Cooking with a K | The Triangle

Cooking with a K

Vanilla French Toast with Apple Syrup & Candied Pecans

This recipe was a beautiful mistake that I created this past Christmas morning. On Christmas Eve I purchased a beautiful loaf of Challah for French toast the following morning. As I dipped the bread into the batter I realized we didn’t have any maple syrup on hand (and of course, every grocery store was closed). I saw a few apples sitting on the counter, and genius struck. I decided to throw some butter in a pan with the chopped apples and sugar. Lo and behold, a thick syrup began to form.

Since that morning, I’ve adjusted the recipe to a sweet perfection. I begin by candying some pecans with brown sugar and cinnamon. I then get the butter nice and hot on the pan before throwing the crisp apples on to extract some natural sugars before adding the additional white sugar. The French toast batter is just like any other with eggs, milk and cinnamon, but I add vanilla for additional depth of flavor.

Recipe

Candied Pecans:

– 1 cup of pecans (walnuts would work just as well)

– 1/2 cup of brown sugar

– A few dashes of cinnamon

– 2 tablespoons of butter

Warm a small sauté pan over low heat, place the butter and melt completely. Place the pecans in the pan and toss to coat. Warm them for a minute, then toss the pecans with the cinnamon and sugar. Let them warm through for a few minutes. Take them off of the heat to cool.

Apple Syrup:

-3 sliced apples (preferably Honeycrisp)

-1 cup of white sugar

-3 tablespoons of butter

-A few dashes of cinnamon

Place a large sauté pan over medium heat for three minutes, then place the butter on the pan. Place the sliced apples into the butter once it is bubbling. Toss to coat, and let them sit for a couple of minutes. Place the cup of sugar and dashes of cinnamon over the apples, and stir occasionally. Make sure that the apples don’t break down too much, or you’ll make applesauce. This should take about 12 minutes.

Vanilla French Toast:

– 1 Loaf of good white/ egg bread (preferably Challah)

– 8 eggs

– 1 cup milk

– 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

– 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

– butter

Heat a large pan or electric skillet to medium-low heat. Mix the eggs, milk, cinnamon and vanilla in a large bowl. Place one slice of bread at a time into the batter. Place a small amount of butter onto the pan and cook each piece of toast for a few minutes until it is lightly browned.

To Plate:

Place the toast on a large serving platter, pour the warm apple mixture over the toast and sprinkle with the candied pecans.