Pain Perdu

This dish falls somewhere between “French” toast and bread pudding and with a caramelized buttery exterior and a custardy interior it makes for a sinful Sunday morning brunch.I used some good sandwich bread this morning, but this really works best with a crusty baguette. If custard dipped, butter fried bread isn’t quite rich enough for you, try putting some crisp bacon on top and drizzle maple syrup over that during its last few minutes in the oven.

Yield:

Serves 2

Ingredients

1. 2 pieces of baguette or other firm bread about 4″ x 3″ x 2″ each
2. .
3. For the Custard:
4. ===============
5. 3/4 C whole milk
6. 1/4 C cream
7. 1/4 C sugar
8. 1 extra large egg
9. 1 tsp vanilla
10. .
11. To Serve:
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13. 2 Tbs butter

Directions

1. The night before you want to eat this, whisk the milk, cream, sugar, egg and vanilla together until smooth. Put the bread in a large ziplock bag and pour in the custard mixture. Make sure the bread is well coated then squeeze out as much of the air from the bag as you can (without squashing the bread) and seal the bag. Put it in the fridge and turn it over once after a few hours.
2. The next morning, heat the oven to 350 degrees. Then heat an oven proof pan large enough to accommodate both pieces of bread over medium heat. Drop the butter in and let it melt.
3. Take the bread out of the bag and place it in the pan. Once it’s brown on that side, turn it to another side. Depending on how many sides your bread has, repeat until all flat surfaces of your bread is browned.
4. Pop it in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until an instant read thermometer inserted into the middle of the bread reads 170 degrees. You can also tell if it’s done or not by cutting a little slit into the middle of the bread and squeezing, if liquid custard mixture comes out it’s not done.
5. Give it an ample dusting of powdered sugar and serve with a wedge of lemon or some maple syrup.

Notes