Do you mind if I have a drink while we talk? Going out for brunches, I hate going out for brunch I like the host brunch everyone's can bring over the kids, have a few drinks, and be gone by 3:00 p
m, which is great Now, I'm gonna punch up your brunch with two French toasts, one savoury with bacon, smoked cheddar and chives and a sweet one with a chocolate hazelnut spread and the best part? All of this can be prepped the day before So our French toasts start with a standard custard I've got a dozen eggs here that I've cracked and then a little bit of milk, 2% milk, but if you want to get really decadent, you could use heavy cream
You could use a lighter milk if you like, skim milk, 1% milk, but it all goes in We're gonna put a pinch of salt for both savoury and sweet, just to wake up all the flavors I'm gonna whisk it up Now you'll notice that in this custard, because I'm using savoury and sweet, I'm not putting any vanilla or sweet elements in the custard I want the custard to be versatile, so I'm just going egg and milk here, pinch of salt, break all the yolks
Brunch is good, especially for new parents, because it's not like the old days, where you can go out as adults, you know, it's difficult, so brunch allows the parents to come over, they bring the kids, you have your kids, everyone's together and you can still have an excuse to drink midday — within reason Now our filling for our savoury French toast starts with room-temperature cream cheese I want it to be nice and soft so I can break it up I'm using a spatula for this job because I don't want to get intertwined into a whisk So I've got the soft cream cheese here, smoked cheddar to give us a real nuanced flavour
Use your favourite cheese here, a gruyere would be great, even a mozzarella to get a real stretch, but I love smoked cheddar in this recipe plays well with the bacon that we're gonna use as well We've got a little bit of chive, finely chopped and then the bacon, like I mentioned, goes really well with that smoked cheddar, really smoky, beautiful big flavors, into the filling A little bit of salt and pepper, it is savoury after all Kind of reminds me of a Monte Cristo, which is like a sandwich made with French toast instead of the bread And we get in there, mix it up
Now if it's still a little bit stiff even at room temperature give it a splash a full fat whipping cream to get it luxurious and it will give us that oozing effect when the French toast gets hot Not too much, two tablespoons or so will do it And get in, get it nice and soft and creamy Sometimes the challenge with brunch is to try and please everyone, get the savoury people with an Eggs Benny, get the sweet people with waffles Well what I've done, is I've got two French toast recipes, savoury and sweet, to please everyone's palate
Now that's our savoury filling, let's move on to our sweet filling after a sip If you're cooking the brunch for everyone you've earned it Now, cream cheese again, versatile, a little bit of whipping cream again to get it soft just like we did with the savory Here we go No salt and pepper in this one, of course
A little bit of vanilla extract, good quality vanilla extract, love that, and you can eyeball it but a tablespoon And then the star: the chocolate hazelnut filling to really get us that molten effect Look at this Quick trick, you can even zap it in a microwave to get it flowing, and then again with our spatula and get into it, get it nice and soft Go slow it's gonna end up on your shirt
You know, Caesars are an excuse to get cured meats and cheese into a drink and it's a brunch thing, you don't order a Caesar on a Tuesday afternoon at lunch, that's bizarre It's just one of the— this is what you drink on a Sunday afternoon right? You get your your pickles and your your hot sauce into a drink that's a specifically Sunday brunch phenomenon So I've got this Challah, this egg bread I've cut it into maybe 1 inch slices, I would say one and a quarter, and I'm gonna make an incision with a knife into the side of the bread creating a pocket to accommodate my stuffing so really important that you go into the side without cutting a hole on the other side that's gonna capture all the filling and then I'll start the savory one first I put it in a piping bag remember how we made it pliable enough with the whipping cream so that it would come out nicely and into the French toast just like that and then right into the custard it's not too sweet we didn't add any sugar so that it'll take a savory application drain off the extra custard just like that and then onto a sheet tray look how many portions I can make ahead of time great for feeding a crowd now I've got the same challenge here for the sweet french toast create a pocket it's gonna take all this filling and same idea I've got the pastry bag I pushed from the back and I get into the pocket I created I fill it up mmm so good into the same custard give it a good dunk it's gonna soak up all that custard goodness and you could see on this sheet tray I put a little bit of melted butter brown sugar and corn syrup to give me a nice glaze on the bottom it's gonna really cook up nicely just like that now I want these to be dunked in the custard at least half an hour before so that it absorbs into the egg bread but again you could do this the night before so that you put it in your fridge pull it out when your guests arrive and hit the oven 350 degrees 15 to 20 minutes total but flip them halfway through so that you get good color on each side you know the best part about brunch is that people leave by like three o'clock so if the rest of the night to do whatever you want but the worst is when people linger kind of lingers look at these are French toasts are finally out of the oven look at the caramelization on the sweet ones with this kind of glaze this brown sugar glaze on the bottom and then our savory one also got great color I flipped halfway through so we get this browning on each side and now I'm gonna plate them up so here's the bacon stuffed savory french toast I want to see a nice use here oh it's soft and creamy on the inside look at this awesome gonna shingle this on a plate it's crispy on the outside golden brown and then I can kind of garnish it with more bacon perfect brunch food let's see a little Dijon is nice again to play up that Monte Cristo feel more smoked cheddar on top and some people like sweet and savory I'm one of those people a little bit of maple syrup it goes well with the smoked cheddar definitely with bacon and it's allowed at brunch putting maple syrup on anything at brunch is cool look at that love that with the bacon some garnish perfect for entertaining and I can't wait now to see the sweet version look at this glaze beautiful crunchy outside mmm look at this all the caramelized sugars I hope this chocolate haze on that filling news is out yes look at this soft and creamy let's shingle it as well Ryan over here and this is fun because your guests can dress their french toast the way they like it they like more hazelnut on top by all means some fresh berry of course like I said I sapped that chocolate hazelnut spread in the microwave to make it more pliable I like to put more on top love that and then a little dusting of powdered sugar to give it a little fancy finish a really fun interactive brunch I paired everything with a simple fruit salad with a little bit of mint mixed berries pineapple melon to make it a complete meal now me I'm sticking with the classic Caesar and I'd invite you to stay but didn't you say you have to go somewhere
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