooming flowers, light and fresh meals and of course pretty colors, like my “half of the time” favorite color yellow,( the other half green). This recipe is all of those things, well…almost.
I’m not a big fan of cauliflower although I will tolerate it….. in the right seasoning conditions of course, but when I first saw these pretty yellow cauliflower in the produce section of a casual shopping trip, I was…well…bedazzled! I’m sure it being the start of a not so warm but certainly sun shining spring had a little something to do with my enthusiasm for those pretty little veggies. Immediately I began to devise a plan that would make them taste as pretty as they looked.
My first thought? I guess they have to taste good with bacon…and with some extra thought….a little sweetness never hurt(honey)….and with some more thought how about I roast them…being that I love to roast my veggies so much.
Well? looka here looka here! What I was left with was a delightful and tasteful bowl of goodness and it’s all a veggie…..never mind the bacon……this thing is a healthy treat….right? Warning! I am not an expert in anything but taste…..and eating…..and a few other things that have to do with baby bottoms and diapers…but let me not get off track in letting you know that this thang right here, is the TRUTH! And by that I mean gosh darn it good! And with all of those long sentences here is a recipe you better try.
4 thick slices of bacon
Check out my little monster…he’s my dessert!
1 Garlic clove
1 heaping Tablespoon of honey
2 Tablespoon butte
Salt & Pepper to taste
Cook your bacon and set aside on paper lined plate. Add butter to rendered bacon grease in pan. Add chopped and washed cauliflower and toss together. I like to press a small garlic clove over the cauliflower at this point. *optional* Salt and pepper to taste. Add Heaping tablespoons of Honey and toss to incorporate everything, let cook while watching carefully for about 5 minutes. The cauliflower will start to caramelize. Place under broiler for about 5-7 more minutes. Crumble cooked bacon on top and garnish with a little fresh parsley. Voila! It’s such a aesthetically pretty dish and it tastes really good.
]]>So you want to know what to do with those dented and smashed old apples, well of course dear, have no fear, the recipe lady is here! Ha!
Me and my clumsy self is sure to drop a bag or two when bringing in groceries and when that bag is full of apples well this is what I make.
My kid’s love this as a dessert or snack. Enjoy a hearty bowl of Chunky Applesauce, minus the chemical preservative and goodness knows what else in the can, make some from scratch, it’s pretty simple.
Let the kids get in on the action, mines enjoy watching how the apple change during the cooking process, it’s a cooking lesson mixed with some science. Well cooking is a science but you get where I’m going. Here’s all you need
6 Fuji Apples
4 Tablespoons Butter
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon vanilla
Pinch of salt
Chop your apples into about 1 inch squares.
Put in pot with butter sugar and cinnamon give it a good stir, put on top and let cook on medium low heat for about 30-40 minutes or until tender. Using an immersion blender, blend yours apples that are really chunky by placing the end of the blender on top and pushing the blender on it in an up and down motion. You could also use a potato smasher if you don’t have an emulsion blender on hand. When finished mix in vanilla and pinch of salt, heat on stove for about 5 more minutes. When finished serve applesauce warm.
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