Dear Vinepire,
I must make a painful confession : I am extremely prejudiced. I just tend to dislike things at first sight, just hearing a pretentious name can give me reason to stay away. This was also, until recently, my relationship with french toast. I mean, just the name… I have never eaten anything of the sort at a french house, and only been served something similar (made of bread and sweet ingredients, all of it soaked in milk) by a Swede… so yeah, no. I just refused to partake in the abuse of the word “french” as a substitute for “decadent”, because really, the final product does look nothing like toast to me!And then I had a revelation in the form of Jamie Oliver. What can I say, this genius is simply made of awesome : bears the name of my Game of Thrones crush (Hear me roar fellow Lannister supporters!) and his family name just reminds me of Oliver Twist… perfection. So after having been taught by this celebrity cook how to bake successfully a meringue (or baiser), a task that I tried to accomplish literally since the first time I tasted it, I knew that only he had the power to make me try what I still called “pain perdu”. Luckily, he posted the recipe on his website (next to a whole bunch of others, as far as I know, all of them just as awesome), so I was good to go! The result : a plate of heaven. So try this out if you love toast, bananas, or even pancakes for that matter. http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fruit-recipes/stuffed-french-toast
That said, I could not resist to improve the recipe, making it somewhat lighter (you´ll still last until lunch). Here is my adaptation , for one serving :
– 2 slices of toast
– 1 tablespoon of honey
– 1 free-range egg
– 1 knob butter
– 1 small, ripe banana, sliced
– cinnamon
Whip the egg in a flat bowl and soak the toast, it should absorb the mixture completely. Heat a frying pan on medium and add the butter. Smash the banana with a fork. Then, put one slice of your toast into the pan, sprinkle it with cinnamon and cover it in banana (if the banana was too big, now is the time to eat the left overs 😉 ) and sprinkle with cinnamon again, before topping it all with the other slice of toast. Fry each side of the sandwich for about a minute, and once on your plate, cover it with the honey. Because of the heat, it will melt away no matter the consistence, so you are free to use unprocessed honey if you like. Your delicious breakfast is now officially ready! Mind you, the crunchy toast on the outside and the sweet warm goodness inside will probably haunt you until the end of time… but that is a small price to pay for a life filled with pain perdu…
Bon appétit!
Your Vine Vampire
Let me know in the comments how you liked the recipe, what did you change about it, did you find a way to adapt it to your diet? I would love to hear about you vegans and your adaptations!
Vine Vampire 