B-b-b-baking: Real American French Toast (Made in Canada)

My roommate makes amazing bread, and because of that, hardly buys any from stores anymore. It's Reading Week now, so since I actually have time, I decided to redeem myself from my first loaf of bread about 2 summers back. What I took from that experience is that the Internet is not always reliable when it comes to making food for humans. I made a lovely "rustic" loaf of bread from the outside, but the inside was dense and somewhere between being cake and bread. My mom told me that I didn't knead it enough, buuut that's because I didn't knead it. The recipe said I didn't *knead* to (ha ha). Well, the thing is, you need to knead if you want nice, fluffy bread. :(

Family Day is when life runs on a Sunday schedule including the busses, so I didn't dare go out. Instead, I invited some friends (however many I had enough dishes and cutlery and space and food for) over to my humble abode for a Family Day brunch, at which they were my fake family members. It was already decided in my head that there would be pancakes, French toast, and scones, but I also didn't want to go out to get groceries until Tuesday since it's 10% off for students at various grocery stores here on Tuesdays. I don't know about you, but I am kind of protective of my sourdough and rye breads, because they are so delicious for toast. That meant that in order to make the French toast happen, I'd have to make my own loaf of bread, so I did just that. So, here it is - how to actually make "French toast" from scratch (except for milling my own flour and raising my own chickens, because ain't nobody got time for that)!

What I learned this weekend about French toast:

- It is apparently the "champion of brunch".
- Like French fries, French toast isn't really French, but American.

- I am not the hugest fan of scrambled eggs, which is what I felt French toast tasted like most of the time, but French toast can actually be delicious. The toast just needs to be a bit thicker so that it can absorb more of a custard instead of becoming like toast adhered to scrambled eggs.
- www.frenchtoast.com is not a website that tells you all that there is to know about French toast. It is a website for a vendor of school uniforms for children.
- If you have leftovers, you can freeze them! Hurrah for emergency carb stashes!

After all of the kneading. When you're a newbie to making your own bread products, you might think to yourself, "How the heck do bakers get their dough to look so gloriously smooth while mine is sticky?" This question was answered for me by my roommate - "You probably didn't knead it enough". This is true. It's amazing what a difference there is between kneading for 3-5 minutes versus 8-10 minutes. Your dough is ready for proofing when it all stays together, doesn't really stick to your hand anymore, and bounces back when you press the surface with your finger.

I've continued to use this trick for rising dough ever since I made Pumpkin Pie Sweet Rolls - which I just realized I didn't post about yet *blush*. It helps when the air is kind of dry and cold, and not very nice for rising your dough. Place a metal baking tray on top of one of the stove elements, turn on the heat to medium for about 30 seconds, and then turn it off. Then, place your bowl/pan with the dough in it covered with plastic wrap.

Again with the loaf pan upon the second rising. You'll get what I'm talking about if you look at the steps in the recipe. :)

I got far too excited watching the thing rise, so it was way over 1 inch above the edge of the pan. Whoops.

I actually had to "re-rise" the dough for a bit, because I forgot how flimsy silicone pans are. It collapsed when I tried taking it off of the metal pie pan, so I replaced it with the larger baking pan and let it rise again.

Please remember to remove the plastic wrap before putting it in the oven. I almost forgot. I am thankful for my "derp" moment of realization. My bread could have had a very tragic ending.

Voila! My fresh loaf of white sandwich bread sitting by the window to cool. *waft waft*

I need to work on my slicing skills a little bit, but they have the cute little round parts on the bread slices. Bread can be cute too, okay?

French toasts! I kind of forgot to take a picture of the large batch I made, but my guests were waiting ever so patiently...

The comical assortment of dishes and mugs for my guests.

My cousin made his own batch of maple syrup, and this unsealed jar was just sitting in my pantry, but brunch did some decent damage :)

French Toast from Scratch 

Bread (adapted from King Arthur Flour)

*makes 1 loaf of bread*

1/2 cup milk

2/3 cup hot water

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 packet instant yeast

2 Tbsp golden-brown sugar

1 tsp table salt

4 Tbsp oil 

1. Boil a kettle of water. You can use it to have some tea while you're making the bread :)

2. Add flour, instant yeast, sugar, salt into a medium-sized metal or Pyrex mixing bowl. 

3. Add milk and hot water into a cup and stir. Add into bowl of dry ingredients.

4. Add oil, and mix by hand until combined. Continue to knead for about 8 minutes until the dough comes together in a ball and doesn't stick to your hand anymore. Test the dough for readiness by gently pressing on the surface with a finger to see if it bounces back. If not, keep kneading.

5. Lightly oil your mixing bowl, form the dough into a ball, and place it in the mixing bowl. Cover with plastic wrap.

6. Place a small baking pan over a stove elements, turn the heat to medium, and then switch off. Place the bowl with your dough on top of the baking pan, and leave to rise for about 1 1/2 hours.

7. Once the dough has risen, spread a bit of oil on your clean counter top or table, and remove the dough from the bowl. Gently shape the dough into a log and place it into a silicone loaf pan, or a lightly greased or lined loaf pan. Cover with plastic wrap, and rise as in Step 6, but just until the dough has risen to about 1 inch above the edge of the pan (about 45 minutes). Preheat the oven to 350 F.

8. Remove the plastic wrap, and bake the bread in the oven for 35-40 minutes or until the bread surface is a nice golden brown, and the bread makes a hollow sound if you tap the bottom.

9. Gently remove the loaf from the pan, and set aside to cool completely before slicing. 

10. For the purpose of French toast, slice into about 12-14 even(ish) slices. If for regular bread, you may want to slice into more thinner slices. 

French Toast (adapted from Alton Brown, The Kitchn, and Bon Appetit)

8-10 slices of sandwich bread (if you don't soak the slices for too long, you may be able to make more)

4 eggs

1 1/2 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla extract
Cooking oil

1. Whisk eggs, milk, and vanilla together. This can be made the night before.
2. Preheat your oven to 140-170 F with a baking pan to keep things warm.
3. Pour mixture into a baking pan. At least an 8x8 pan would be ideal, so that you can soak a few slices at a time.

4. Soak both sides of a slice of bread in the custard mixture. (Be careful not to soak for too long if using the above-mentioned bread recipe. I learned in the process that it absorbs the custard quite quickly before disintegrating.)

5. Add oil to a pan over medium-low heat (I use about 1 tsp for every 2 slices of bread). Lift the soaked slice of bread to drip off excess custard, and add into pan. Cook for 1-2 minutes on each side until just golden brown.

6. Repeat steps 2-3 until all of your slices of bread have turned into French toast, or you have run out of custard.

7. Serve with your favourite fixings and devour - maple syrup, fruit, ground cinnamon, icing sugar, whipped cream...mmm...

Brunches are great. You should always tell your guests not to bring anything, because regardless of what you tell them, they will still bring muffins, cookies, juice, and fruit anyways. :P A big thank you to my fake family for the lovely company!

-M