Showing posts with label French bread. Show all posts
Showing posts with label French bread. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Baguette French Toast



If you are a fan of French Toast then you will absolutely love this version—especially if you are a bread lover like me. A good baguette is best when eaten fresh. Don't eat it fast enough and you will soon find that your tasty French loaf has started to turn stale and become hard. That is the perfect time to turn it into some amazing French toast. Golden, crispy, and buttery on the outside and soft and delicious on the inside, this French Toast is like no other.

This recipe is super-easy, even if you have never made French toast before. All you need is a day-old loaf of French baguette bread, and egg or two, milk, and some incidentals that you probably already have in your kitchen cabinet. 

Here is what you will need:
Loaf of French Baguette bread
1-2 eggs
3/4 to 1 & 1/2 cups milk
Cinnamon
Salt
Sugar
Butter
Powdered confectioner's sugar for garnish
Maple syrup for serving


Use a sharp bread knife to cut the baguette into slices. I aim for slices that are about 1/2" wide and no larger than about 3/4" wide. Cut all the slices and set aside.



Prepare the batter by whisking an egg in a medium sized bowl. Add 3/4 cup of milk to the egg and whisk together until completely blended. This amount of egg and milk is enough for two people, or a half loaf of baguette. 

If you are serving three or more, or if you are very hungry or making an entire loaf of baguette or more, then use two eggs instead of one and use 1 & 1/4 cup of milk plus a little more if needed. 

If you add too little milk to your mixture it will become too eggy and when you cook it it will be like scrambled eggs cooked into your toast. If you add too much milk, your mixture will become too milky and your end result will be soggy, so you have to get the balance just right. Start with less milk and then add a bit more a little at a time as needed. In general it should be more of a milky consistency than an eggy consistency.

Once your eggs and milk are combined, add a pinch of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, and a generous teaspoon of cinnamon. Mix until completely combined. 

Heat a medium to large sized fry pan on medium-low heat and then coat with about 1 teaspoon of butter. Right when the butter is about to brown, dunk a few slices of the baguette into the egg and milk mixture, turning them over to completely coat them on all sides and to allow them to soak up the liquid as shown in the above photo. 



Hold each piece above the bowl for a moment to allow excess liquid to drip from the bread and then carefully place the slices onto the hot fry pan. Do this with a few more pieces until your fry pan is full, but leave enough room in the pan so that you can turn them. 

Keep a close eye on the slices and turn down the heat just a tad so that they do not burn on the outside. Fry the slices for a few minutes, checking the bottoms every so often. You want the outsides to be golden brown and you want the insides to be completely cooked. 



Once the bottoms start to brown, carefully flip each slice over and cook the other side for a few minutes until golden brown and cooked throughout. 

Add more butter if needed. I usually add a bit more butter right at the time when I am flipping them over so that the pan stays coated. 



These slices are perfectly done! 



Once the slices turn golden, remove from pan onto plate and serve. Add a sprinkle of powered confectioner's sugar if you like, or serve with maple syrup. 

French Toast is great served with fresh fruit and either bacon or sausage on the side. This is never just for breakfast at our house—we enjoy it for dinner too!





Have a great week!
Laura


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Article copyright ©Laura Beth Love 2019 and may not be republished in print or other media without express written permission from the author. 

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Baking Homemade Baguettes - Baguette Recipe

One of the most comforting foods in autumn and winter is fresh homemade bread. French Baguettes, to be exact. Crusty on the outside, light and airy on the inside, warm out of the oven...there's just not one bad thing about that, no matter how you look at it!

I don't often write about food on my blog, but today, when I decided to make baguettes, I had the idea to take some photos along the way so I could share with you how it's done, or at least how I do it. 




I love to bake. I enjoy cooking, yes, but I come from a family of women who bake.  You've got a baby shower, wedding, or funeral, you say? We bake. I couldn't tell you how to use a bread machine or how to make those popular fancy cupcakes with elaborate decorative icing designs, but I have the world's best recipes for kiffles, nut bread, cakes, and pies. 


Baguettes have a crispy crust and light interior and are the perfect accompaniment for winter soups and stews. They also make great sub sandwiches.  My favorite way to enjoy them though, is simply warm out of the oven with butter. 


There are plenty of baguette recipes to be found in cookbooks and across the internet, but I have found that the basic recipe for baguettes does not have too many variations. Most baguette recipes are very similar. I will often try a few different recipes until I find one that  I like, and then adjust it here and there to suit my tastes. 



The basic ingredients for baguettes are flour, salt, dry yeast, and water. 



I also like to sprinkle a little bit of sea salt or course salt onto my baguettes right before 
I pop them into the oven.



French Baguettes

One package of active dry yeast (about 2 & 1/2 teaspoons)
1 & 1/4 cups of warm water
1/2 teaspoon sugar
3 & 1/2 cups flour
1 & 1/2 teaspoons salt 

1. In a measuring cup, stir the yeast into the warm water until completely dissolved. Add the sugar and stir. Set aside for five minutes to allow the yeast to activate. 


2. Mix flour and salt in a mixing bowl and create a well in the center of the flour.


3. Pour the yeast mixture into the flour.


4. Gently stir the flour into the liquid (just a few times) to create a paste. Cover and allow to rise/activate for 15 minutes. 

5. Mix thoroughly (I use an electric mixer) until a sticky soft dough is formed. Add additional water (a few Tablespoons) while mixing if needed. 

6. Place dough in a clean bowl, cover, and allow to rise for 90 minutes. 

7. Punch down, then cover again and allow to rise for another hour. 


8. Place dough on a floured surface and slice into two pieces. Gently shape into two loaves. 


9. Place loaves on a lightly floured baking sheet. 


10. Cover the loaves and allow them to rise for about 45 minutes. 

11. Preheat oven to 475 degrees F. 


12. Place a pan of water on a lower oven rack. The steam from the water will help the baguettes form a crispy crust.



13. Before baking, slash the tops of the loaves with a knife. I sprinkle my loaves with a little bit of sea salt before baking them. This is optional.



14. Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly golden. 



15. Remove from the baking pan and cool on a wire rack.


These loaves turned out a little bigger than I would have liked. I probably should have made them into three loaves instead of two! Maybe next time, I will try that instead.  Either way, they were delicious! 





What do you think?


I hope you have a great week! 
Laura

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Article copyright ©Laura Beth Love 2021 and may not be republished in print or other media without express written permission from the author. For any link corrections please leave correct info in comment area.