feel food club

French toast

Cinnamon Roll French Toast Sticks that Anyone Can Make

by Kommentar verfassen

This is beyond good. I am not even such a big French toast or sweet breakfast lover but this … this is some seriously addicting stuff. Cinnamon-sugar, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside bread, dipped in a berry compote. Just saying, if you are not trying this, you are missing out!!

When it comes to breakfast I pretty much ALWAYS go for savoury. The only times I do not choose a savoury one is when we do not have bread, avocado or eggs at home or when I come up with a new recipe. Even when I am out for brunch, I never order something sweet. BUT this recipe made me reconsider my decision and this French toast is about to compete with avocado toast. And that means a whole lot.

What is special about this dish?

Think of it as French toast meets cinnamon roll – what do you want more? You have all the classics you love so much about French toast – the soaked bread, the sweet marinade, the maple syrup – and then you also have what you love most about cinnamon rolls – the cinnamon sugar!

PLUS this recipe is super simple, easy to make, requires very, very few ingredients and is healthier than your normal French toast. It is perfect for those cozy Sundays in bed or for Christmas morning or brunch. Ideal for those mornings where you just want good food but do not want to go to the grocery store.

Is this dish healthy?

Healthy-ish. It still does contain sugar, otherwise it would barely be a French toast, but instead of white, refined sugar we are using coconut sugar, which also comes along other nutrients such as fibre and vitamins. Instead of white toast we are using sourdough bread, which not only tastes great in French toast but also is partially whole wheat (in most cases).

And instead of only serving it with maple syrup, which also would be too sweet in my eyes, we are serving it with some greek yoghurt and stewed, frozen berries, that balance out the sweetness perfectly.

How to make this dish?

This probably is the best part about this. Anyone can make this. This is so incredibly easy because lets be honest who wants to spend hours in the kitchen when their tummy is empty and already growling?

We start by slicing the bread into sticks that are about 1- 1,5cm thick and 3 cm wide. Now we need to mix the ingredients for the „marinade“, so eggs (could be subbed for chia egg), milk (you could sub for plant based milk) , honey and cinnamon. Now we let the bread take a little bath in the mixture, for about 5 minutes. That way they soak up a lot of flavour and become juicy when frying, which is our next step.

We heat up some oil/ butter and fry the sticks for about 2-3 minutes on each side. In the meantime we are preparing a cinnamon sugar cover by simply mixing cinnamon and coconut sugar. Once the bread is done in the pan, they get a good shake in the cinnamon sugar and they are ready to be eaten!! Delicious!

When and how to best have them?

Anytime, anyway with anything. Not kidding, you’ll want them all the time. I love them as a brunch, a breakfast, a breakfast for dinner kind of thing or even a lunch. Yes, they would also work great as a snack or dessert.

It is great to make this when you have some (stale) bread from the day before and do not know how to make use of it otherwise or when you just want an easy but fancy breakfast!

I hope that you will enjoy this recipe and make it over and over!

Have fun cooking & enjoy!
Love,
Katie // Une Petite Cuisinière

Print

Cinnamon Roll French Toast Sticks that Anyone Can Make

Delicious. Easy. Healthyish. Like a crossover of french toast and cinnamon roll. Perfect brunch in bed!

Course Breakfast, brunch, Dessert
Prep Time 10 Minuten
Cook Time 10 Minuten
Total Time 20 Minuten
Servings 2 servings
Calories 515 kcal

What you will need

  • 3-4 slices sourdough bread (about 1.5 cm thick)
  • 1 egg
  • 100 ml milk or plant based milk
  • 2 tbsp honey
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tbsp oil or magarine/ butter
  • 1/2 lemon juiced
  • 300 g frozen berries
  • 3-4 tbsp coconut sugar
  • 3-4 tsp cinnamon
  • some greek yoghurt to serve with

How to

  1. Cut the slices of bread into about 2,5-3cm wide sticks. In a large bowl combine the egg, milk, honey and 2 tsp of cinnamon. Add the bread slices into the mixture and let them soak it up for about 5 minutes.

  2. Heat up the oil in a pan and fry the sticks for about 2-3 minutes on each side until golden and crispy. In the meantime heat up the frozen berries with the lemon juice on medium high heat.

  3. To a bowl add the coconut sugar and remaining cinnamon and mix through. Once the bread is done frying, toss it in this mixture and add to a plate. Serve with greek yoghurt and the berries! Enjoy!

