Orange French Toast

Orange French Toast

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French toast is one of those meals I loved as a kid. With a generously (un)healthy portion of syrup on top, it was like getting breakfast and dessert together in a single meal.  Making french toast is quite easy, and it doesn’t really require a precise recipe.  A couple eggs beaten with a little milk, and fried in the pan will get the job done.  However, at some point during my 3rd year in university, I came across a recipe for Orange French toast.  In theory it sounded awesome, but in execution, it was awful. The bread was soggy due to the water in the juice, and attempts to cook the water out of the bread never really worked out.  I forgot about that recipe until 20+ years later, when I came across it in another one of my cookbooks last week.

Since one of my goals for 2018 is to use every one of my cookbooks at least once, I thought it would be good to revisit this recipe and see if this cookbook did it any better.  The results this time around were only a minor improvement. This particular recipe also uses a strawberry-orange syrup, which was actually quite nice, and simple to make. So I wound up adapting the recipe and removing the juice from the toast. This one comes from ‘The Healthy College Cookbook.

Orange French Toast
with Orange Strawberry Syrup

Orange-Strawberry Syrup
  • 4 Tbsp Strawberry Jam
  • 1 cup orange juice

Mix the orange juice and jam together in a small sauce pan and reduce over med-high heat until it thickens.  Keep in mind that once cool, it will thicken more, so stop when it’s a still a little runny. Set aside to cool.

Orange French Toast
  • 1/2 cup orange juice
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 cup skim milk – I used 1/4 full fat milk
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon – I used 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon sugar – I used 1 Tbsp brown sugar
  • 8 slices whole-wheat bread – I used 4, the next time I make this I’ll use white bread as well.
  • 2 teaspoons butter or margarine – I used butter, enough to cover my frying pan. I also cooked 2 slices at a time and added more butter to cover the pan for the second batch.

Beat the eggs, milk, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.  Heat the frying pan and add the butter.  When the butter starts to bubble, dunk the first two slices of bread in the mixture and add to the pan. Use the spatula to cut each peice into triangular halves. After about 2 minutes, flip the toast.  The toast should have golden-brown blotches from the egg in the mixture.  After another two minutes, flip again and check the other side.  If it looks good then plate it. Remove the pan from the heat for a moment, and using a couple of paper towels, carefully wipe the pan clean.  Add more butter and put the pan back on the heat.  When the butter starts to bubble repeat the process for the last of the toast.

*Note – I removed the pan from the heat to avoid overheating the butter, which would cause it to turn brown and would in turn affect the look and flavour of the final product.

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