Now this is something to wake up to. Linda Nguyen, the intrepid force behind the Australian blog butter sugar flour, whipped up this beautiful plate of French toast with spiced pears. The bread has that even golden-brown skin that is a hallmark of the best French toast, and the pears give it a lusty, buttery twist. The shallow pool of maple syrup is a nice, realistic flourish; you can practically taste the syrup-saturated toast, and feel it the sugary burn it leaves in the back of your throat. A very good morning, indeed.
Love her or hate her, Sandra Lee can stretch a dollar.
For her latest Food Network show, the queen of "semi-homemade" cuisine is teaching her viewers "Money Saving Meals" with tips on how to make dishes like this French toast without breaking the bank.
"This show is like Suze Orman meets Julia Child," she told Slashfood Thursday in the Food Network test kitchens.
Get her three tips on how to save at the grocery store and the French toast recipe after the jump.
By the time you lug yourself out of bed at 11 a.m. on a Sunday, do you really want to spend another 30 minutes prepping brunch before you start cooking? Try using make-ahead brunch recipes for an even more relaxing weekend morning.
Last May, I posted about the genius that is french toast made on a waffle iron. However, like so many of these things I write about here on Slashfood, I hadn't actually had an opportunity to give the technique a try, trusting instead that the Kitchen Chick wouldn't lead me astray.
Luckily though, I recently stumbled across a blog post that put the waffle iron french toast method to the test and proved that it is a winner. Lauren (creator of the pies in jars) used a two square Belgian waffle iron to cook up french toast made from bread designed for Texas toast. The bread fit the iron perfect and she and her family found it so delightful that they used the same method to make garlic bread to accompany dinner.
Not really sure why this is called Wife Saver French Toast (I'd love to hear the story of how they came up with the name for it - I imagine a wife mad at her husband and he has to make his own breakfast that morning), but it sounds quite good.
Note: it's not a recipe for French Toast where you just dip the bread in liquid and throw it in a pan. You have to soak this overnight and then bake it in the oven for 50 minutes. So maybe the wife got mad at the hubby the night before and had to really plan this out for the next day's breakfast. (It also says to use "French bread," which I assume means the kind in the pic above and not square slices of thick toast?)
I love waffles (I own four waffle irons and wouldn't hesitate to buy another if I came across an old, working one with cast iron plates). I also love French toast (all week long, I've been planning writing an ode to that breakfast dish), mostly because it makes it possible to create something delicious out of the most humble of ingredients. For these reasons, I am horrifically embarrassed that it never occurred to me to cook my french toast in my waffle iron, like the Kitchen Chick has done.
A craving for buttermilk waffles, coupled with a dearth of buttermilk and some brioche that needed to be used helped inspire this tasty creation. She proceeded to make French toast as normal, soaking the bread in an egg and milk mixture. Then instead of cooking it in a pan or on a griddle, she put the bread on the waffle iron and cooked like any other waffle. Deliciousness abounds!
When pressed to determine which is my favorite meal to prepare and eat, I will always admit that I love breakfast above all the rest. What other meal allows you combine sweet with savory in the same way as that morning meal? This looks like a particularly good breakfast, with french toast, fruit and sausage. Thanks to Superape for adding your image to the Slashfood pool!
Mmm, French toast. It's one those perfect weekend breakfast (or brunch) foods. But what if you don't eat eggs? The test kitchen over at Bakers Banter has come up with a recipe for making the breakfast delight.
Someone asked the King Arthur Flour blog how to make French Toast for a person with egg allergies, and they jumped right on it. I haven't tried it, but everything looked good on the post. The recipe itself is based on some tapioca starch and half and half with flavorings.
Bakers Banter did say that this French toast doesn't taste egg-y (of course), but it does have a good look and texture for the breakfast food. If you have someone who doesn't eat eggs for some reason, this might be a great new breakfast tradition for you to start.
Several months ago I came into temporary possession of a bunch of my great aunt's recipe cards. One of the recipes that was in the stack my cousin lent me is the one for challah that you see above. I was intrigued by it, especially since she had taken time to draw a diagram as to how you go about braiding the bread. However I didn't make it, instead tucking it away in the file folder that held the rest of my thesis research recipes.
Then I saw this post over on Two Fat Als, and the picture they posted of the gorgeous, burnished loaf of challah they had made recently and my heart started afluttering. I wanted to make challah. I've put this recipe down as one to try out this weekend, when I have a few minutes to spend kneading and hanging out as it rises. Challah is actually a great Saturday afternoon project because while it's wonderful fresh, it's even better dredged in an eggy batter and fried up into French Toast on Sunday mornings.
Over on my personal blog, I played a game with my readers, and one of the questions that I asked them was about their breakfast preferences: Do you prefer savory or sweet?
A long time ago, I wouldn't have eaten anything other than pancakes, waffles, or French toast dripping with sugared fruits, maple syrup, and whipped cream. These days, however, I find those types of breakfasts more like dessert than a way to start the day. Is it my old age? Who knows? Regardless, I absolutely love a delicious breakfast of eggs in any format, whether it's huevos rancheros, eggs Benedict, an omelet stuffed with cheese and vegetables or simple scrambled eggs.
Which do you prefer for breakfast: savory or sweet?
I know Sarah has mentioned before that she isn't a big fan of Cold Stone Creamery ice cream, but I have a feeling this flavor may be enough to change her mind, especially knowing how much she adores French toast.
In an attempt to make ice cream acceptable at all times of the day, Cold Stone has introduced French toast-flavored ice cream (apparently only available for a limited time) and has made one of their custom desserts called "French Toast with the Most™ - the flavored ice cream topped with apple pie filling, pecans, and cinnamon.
Acceptable breakfast food? Maybe not, but it sounds tempting enough to try.
Y'all know how much I love French toast; and a stuffed French toast? I may as well assume I'm going to be out of commission with a food coma for the entire day after I gorge myself on multiple helpings.
You know, they say that you should try not to start your day with high-sugar carbohydrates because it makes you crave carbs and bad things for the rest of the day, but you know what? Screw them, whoever "they" are! How can you not start your day with something like these French Toast waffles, as made by InfraredHerring. The recipe is from a cookbook dedicated entirely to waffles, though this one is simply a soaking of rich eggy bread in a rich eggy sauce, then pressed in a waffle iron. Brilliantly delicious! And I seriously doubt you'll crave anything after a couple pieces!
Not really sure why this is called 
Mmmm...
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