No waste French Toast with Basil Apricots

by Kommentar verfassen

This recipe post is a very special one to me. I do not just want to introduce a super delicious and healthy recipe to you but I also want to address a topic with this: sustainability and food waste in the kitchen. I believe that there is way to much food thrown away and that way to often we do not care about making conscious and sustainable decisions in the kitchen. With this recipe I designed one that is low to zero waste, that is fully organic and local and that is made of regional ingredients from Austria. Kind of a back to the roots recipe to raise awareness of how wasteful we can be in the kitchen.

But first, what even is French toast?

I think most of us know, but not everyone. French Toast is bread that has been soaked in milk, eggs, and sugar (traditionally) and then is fried in a pan, served with syrup. In Austria it also is very popular with the name „Armer Ritter“. It is something actually pretty traditional in the Austrian cuisine but has only become really popular with the American name „French Toast“.

How to reduce (food) waste with French toast

The great thing about this dish is that it is something we Austrians would call „Restlessen“. This literally translates to eating the remains, so what’s left. It is an amazing (and pretty tasty) way to use leftovers.

  • Instead of throwing bread away that is one week old and already pretty stale, you can use it for this recipe. That way you save food from being thrown away AND you make a super tasty meal. A win win. But it still is by far not popular enough, unfortunately, that’s why I want to encourage you to give it a shot. Next time you consider throwing bread away, try this out.
  • Similar goes for the apricots. I sometimes feel that apricots are like avocados. They are not ripe for a week and then suddenly one day they are and the next they go bad. And if you do not want to make something with the apricots this one exact day when they are good, you are likely to throw them away. Which is sad. When you cook them down, add some lemon juice, a little sweetener and some fresh basil you basically make something like jam (Marmalade). And this will last for several days in the fridge. Again, you do not have to throw anything away and you create something super tasty. What I love most about this is that you can add this „jam“ to basically anything from yogurt bowls, porridge, cake to ice cream or another dessert cream. And no, you cannot only make this with apricots. With pretty much any fruit it works. Peaches, berries, cherries, whatever you have on hand and you feel like you can use up.

What about the rest?

Well, that’s the two main components that are contributing to reduce waste. But what about the rest? We still need milk, eggs, sweetener, oil and yogurt. So one by one.

  • Milk: As for the milk, I love to buy it as Joseph Brot . This comes from Austrian farmers, is all organic and packaged in glass bottles. Glass bottles are amazing because they are reusable. And also if you cannot return them you can use them at home for example when you make fresh smoothies or juices. Reuse and reduce waste.
  • Bread: Joseph Brot to be honest is where I go for most of my organic ingredients for recipes like those. Not only do they have the best and organic sourdough bread in whole Vienna, which is made of grains from Austria but it also comes in paper bags. No plastic.
  • Yoghurt: Moreover they have organic Austrian yoghurt. Another ingredient for this recipe. And again, it comes in glass jars. Whenever such a jar is empty I love to use it for storage. No matter if it is for nuts, dried fruits or a homemade sauce or dip that needs to be stored in the fridge. I just wash them when empty and reuse them. So incredibly handy to have on hand. I am not in any way sponsored by them and I do not want to tell you that you need to go there to buy your ingredients. Most supermarkets (I know Billa and Spar do so) have milk and yoghurt in glass jars. But what I love most about going to Joseph is that I know that the products don’t travel for days because they are all from Austria. This also is better for the environment of course and their CO2 footprint.
  • The sweetener: I love using honey as a sweetener because of several reasons: first, it’s super tasty, second, it is healthier than sugar since it does have some nutrients, third: you get it at every corner in Austria. Plus, most of the times you get it in glass jars. No plastic, less waste, reusable. I have already told you why glass jars are pretty cool but think about this: you empty your honey jar, you wash it and you can store your homemade apricot jam in it. Isn’t that amazing? It is!
  • Eggs: here it is really hard to go no waste. But there are great ways to can get close! When you purchase eggs do not buy them pre-packaged. Either buy them on a farmers market or some supermarkets have places where you can fill them into the boxes yourself. This is really convenient because you an reuse the cartoon boxes several times and you d not automatically take a new one every time you purchase eggs. Another thing that I have seen recently is a reusable egg container. So it is like a cartoon box but made out of plastic (unfortunately) but you can basically use it forever and always refill it. if you want to go 100% zero waste you could also, after using the eggs, compost the shell or if you have a farmer close to you give it to them because they may feed it to their chicken.
  • Oil: last but not least we have the oil. I prefer using something like sunflower seed oil because it is quite neutral in taste but it is regional and often comes in glasswork bottles. But also coconut oil works well (just that it is not regional here) because it has a very high cooking temperature. Also, it most of the time comes in glas containers. Again, you can reuse them. In the kitchen, for storage or even for decoration. If you add some flower leaves and a candle, this makes a beautiful decoration and accounts for an amazing atmosphere.

