French Toast

Challah bread is very good for French toast.

A Felician sister (nun) in Enfield CT made fantastic babka (Polish egg bread). That was my favorite for French toast. I have the recipe, but haven't made it yet.

I just do 1/4 cup milk, 1 egg, and a little salt and vanilla. I sprinkle on cinnamon when one side is cooked, then the other. Dust with confectioners' sugar (optional). Serve with real maple syrup.

I have some birch syrup. The gals of Red Molly, a bluegrass/folk/Americana trio, mailed it to me when they were in Alaska. Very good. It's described as "spicy sweet' compared to maple syrup.

100-year-old, 2-burner Griswold griddle ...

I'll be …

https://www.posteaglenewspaper.com/small-babka-sweet-bread/

Recipe from here …

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/enfield-ct-fv-recipe-felician-sisters-423509521

PaulOinMA said:

Challah bread is very good for French toast.

A Felician sister (nun) in Enfield CT made fantastic babka (Polish egg bread). That was my favorite for French toast. I have the recipe, but haven't made it yet.

I just do 1/4 cup milk, 1 egg, and a little salt. I sprinkle on cinnamon when one side is cooked, then the other. Dust with confectioners' sugar (optional). Serve with real maple syrup.

I have some birch syrup. The gals of Red Molly, a bluegrass/folk/Americana trio, mailed it to me when they were in Alaska. Very good. It's described as "spicy sweet' compared to maple syrup, due to the different sugars.

100-year-old, 2-burner Griswold griddle ...

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I didn't know there was such a thing as birch syrup. I must investigate this.

It's very good and very expensive. More for the folks that light their cigars with $20 bills.

Red Molly mailed me an 8-fl.oz. bottle from Alaska, and I still have half of it. I treat it like liquid gold.

Maple syrup is roughly a 40:1 reduction. I've read that birch syrup is anywhere from 90:1 to 150:1.

I just bought 8, 1-qt. bottles of maple syrup for a great net price at Ocean State Job Lot here. They were $14.99 each, and you received a $10 gift card back on each one. I'll be taking them to OBX to use as gifts to people when we have a breakfast get-together during our next visit.

Raisin bread or Easter bread. Milk and eggs, cinnamon and REAL vanilla. And all this topped with maple syrup, sorry no aunt Jemima in this house.

Crap! You're right. Forgot that. I add a little real vanilla to the egg/milk/salt mixture above.

Pretty neat … we moved to MA from NJ for my wife's job with a pharma company. Her boss was from Madagascar, and his family is in the vanilla business. He moved back to Europe, and my wife has done his U.S. taxes several times since he went back. He sent us a nice package of a lot of vanilla beans as a thank you. I cut up some beans and drop them in little glass bottles of vodka to steep for extract.

My wife said he's sort of a person without a country. The majority of the population in Madagascar doesn't see him as from there since he's white. He's now living in France near the Swiss border. They don't see him as French there because he's from Madagascar.

Renovationman said:

… topped with maple syrup, sorry no aunt Jemima in this house.

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I was a kid in the 1960s/early 1970s. Raised with Log Cabin, Aunt Jemima or the like on frozen waffles. Horrid stuff!

FIL makes fun of us because we like maple syrup.

Oh, really good waffle recipe. Make the batter the night before …

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/belgian-style-yeast-waffles-recipe

Having a Carnation Instant Breakfast shake microwaved in a mug for hot cocoa this morning and wishing I had babka in the freezer!

Birch syrup in the ramekin on the left.

Try stuffed french toast, it's more like dessert than breakfast. It's soaked over night and usually has cream cheese and jelly in the middle and then baked in the oven.

Sounds good. My wife likes blurring the line between breakfast and dessert.

Had to laugh. Making beef stew today so I went poking around looking for a potholder in the kitchen drawer with pot holders, dish towels, and aprons. Found an Aunt Jemima pot holder.

Found an ebay listing that dates it to 1987: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Aunt-Jemima-Pot-Holder-/253993599770.

Here's another good make-the-night-before recipe: baked French toast. Good if you have people over.


Baked Cinnamon French Toast (from A Taste of Home)

“There’s no last-minute preparation, and you can serve several people at once with this casserole,” reports bed-and-breakfast owner Lo Ann Brennock of Cloverdale, California. “My guests love the smooth, custardy bottom layer topped with thick slices of cinnamon bread.”

12 slices cinnamon bread, divided.
¼ cup butter or margarine, softened
9 eggs
1 quart milk
2 cups whipping cream
1 cup sugar
4-½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Warmed blackberry preserves, optional
Whipped cream, optional

Line the bottom of a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish with six slices of bread. Butter remaining bread; place with butter side up over bread in pan. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs. Add milk, cream, sugar, and vanilla; mix well. Pour over bread; let stand for 15 minutes. Place the dish in a larger baking pan. Pour boiling water into the larger pan to a depth of 1 in. Bake, uncovered, at 375º for 40 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving with preserves and whipped cream, if desired.

Here's a Bed and Breakfast web site I have bookmarked. Lots of French toast recipes.

https://www.bbonline.com/recipes

It's also a good site for breakfast casseroles, if you have guests visiting and need an easy breakfast.

begreen said:

I'm a purist and like the essential flavors to come out. I make french toast with french bread, farm fresh eggs, a little milk and high quality real vanilla, no salt (it's already in the bread and butter). Topped with grade B maple syrup this is a delight. My wife sometimes makes a variant with a dash of nutmeg and cinnamon, but I keep it simple.

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Grade B is much better, but now they call it Grade A dark.

What's very dark used to be end-of-season Vermont Grade C here. Great for cooking. Vermont changed the grading system a few years ago. I bought it from these folks: https://cbmaplefarm.com/grades-of-maple-syrup/.

We like going to sugar houses in season. Fun time. Just search "(state name) maple producers' association" for sugar houses and when the state may have a statewide maple sugar day of open houses at a lot of sugar shacks.

Here's VT's page: https://vermontmaple.org/maple-syrup-grades

Here's the MA page: https://www.massmaple.org/

Someone we know tapped a couple of trees a few years ago and was up late at night boiling in the backyard. He was amazed at how much he collected from a tree. Had to go home at lunchtime to change pails.

For MA and CT folks: K E Farm is just up the hill from Old Sturbridge Village and he does their maple syrup. Don't turn into the OSV parking lot. Just drive up the hill and he's on the left. His name is Ernie. Nice guy.

http://www.maplesugarhouse.com/

On maple products. If you haven't had it, maple cream is very good. Remarkably sweet. It's boiled more and before maple sugar. You can do a search on how to make your own. Looks like more work than I want to do.

begreen said:

I miss New England maple sugar operations. We had one a few miles from us in W. Cornwall, CT that made great syrup. I bought grade B by the gallon. Now I have to order it or pick it up at Costco.

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You're from here? I used to go skiing at Mohawk Mountain (mountain in name only ) when I was a kid in the late 1960s and 1970s.

Used to go to Lime Rock park for the IMSA races Memorial Day and the Vintage Fall festival labor Day weekend. Fun time!