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The French have had their high and lows in this county. Sure, we all love to mock them for their inability to win a war, berets, and outrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrragious accents… But let’s get real people. These folks know how to cook… And, aside from the fry, one of the greatest American treatments of a French classic (Ok, probably the Roman per Wiki but who’s counting) is toast. Today we’ll specifically be speaking of Triple Sec Spiked French Toast with a Mixed Berry Compote.
Let’s get started with an opening shot of the goodness:
It’s all good. I mean, there are TWO kinds of booze here peeps. How could you not like that?
The first step is to make the berry sauce...or compote if you happen to be snobby. Which I am. So on with the COMPOTE! This is pretty simple really… Just boil together some OJ, rum and sugar.
While that’s heating away, in a small bowl mix together some equal parts corn starch and water. Now, my grandma called this little concoction a slurry…and I seem to recall Alton or Emeril or some other food personality saying it once…so for the purpose of this blog (and possible even in real life), that it’s official name.
Anyway, once the sweet OJ-rum comes to a boil toss in said slurry and give everything a stir. Here’s an important point for the not so chef-y among us. DON’T turn the heat down yet. Cornstarch only works when it’s boiling…so resist! You won’t burn anything! Plus, it’s pretty cool watching it go from boring orange-water to delicious sauce in seconds. Or maybe it’s the kind of thing only I get excited about.
In any case, once the sauce has thickened up, toss in your berries. I used frozen ‘cause I’m cheap. But if your last name’s “Trump” then go ahead a blow your kid’s inheritance on a couple cups of the fresh stuff. At this point, the sauce is more or less done. Just take it off the heat and cover until your ready to plate up your final brunchy goodness.
Next we need to get down to business with the actual toast. First, chop up the Chollah! Bread. (This must have been named in the Jewish ghetto right?!) This is a wonderful eggy bread that sops up any most anything. Just like those shammys from the 2 AM infomercials…but more delicious. You should have about 8 slices when all’s said and done.
Wait, did I just do a whole step with no booze. Let’s fix that: next we create the egg wash for the toast. (I guess this is the “French” part…) Beat together the eggs and Triple Sec. Not a TON, but you want to know it’s in there. (You’ll see why I point this out in the recap…) After that, you’ll pour in some of the other French toast standards: eggs, milk, OJ, vanilla extract, nutmeg, salt… Whisk thoroughly.
I should note, aspiring chefs, that you can tweak this to fit your taste. Wanna try almond extract? Go nuts! How’s about skipping the OJ and some fresh lemonade? Could be good. Long story short, if the list of ingredients sounds good to you, then it’ll more than likely taste good at the end. And if it does…well kids, that’s what we call learning!
Now there are diverging theories on how long you should let bread soak in this egg mix. Some say it can hang out in there for a while. Me, myself, I’m a quick dipper. A couple 5-10 seconds on each side is OK with me. This helps give me flavorful toast without it becoming all soggy and sick. But again, personal opinion.
Once you have your toasts all good and French-ed it’s a simple matter of frying. For this recipe, I melted some butter in the pan over medium heat and fried the delicious slabs for about 5 minutes a side.
So, the end results were good. Not great sadly, but very acceptable. We all agreed that there probably should have been more triple sec or OJ. I didn’t get enough orange flavor to differentiate it from the “normal” French toast I order at our local greasy spoon. However, I thought the berry compote was excellent. And it was even better with ice cream the next day!
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