Why buying local?

Buying local can never harm. There are 2 main reasons I buy local. the first one is the impact it has on the environment. The transportation already makes a huge difference if the apricots come from Styria, which is 200km away or from Portugal, which is 2000km away. They do not need to be shipped by plane, they do not need a cooling system that lasts for days and is energy consuming. They come from Styria, maybe on the same day you purchase and use them.

Secondly, right now, more than ever it is important to support your local economy and local farmers. This crisis has hit every single one of us and some more than others. Of course apricots from Portugal may be cheaper because agricultural standard are not as high as they are here and therefore Austrian farmers have a harder time competing with farmers from abroad. But in order to keep the Austrian system alive and to fight through this crisis together we have to stay strong and support each other.

The last point: why buying organic

I think we have all heard that buying organic (Bio) food is better than purchasing non organic food! But why actually? Several reasons. When jr comes to fruit and veggies I would ALWAYS long for organic food when available. When being produced organic no pesticides or chemicals are allowed to be used. The use of those does not only harm our environment and soil in the long term but it actually is not good for our overall health. All of the things that have been added or injected into the food to help it trow faster and bigger can in the long term really mess up your gut and the bacteria in it and digestion. Those are things our bodies don’t know and therefore do not know how to really handle it. So really, try to buy organic. It is more expensive but your health should be worth the investment.

The other reason is, when it comes to animal products, the living conditions of the animals are better than for non-organic. Unfortunately they are not always much better or good, but organically produced animal products have higher standards.

Why doing and considering all of this? 

See, if we keep our food consumption and buying behavior as is, these are not very good conditions for the agriculture in the future. We need to make a change and we should start now. Producing less or no waste is essential as well as supporting local economy (especially after or while facing such a crisis). Furthermore it is better for our bodies and the environment when we make a change to organic shopping.

I know all of this information may be a little bit overwhelming at once. Still, I wanted to pack it all in one blog post to have the overview and because it is so important to me. I just wanted to give you a brief introduction into all of these aspects but I can also do a more detailed blog post on these topics if you are interested. But for now, I hope that you will love and enjoy this recipe and keep all of this information in the back of your head.

Print

No waste Apricot Basil French Toast

Course Breakfast, brunch, Dessert
Prep Time 10 Minuten
Cook Time 10 Minuten
Total Time 20 Minuten
Servings 2 servings

What you will need

  • 1 egg
  • 150 ml milk
  • 2 tbsp honey
  • a pinch of sea salt
  • 2 large slices of bread can be a few days old and stale
  • 5-6 apricots
  • 1 handful basil
  • 1 tbsp butter or oil
  • 150 g greek yoghurt
  • 1 tbsp honey

How to

  1. Combine the eggs, milk, honey and sea salt in a bowl. Add the slices of bread and dip them into the mixture. Let them soak in the liquid for about 2 minutes on each side.

  2. In a pan heat up half of the butter. Slice the apricots and finely slice the basil. Add the apricots into the hot pan and sautée them for 2 minutes on high heat. Turn the heat down to medium and add the basil and honey and let simmer for about 5 minutes until it is a bit saucy.

  3. Add the remaining butter to another pan and heat it up. Add the soaked bread and fry on each side for about 3 minutes on medium high. Take the bread out and place it on two plates. Add the remaining egg and milk mixture to the pan and make "sweet scrambled eggs".

  4. In a seperate bowl combine the greek yoghurt with the honey and whisk until creamy and smooth. Top the french toast with the basil apricots and the whipped honey greek yoghurt. Serve with some more honey or maple syrup and enjoy!

