Toast Eiffel for IMBB 25

I'll tell you where you can shove your stale bread... into that bowl of egg-mix, over there. Amazing how a bit of egg juice can bring a dry old crust back to life. In my case, yesterday's brioche. The dish? French Toast, of course. Pain Perdu, as the French would say. Or Freedom Toast, if you're a Republican.



I decided to make my Pain Perdu look a bit French. And so I'm calling it Toast Eiffel. Although this does not in any way imply an affiliation or relationship between my toast and any tower in Paris, nor between said toast and any member of the Eiffel family.

The recipe is my own mash-up of Larrouse Gastronomique and The Instant Cook. The love-child of Joël Robuchon and Donna Hay, if you like. Basically, it's pretty much a classic French Toast, only instead of starting with plain slices of stale bread, you make a chocolate sandwich from brioche, then dunk it in egg.



It's surprisingly easy to make. Slice up your brioche. Melt some dark chocolate. Spread it on. Make your sandwich. And if you feel like getting creative, trim it into some snazzy shape, like the Eiffel Tower, or maybe the Arc de Triomphe.

The egg mix is just an egg or two, a slurp of milk, some cinnamon, fine sugar and a dribble of vanilla essence. If you want to show off, you might pre-heat some milk with a vanilla bean the day before. But I'm lazy, so I used vanilla essence. Then you dunk your sandwich in the mix and slop it around to soak up the juices.



Finally, fry your soggy sandwiches in some butter, for a few minutes each side, till nicely golden brown, et voila... you're done. Serve with a dusting of whatever fine white powder happens to be lying around (I used a vanilla bean dusting powder)... and eat.

For Breakfast Blog regulars who are wondering what the hell I'm doing cooking, rather than reviewing, this is my first crack at Is My Blog Burning? IMBB is like Iron Chef for food bloggers. When I saw that IMBB25 had a stale bread theme, I couldn't resist.