Savory French Toast

Someone saw this recipe on The Chew and told me about it. I'm not really a fan of The Chew. I don't think I've even seen a full episode but this sounded very similar to the style of the French Toast I make for Easter, except it is a savory type instead. I heard bacon and cheese and said yum I need to make this. I thought it would be a nice thing to make for Mother's Day for myself (since I have no little kiddies making breakfast for me any longer on Mother's Day) and it's really a matter of just putting in the oven in the morning.

First off I had to use homemade bacon. The Sous Chef makes his own bacon. He does a sweet and a savory. I used the savory here. You can find details on how to make your own bacon here and here. It is actually quite easy. The most difficult part is ordering the pink salt.

I also got some of those farm-fresh eggs from my friend again. Since eggs are one of the main ingredients, this recipe was just screaming to me. The only thing I didn't have were the scallions. I felt that the scallions probably added a lot of flavor. Well I had some errands to run, so I picked up some scallions (OK and also some Klondike Bars - couldn't resist. I mean they were on sale. What was I supposed to do? And what is up with them? They used to be so much bigger! You know what? Charge some extra money and leave their size be! Why do they always have to shrink everything? I mean it's a Klondike Bar you're eating. Obviously I'm not calorie counting and worried that it might be too big. It's just so much easier for them to shrink the size and let people think they are getting the same product for the same money. Well you know what? Leave the size be! They are messing with the chocolate to ice cream ratio - which was just fine in the bigger size thank you very much. OK tirade over).

Savory French Toast (adapted from The Chew)

10-12 slices of bread
6 oz butter, softened
8 oz bacon
6 scallions
6 oz shredded cheddar cheese
6 eggs
4 cups milk
salt/pepper

Butter slices of bread. Place one layer butter-side down in a 13x9 pan. Saute bacon in a skillet until cooked. I used thick slice bacon and cut it into a rough dice before cooking. If you are using regular sliced, leave in strips for cooking and then cut into pieces after cooking.

Rough chop the scallions and layer over bread. Spread cheese and bacon over scallions. Top with another layer of bread. This time butter-side up.

In a bowl mix eggs, milk, salt, and pepper. Pour over bread. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

Bake at 350 covered with foil for about 35 minutes. Remove foil and cook an additional 15 minutes.

MMmmm Bacon

No Shingling here

They recommended shingling the bread. I thought by shingling the bread you mess up the cheese, bacon to bread ratio and in my opinion I don't want anyone messing with that ratio. I want my share of bacon and cheese. The same as my ice cream to chocolate ratio in the Klondike Bar (I know, I know, there I go again).

While this is not really a "looker," it is really rich and delicious. I used a multigrain bread in the hopes of pretending that this was a healthier version. HAH! The original recipe tells you to pour off some of the bacon fat into the milk and egg mixture. Now I'm all for bacon fat, it really tastes good but in this case I think it would've been totally over the top. This was rich enough as is.

New Kid on the Block

So here's a picture of the new kid on the block. Ain't she a beauty? It's a Blomberg . They are fairly new to the US. They have been around in Europe for quite a while. I really liked the design. I've been dying to have a freezer on the bottom. With the old refrigerator I would constantly lose brain cells by hitting my head on the freezer will poking around in the refrigerator. It really makes sense to have the refrigerator on top - that is where you spend most of your time. When we bought the old one, it was an emergency situation. The prior one was leaking on the floor and was no longer cooling. Fifteen years ago the freezer on the bottom was just starting to get popular but we were in no situation to wait for delivery. We had to take what they had on hand. Now the freezer on the bottom is by no means unique. What is - is this freezer's design. There are 3 compartments in the freezer. I used to have a chest freezer in the basement and everything would get los

Mr. Boston

Since we were discussing cocktails, I thought I would discuss Mr. Boston . The Sous Chef has his father's Mr. Boston and then the girls one year for Christmas got him the new version. They are different enough that you need to keep both of them. We had once thought about working our way through the book but then decided that probably wasn't a good idea. We have found some really tasty treats though. Old Mr. Boston/New Mr. Boston Here is one of them: Banana Foster (from New Mr. Boston) 2 scoops vanilla ice cream 1 1/2 oz spiced rum 1/2 oz banana liqueur 1 medium banana cinnamon Combine ingredients in blender. Blend until smooth. Pour into a large glass and sprinkle with cinnamon I guess there is one improvement with the new Mr. Boston - the index is a bit better. In the old version, you cannot look up the drink by name. You can only look it up by liquor - which doesn't really help you out if you don't know what is in say a grasshopper and just want

Almond & Jam Tarts

These are quite impressive looking but very easy to make - especially if you buy ground almonds. The really nice part is that you just press the dough into the tart pans. The only rolling is for the cut outs. Peach Jam Currant Jam Almond & Jam Tarts (Adapted from Bon Appetit ) Makes 2 tarts 7 oz (approx 2 cups) Ground Almonds or Hazelnuts* 4 1/2 c flour 2 1/4 t kosher salt 1 1/2 t baking powder 2 t nutmeg 1 1/2 c sugar 3 sticks butter 6 T heavy cream 3 egg yolks 1 t almond extract 1 Earl Grey tea bag 1 1/2 c apricot jam** 1 1/2 c plum jam** 2 t orange zest 1 egg 1/4 c raw sugar Mix almonds, flour, salt, baking powder and nutmeg in a bowl. Set aside. Cream butter and sugar together. Add egg yolks, cream, and almond extract. Mix well. Gradually add flour/almond mixture and mix until combined. Divide dough into 3 equal parts, flatten 1 into disk and chill for at least 1 hour. Press the remaining two doughs into tart pans cover and chill.

Chocolate-It's What's for Dinner

Search This Blog