Happy cooking,
Enjoy,
Katie // Une Petite Cuisiniere

French Toast with Whipped Ricotta and Figs

by 1 Kommentar

When it comes to breakfast I am usually the savory, and quick kind of person. I´ll mostly go for some avo toast with scrambled eggs or if I want something sweet for a yoghurt-chia pudding bowl with fresh fruit. Both of these come together in like 3 minutes and are really good. But on the weekends when I am not in a hurry I like to make something a little more time consuming. Sometimes I´ll go for something like eggs benedict or a beautiful fruit platter and eggs, pancaked or whatever I feel like. 

Last week though, we had this really nice, fluffy bread that was so good!! But I simply didn´t feel like having something savory so I decided to try making a french toast. I hadn´t made French toast often before that and I have actually never eaten until a little over a year when I visited the US for the first time. We used to get it in the cafeteria a few times a week and it was soo good! I remembered this French toast instantly when I saw this bread so I immediately decided to make it. 

The secret to making the best French Toast is thick bread slices, like 3cm, and a good amount of butter or coconut oil for frying. This makes it really crispy on the outside but really delicious and gooey on the inside, which equals the perfect French toast. The perfect bread to use is Brioche bread, but latterly ever bread works fine. If you are using a rather sweet bread like brioche, you do not have to make the dipping as sweet, but if you go for a dark on, you should make it a little sweeter. I have made both, with a brioche one and with one that actually was a potato-sourdough one, and they both turned out insanely delicious and addicting!

It actually is super simple to make and only asks for ingredients most people have on hand, which makes it a perfect Sunday morning breakfast when all the stores are closed anyway. For the dipping I used whole eggs because I think that they simply taste better than just the egg whites, almond milk, but you can use any dairy or dairy-free milk you like, some honey and a ton of cinnamon – because you can never have too much cinnamon. 

The toppings are the best part of every meal I think – also here. The whipped honey Ricotta is so insanely tasty and has such an addiction effect, it is soooo good! It has the perfect sweetness, the sweetness that already is in the rich Ricotta, and then that super good honey flavor. Mixed together and whipped fluffy, just good. Let me tell you, you won´t ever eat French toast without that again. It is not as fatty as butter or cream but it definitely beats it in flavor. Such a great variation to the good old piece of butter on top. 

The fresh figs perfectly round up the entire dish. They add a freshness and a bite, while not giving a contrast that is too harsh. I like using figs as they are seasonal and grown local at this time of the year but if you prefer berries, bananas or any other fruit that would work perfectly fine too. If you feel like getting extra fancy, you can even caramelize your fruits a little if you heat up some coconut oil or butter in a pan, add some sugar and then the fruit. This gives it an extra dish but I do not like it to be too sweet, so I leave out this step. The toast still tastes amazing. The crispy on the outside soggy on the inside toast, the creamy, tangy whipped Ricotta, the fresh fruits, and then that drizzle of honey on top. What do you want more?

5 von 1 Bewertung
Print

French Toast with Whipped Ricotta and Figs

Perfect Sunday Brunch Meal for a sweet tooth.

Course Breakfast, brunch, Dessert
Prep Time 10 Minuten
Cook Time 10 Minuten
Total Time 20 Minuten
Servings 2 People
Calories 661 kcal

What you will need

For the toast:

  • 160 G Brioche Bread or any other bread you like
  • 200 ml Almond Milk
  • 2 Eggs
  • 1 tsp Cinnamon
  • 2 tsp Honey can substitute for Maple if you prefer
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 tbsp Coconut Oil maybe more depending on your pan

For the Whipped Ricotta:

  • 160 g Ricotta
  • 1 tbsp Honey

For the toppings:

  • 3-4 figs
  • some honey

How to

  1. Thats how it works:

  2. Add the milk, the eggs, the cinnamon, honey, and salt in a big bowl and mix until all combined. Meanwhile heat up the coocnut oil in a pan. Once hot, dip the bread slices into the milk mixture so that both sides are covered with it.

    Place the dipped bread into the pan and fry on each side for about 3-4 minutes, until golden brown. If you feel like they are sticking to the pan simply add more oil.

  3. While the toast are frying add the Ricotta and the honey into a bowl. EIther with a hand mixer or simply with an egg whisk, whip it up until its all creamy and fluffy.

  4. Cut the figs in half or quaters.

  5. Take the bread out of the pan once it is finished. Top it with the Ricotta, the figs ad an extra drizzle of Honey.

  6. Enjoy!