For a Special Valentine's Day Breakfast - Caramelized French Toast

 If you want to start out your day decadently, may I suggest Caramelized French Toast?

This would be a perfect Valentine's Day breakfast if you're into celebrating that sort of thing. It's a dish for a special occasion; or you can make any occasion special by making this dish.  Both luxurious and indulgent, it's a delicious breakfast with irresistible textures and flavors that combines classic French toast with something similar to crème brûlée. 

One of the features I particularly like about this breakfast is that it's all put together the night before.  The only thing you have to do in the morning is bake it and prepare a whipped cream topping. 

For the bread, I used my own homemade white bread, but you could use any good white bread from the deli.  The main thing is you want a bread with texture, substance, and body.  This is NOT a dish for Wonder bread.  

 

First I made a rich custard sauce and put thick slices of my homemade bread in the custard bath.  While the slices were soaking, I made a light caramel sauce.  Next I poured the caramel in my baking dish, placed the bread slices on top of the caramel, and poured any remaining custard over the slices.  Covered and left in the fridge overnight to soak up as much custard as possible.  The next morning, I heated the oven to 350° and baked until it was golden and caramelized.

 

Spatula out the toasts, turning over when plating, so the caramel is on top. Spoon up more caramel in the baking dish and pour over top of the toasts, letting the caramel drip away down the sides.

 

Add your accoutrements:

toasted nuts (I like pecans.) 

whipped cream

a dusting of powdered sugar

assortment of fruits - sliced strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, for starters 

 Caramelized French Toast

 Ingredients

1 loaf of good bread, sliced about 1 inch thick  (homemade, challah, brioche, French, or Italian bread from deli/bakery)

(Plan on about 10 slices for a 9 x 13 inch pan.)

 Custard:

 5 eggs

1 ½ cups heavy cream

1 TB vanilla extract

¼ tsp salt

In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs until frothy.  Beat in cream, extract, and salt.

Place bread slices in the custard, moving the bread around occasionally so it soaks up the custard, while you prepare the caramel.

 Caramel:

 1 stick unsalted butter

½ cup brown sugar

2 TB corn syrup

In small sauce pan, melt butter.  Stir in brown sugar and syrup, cooking over medium-low heat, until mixture is smooth and bubbly.

Pour the caramel mixture into a 9 x 13 inch baking dish, turning the pan to evenly distribute the caramel.

 Assembly:

 Place the bread slices in a single layer on top of the caramel.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. 

 Bake:

Bake the French Toast casserole in a 350° oven for about 45 minutes.  I rotated the pan at half-time.  You want the top golden brown and the custard set. 

Let rest about 5 minutes before serving.

 Serving suggestions:

 When you plate the toasts, invert the slices so the caramel is on top. Spoon more caramel over the toasts.

 

 I served this with whipped cream, toasted pecans, and fresh fruits.  The whipped cream adds an ethereal counterpoint to the creamy, custard-soaked toasts. Toasting any nut enhances its flavor.  As for the fruits, you could use whatever you like.  I was partial to blueberries, blackberries, and sliced strawberries.  If you like, you can dust your final creation with powdered sugar.

 

Whipped Cream:

1 cup heavy cream

2 TB sugar

1 TB vanilla 

Whenever I whip cream, I always have the beaters and my glass bowl well-chilled.  Stick them in the freezer at least 20 minutes before you start whipping.  The reason for this is to keep the cream cold throughout the whipping process. The fat globules in the cream stay solid and stable when they’re cold, which results in trapping air, creating structure, and ending up with a proper whipped cream.  I don’t use plastic bowls since no matter how you wash them, they can still retain oils, and they don’t hold the cold as well. 

Start beating the cold cream on low, increasing speed as the cream thickens.  At soft-peak stage, beat in sugar, then vanilla, beating almost to stiff-peak stage.   Keep chilled until ready to use.

You can with spoon the whipped cream over top in luscious plops or you can use a star tip and decoratively pipe the whipped cream over the toasts.

This caramelized French Toast delivers the perfect sumptuous balance of creaminess, of caramel, of crunchy nuttiness, of fresh fruit, and of airy whipped cream.  Every bite is a treat of culinary divinity. 

 For the step-by-steps:

 Make the custard.

 Beat well.

Let bread slices soak in custard.

Make caramel base.

