A Day of Resolution Recipes, part I

[madbaker]

There were several reasons that prompted me months back to do This Public Thing - shake up my routine, introduce new dishes to the repertoire, justify (or not) my cookbooks.

They've all been successful, even if some of the individual dishes weren't. But I've been honest about that, too.
But beyond that is something I didn't expect: I've gotten a bit more inspired in cooking.
Not all the time - I still do my share of "get home from work fried, plop some jar of sauce from TJ's over meatballs or pasta". But the last few weeks, I've cooked considerably more than one new recipe per week. I haven't posted them, generally, and I won't bore you all with every new one.

But I'm cooking four things today. Breakfast, dinner entree, dinner vegetable, dessert.
Three of them are new recipes. That's a milestone of sorts.

On to the first:
Rich French Toast
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp veg oil
3 eggses
3/4 cup cream
pinch salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp rum
1 tsp vanilla
6 slices bread, sliced thick (5/8") and several days stale (I left them out on the counter in a paper bag)

Heat the oven to 250. Line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.
Place butter and oil in a skillet and set over medium heat.

Whisk together eggses, cream, salt, nutmeg, rum, and vanilla. Stir until smooth but not foamy. Pour into a shallow dish large enough to hold two pieces of bread.

Put two slices of bread in the soaking dish, turn them over, and turn over again. You want the bread to absorb liquid but not become thoroughly saturated. The process should take (ed: at least> fifteen seconds.

Fry bread in skillet for 3 minutes, turn over (it should be golden) and fry other side for 2 minutes. Transfer to baking sheet and leave in oven to stay warm. Repeat with remaining bread.

Serve with powdered sugar and fruit, or maple syrup.

Comments: it was good. Not the best French toast I've ever had (that was at Clementine), but good. I used my own sourdough bread, which is a bit denser than most commercial breads - so that, combined with the staling, meant that I needed to soak the slices for considerably longer. I had lots of batter left and the toast was dry rather than creamy on the inside. But it's worth trying again to try to get it right.

What I'm reading: Orson Scott Card, Shadow Puppets

Comments

[loup_noir]

My favorite way to make French toast is to cut the bread a touch thicker and then leave it to soak up the eggs/milk/brown sugar goo. I usually add until it "be enough" to fill up a jelly roll pan. Cook it slowly with plenty of butter over a low heat and then slather with apple butter. Evil, evil and still more evil, but damn yummy.

Any suggestions for frittatas?