Almond-Crusted French Toast with Cinnamon Apple & Creme Patisserie – golden, eggy slices of bread coated in almonds, with caramelised apple & strawberries.  Jump to Recipe 

French toast, pain perdue. Considering it isn’t certain whether it originated in France at all, the latter does seem fitting – meaning “lost bread”, a way to reclaim stale, or unwanted loaves. As a child, early on Sunday mornings, while the house was gradually waking up (this was before early morning sport training and events), Dad would make us french toast for breakfast – I don’t even know how old I was. It was a weekend treat, a lazy brunch hosted at 8am, because we’re not the best at sleeping in around here. Later, I would duck down the road to the shops, the streets devoid of cars at that hour, to grab a fresh loaf from the local bakers delight. Better that than to not have french toast at all. Then we got busier, and busier – and french toast kind of dropped off the radar. I still loved it though, and it was my favourite after Saturday morning swim training – golden, rich slices of whatever bread was left-over, surrounded by generous pools of sticky maple syrup. But that gradually stopped too – one of those things that you can never put your finger on what changed or when, only that it was no longer there.

I rediscovered it at Melbourne cafes after moving here – french toast with all the bells and whistles, transformed into a sophisticated brunch dish. Twice baked and paired with creme patisserie and poached rhubarb at Three Bags Full, coconut crusted with pineapple, lime curd and coffee caviar at Industry Beans. Banana bread french toast with pears and salted caramel at Sardi. The over-the-top Elvis french toast at Seven Seeds, with banana caramel, whipped peanut butter and house cured bacon. Infinite possibilities, really. It was back on my mind, and back on the breakfast table.

But with all these fancy versions, I must admit – french toast shouldn’t really need a recipe. It’s something that should be pulled together from the basics of egg and milk, left-over day-old bread and whatever else you feel like putting in it on the day or can find in the fridge. It’s a not-recipe, like food52’s latest app. I still don’t really measure my french toast custard mixture – a few eggs, a splash of milk and a pinch of cinnamon, whisked and dunked.

Although this blog is based on the premise of recipes, of making a certain dish in a certain way – with timing and measurements and temperatures – I still believe that it is an essential skill to be able to cook without one. To have some idea of flavours that might work together, to know the basics of sautéing and oven-roasting times, to be able to adapt recipes to what you have on hand, and to be able to make simple recipes like french toast, or scrambled eggs, or a tomato pasta sauce – purely off the top of your head. If everyone left school able to make 10 basic, healthy recipes from scratch, the current global health problems of obesity and diabetes wouldn’t be such an issue.  A spaghetti bolognese, a stir-fry, healthy burgers…they don’t have to be intimidating. I loved a quote that Traci published last week, by Harry Balzer, a prominent food researcher: “Eat anything you want; enjoy all of your food. Anything you want. Have an apple pie, cookies, ice cream… have all you want. I’m just going to ask you to do one thing. Make all of it.”

But if you want, and if you have the time – this almond-crusted french toast with cinnamon apple & creme patisserie is my current favourite. The almonds add a nuttiness and a crunch to the french toast that is otherwise missing, the creme patisserie a creamy, not-too-sweet layer soaking into the golden, egg soaked bread. Apple is sizzled in butter, brown sugar and cinnamon until tender and just caramelizing, and it’s all topped with fresh strawberries and another drizzling pool of maple syrup (treat yourself with top quality, it’s worth it.) Breakfast of champions, right?

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Golden-brown brioche french toast rest on a thick smear of vanilla bean creme patisserie, topped with citrus roasted rhubarb and roughly chopped pistachios. Jump to Recipe 

Just realised that this is my second week of a sweet breakfast recipe post… hope you don’t mind!

I don’t, but sweet breakfasts are one of my favourite meal categories – french toast, pancakes, brioche, chia puddings, you name it, I’m there (except maybe porridge – but would you class that as sweet?). Cafe trips leave me as indecisive as if I was just asked to make a life or death decision (maybe not quite, but close!), when really I just don’t know whether I want to order the healthy green breakfast with eggs and avocado or the decadent menu option. I often end up ordering both, or forcing my breakfast partner(s) to share with me.. A bad habit to get into, but an irrational fear of missing out on one or the other leaves me torn and completely unable to choose without leaving with serious menu regrets.

It’s strange, as indecisiveness isn’t a problem in other aspects of life – it is just when it comes to food. Whether I am trying to choose what cake to make on the weekend, what to order at a restaurant or what to make for dinner, decisions seem to take much longer and significantly more thought than they realistically should. Part of the problem currently is that I am unable to cook at college, so as soon as I go home I try to fit all my cooking and baking into a week or two of frantic time in the kitchen. Mid-semester break is coming up the week after next, and I currently have ideas spanning twenty or thirty dishes – impossible to fit into an eight day period, but am seriously struggling to choose – because really, how can you say that crumpets are more worthwhile than hotcakes, that strawberry-rhubarb bars are better than lemon-olive oil-sea salt bars, or that an espresso mascarpone banana bread should be prioritised over flaky lemon blueberry scones?

Seriously struggling, I tell you. So if you have any preferences or tips (that don’t include drawing recipes out of a hat…), please let me know!

But back to the recipe. It is based on a dish at a cafe called Three Bags Full that I recreated at home, as getting on a plane to experience it again right when I wanted it was probably a little excessive. The slabs of golden-brown brioche french toast rest on a thick smear of vanilla bean creme patisserie and are topped with citrus roasted rhubarb and roughly chopped pistachios. A partnership of sweet creme patisserie, hot french toast straight from the pan and tart stalks of spring rhubarb with extra nuttiness for texture, it is something I could eat again, and again, and again.

Although the activity levels in our house are such that it is a rarity for everyone to be around on a weekend morning for a lazy midmorning breakfast, I feel like this french toast would be ideal for that situation. It did work well even for different timed meals though, as the creme patisserie and rhubarb can be made well ahead and the french toast just cooked as required. The recipe will make more rhubarb (and possibly more creme patisserie) than you need, but no worries – either make french toast again to use it up, add the rhubarb to your muesli the next day, have it for dessert with ice cream.. I could go on, but the options are limitless! The recipe is also easy to scale up for more people – just use more eggs and milk to dip the french toast in and make a double batch of creme patisserie.

For the brioche loaf, I made my own the night before, left it out to get slightly stale and then used it for the next two days of french toast making – it was absolutely perfect, so if you have time, I would highly recommend Thalia Ho’s recipe (from Butter & Brioche) for brioche loaves. You could also buy a loaf of brioche, challah or similar enriched sweet bread to use – it creates such a different french toast than using a white french baguette or white loaf.

I would also love to try brûléeing the top of the french toast straight after it comes out of the pan with a sprinkle of extra sugar and a blowtorch for extra crispy sugary edges, but that will have to wait until next time!

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