It's one of those breakfast for dinner kind of days. Minnesota just can't make up it's mind on this Spring thing and it's supposed to snow a few inches tonight. Breakfast for dinner is a pretty frequent occurrence around here so I did branch out a little bit and went with a new recipe just to throw in a little variety, for the kids of course. I grabbed my Tom Douglas' Seattle Kitchen because I thought I had seen some breakfast recipes in there and it's been a little neglected since I bought it a few months ago after seeing a demo of Tom in action.
I don't normally like orange flavor in many foods but it seemed like a good fit in this French Toast recipe and we had some fresh oranges on hand. I loved all the additions to the egg mixture itself, especially the pure maple syrup and freshly ground nutmeg. The orange juice contrasts nicely to the deep rich maple flavor and even the kids went crazy for it. I used a french baguette I made last weekend and baking it in the oven for 5 minutes after the griddle ensured that it was cooked all the way through.
Orange Cinnamon French Toast
adapted from Tom Douglas' Seattle Kitchen
Ingredients
6 large eggs
2 cups half-and-half
2/3 cup fresh orange juice
Grated zest from 1 orange
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
thickly sliced french bread
Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Combine the eggs, half-and-half, orange juice, and zest, maple syrup, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a bowl. Soak the bread thouroughly in the custard mixture.
Heat a large saute pan or griddle over medium heat (350 degrees) and add 2 tablespoons butter. Once the butter is melted and beginning to foam, place the slices of soaked bread on the pan. Fry the bread until golden brown, about 3 minutes, then flip and brown the other side. Remove the French toast to a baking pan and continue cooking the remaining bread. When all the bread is in the baking pan, put the pan in the oven for 5 to 10 minutes, until the French toast is hot and cooked through.
Interesting ingredients you have there. I can't figure out how these will taste exactly. Shall try something myself to find out :) I like how you finished them off in the oven too.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds marvelous! Orange isn't my first go-to flavor either, but I agree that it works well with French toast~
ReplyDeleteI love the flavors you have going on here...I would never think to put orange in there but I am sure it tastes fantastic!
ReplyDeleteI like using orange bread as the base for French toast, so this sounds like it would be good, too.
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