Golden, bubbly deliciousity!

Pour caramel into baking dish.

Place slices in single layer on top of caramel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pour any remaining custard over bread slices.  Cover and let sit overnight in fridge.

 

Ready for baking.

Done.

Easy.

Enjoy.

Rosie Is Inspired.

Years ago, the Hawthornes used to attend all the cooking classes held at the North Carolina Aquarium.  During the off season, the Aquarium would host numerous classes featuring local chefs preparing something delicious and Piscean. Sadly, those classes ended when Covid started.  Gladly, those classes, after 6 years, are back!

 

Johanna Lachine, of Johanna's Catering, conducted our first class this season.  First on the menu was a velvety smooth, puréed cauliflower soup with a soupçon of truffle oil and studded with seared scallops.  Our second delight was mahi mahi sautéed in Paul Prudhomme's Redfish Blackening Seasoning served with a refreshing tropical salsa and fried corn chips.

 

Johanna's puréed cauliflower soup with scallops. 

And her blackened mahi mahi  with a mango/pineapple salsa.

Today, I'm making the salsa and mahi mahi.  

I'll be serving it with sautéed onion and red pepper and wilted spinach over an orange flavored rice.

 

The rice takes the longest, so I started on that first.

Instead of using water to cook my basmati rice in, I used orange juice so the rice could absorb the orange flavor.  I thought that would be a nice counterpoint to the salsa and fish. 

I'm going to sauté some chopped onion and red pepper in a little butter and drop in a handful or so of  spinach just to wilt it and serve that with the rice.

 

 

I didn't have Paul Prudhomme's seasoning, 

 so I made my own.

 

Rosie's Seasoning 

1 TB paprika

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp granulated garlic

1/2 tsp Lawry's seasoning pepper 

1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper 

 1 tsp thyme

1 tsp oregano 

1/2 tsp kosher salt

 Mix it all together and your seasoning is ready to dredge the mahi fillets through.

 

Next, the tropical salsa.

Tropical Salsa

1 small pineapple

1 mango

1 small red pepper

1 small yellow or orange pepper 

1/2 red onion 

1 jalapeno

juice of 1 lime

3 TB chopped cilantro 

1 TB honey

pinch salt

 

Small dice pepper, onion, mango, and pineapple. 

Mince jalapeno. 

Combine. 

Season with lime, honey, and salt.

Let sit for at least an hour so the flavors can blend.

 

 I didn't use the entire pineapple, maybe 1/2,  and I froze the remaining dices to use in smoothies.

Tropical salsa is ready.

This is good with tortilla chips too.

Adjust seasonings however you like. 

Dredge mahi mahi fillets through seasoning mix.

For blackening, I like an iron skillet.

Heat the skillet with about a tablespoon of peanut oil to 375° - 400°. 

Place fillets in and cook 3-4 minutes each side. 

I like to add in a bit of butter for flavor.

 

 

 Let fillets rest a few minutes before serving.

 

While the fillets were resting, I made a quick side to go along with the rice. 

Bring a little butter to a sizzle and sauté some chopped onion and red pepper for about 2 minutes.

 

Drop in a handful or two of spinach, turn off the heat, and cover.

Let the spinach wilt for a minute or so and plate. 

 

Spoon tropical salsa over the mahi.

Make a bed of spinach and add the rice.

I thought Johanna's mahi mahi was delicious and I loved the combination of flavors.

And it was better than mine.

 

I found mine to be a tad on the fishy side.

 And I think I know why.

 

Mahi mahi is not in season now so what was on display at Harris Teeter had been frozen.  I'm OK with that, but when I got the fillets home, I noticed the bottom still had the skin on it.  I didn't know that when I bought the fish, because it was on the bottom and I never saw it.  I skinned the fillets, of course, before blackening, but the skin left on was the problem.  

So, after I cooked the first batch of mahi mahi, I took the rest of the fillets, skinned them, and let them bathe in milk overnight.  The next day, I drained the fillets, seasoned, and cooked them and the fishy taste was gone.

So there's a tip for you. Don't buy frozen fish with the skin on if you can help it and, if you do, try a milk bath to get rid of the fishy taste.

And now, enjoy the aquarium exhibits:

My personal favorites?

The pink jelly fish.

I want a whole wall of pink jelly fish in my home.