French Toast

This morning I decided that I deserved a little treat; something special to help me through the day. What I had been craving recently was cinnamon rolls, but since I didn't have any dough ready, I decided to turn to the next best thing: French Toast.

The recipe that I choose for this culinary adventure was one forwarded to me by my good friend Ma'ayan and was Double Vanilla French Toast (stolen from Pithy and Cleaver). This is something that I had been drooling over for weeks now but I hadn't had the occasion to make yet so as I got to work I could barely contain my excitement.

Unfortunately I immediately ran into a number of problems, namely missing a variety of [crucial] ingredients. As such I have substituted accordingly (see link for original recipe). I also made a half recipe because I intended to serve one not two but I still had too much food.

Variation on Double Vanilla French Toast
2 organic eggs
1/2 cup skim milk
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
a pinch of cayenne pepper
1 tbsp vanilla extract
6 or 7 thin slices artisan wheat bread
butter for the pan

1. Whisk eggs, milk, baking powder, cinnamon, cayenne, and nutmeg in a large bowl.
2. Stir in vanilla extract
3. Heat non-stick pan over medium heat and add a small pat of butter, moving butter around until it melts.
4. Submerge each slice of bread in the egg mixture, making sure it is fully coated, and then let excess drip off.
5. Add to skillet, repeat with other slices.
6. Cook until lightly browned on each side, turning frequently to avoid burning.
7. Serve hot with Grade A Maple syrup.
   

NOTES:

• The french toast was, while pretty, unfortunately relatively tasteless. Here are the most likely culprits:
• Instead of white bread I used wheat, which overpowered the relatively delicate spices.
• The wheat bread was also very dense, soaking up a lot of liquid ergo requiring much longer to cook.
• I did not use a vanilla bean. (This is a huge amount of flavour, which I didn't take into consideration and forgot to accommodate at all)
• Too little spice, i.e. I believe I erred on the side of having too little as opposed to too much and since I managed to do twice as many slices of bread as intended, I think the spice was spread pretty thin.
• Also the bread was chewy, which I again attribute to my choice of dense wheat bread over a fluffier white choice (such as brioche)