Breakfast Club - Homemade French Toast with Boozy Strawberry Puree

This mornings breakfast is a one of Hubby's favourites - French Toast. This is the first time I used a homemade loaf for it though and just between you and me, it was a difficult job. You see, as a general rule we both dive into the loaf when it is fresh from the oven and smear some of our favourite curd over it while its still warm, but I made this this loaf yesterday afternoon and it had to make it all the way through the night unscathed until it could be used this morning - it required quite a bit of will power for all involved.

Classic White Loaf

500g strong white flour, plus extra for dusting

7g sachet fast action yeast

1 tsp salt

Up to 350ml lukewarm water

A little oil for greasing

Make the dough by tipping the flour, yeast and salt into a large bowl and making a well int he middle. Pour in most of the water and use your fingers (being the grub that I am this is my preferred method!) or a wooden spoon to mix the flour and water together until combined to a slightly wet, pillowy, workable dough - add a splash more water if necessary. Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for at least 10 mins until smooth and elastic. (The recipe says that this can also be done in a table top mixer with a dough hook but I find my bread never turns out as well when I make it this way, it also feels a little like cheating so I prefer t0 knead for 10 mins and get a workout at the same time!) Place the dough in a clean oiled bowl, cover with cling film and leave to rise until doubled in size.

Heat oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7. Knock back the dough by tipping it back onto a floured surface and pushing the air out. Mould the dough into a rugby ball shape that will fit a 900g loaf tin and place in the tin. Cover with a clean tea towel and leave to prove for 30 mins. Dust the top of the loaf with a little more flour and slash the top with a sharp knife if you want. Bake the bread for 15 mins, then reduce the heat to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5 and continue to bake for 30 mins until the loaf sounds hollow when removed from the tin and tapped on the base. Leave the bread on a wire rack to cool completely.

The loaf will stay fresh in an airtight container for 3 days or can be frozen for 1 month.

Cuts into 16 slices

Good Food Mag, October 2008

To turn this into French Toast I whisked together 3 eggs, some milk, vanilla bean paste and a dash of orange blossom water and then soaked the sliced bread in it. Next time though I think I'll soak it for a bit longer to make sure that the eggy mixture gets all the way into the middle of the thick slices. Then I heated a non stick pan (which I sprayed with a bit of oil just to be on the safe side) and cooked until nice and speckled brown before flipping over to cook on the other side.

I was a bit stuck with what to serve with them, the maple syrup jar is practically at zero and would never stretch to both of us. So a quick flick around the internet and a couple of combined recipes later and we had some puree for drizzling over the top.

Boozy Strawberry Puree

Approx 1 punnet of strawberries

1 - 2 tsp golden caster sugar

1 tsp Grand Marnier

Hull the strawberries and combine with the caster sugar and Grand Marnier then blitz them into a fine puree. Drizzle over the french toast and sprinkle some icing sugar over the top.

And then we followed breakfast with a walk to try and burn off a few of the calories! ;0)