Friday, November 23, 2007

"Crayola Toast!" or leftovers for breakfast

I made French toast with our leftover sweet cornbread and a sweet seasoned egg batter and jokingly called it "Creole toast." My four-year old took this and ran with it, proclaiming that were going to have "Crayola Toast! Crayola Toast!"

We had:
  • "Crayola Toast" (Pain Perdu, except made with the cornbread I made for T-day).
  • Sliced and lightly fried sweet ham (sliced from our T-day Brown Sugar Ham)
  • Patties, or "croquettes" made of leftover cornbread dressing.

The "Crayola Toast" is made using any sweet-batter french toast recipe, and any light, sweet cornbread (It must have at least 1:2 flour:cornmeal, though a lighter recipe of 1:1 flour:cornmeal would work better). It should be baked in a loaf pan to get the right shape. My recipe, from today (normally I wing it on my egg batter, depending on my mood), is:

  • 1 loaf of light, sweet cornbread, sliced and buttered, cooled overnight, missing a slice or two
  • 3 eggs (or 4 egg whites and 2-3 yolks, maybe with a dash of cream or milk)
  • 2 tsp sugar (superfine is bast, or dissolve it first a little hot water and let cool)
  • a little vanilla (I like Bourbon Vanilla), maybe 1/2 tsp
  • a very little nutmeg, and likewise cinnamon (pinch of each)
Mix all ingredients except cornbread, then put in a shallow dish big enough to coat a slice of bread without crowding. Warm a griddle or wide, flat pan, and butter or oil it (according to your custom), using your usual heat setting for cooking eggs.

Take each slice of bread and coat both sides,placing in the pan when coated. Only coat as many as will fit in the pan without crowding, and do not let the bread soak too long (cornbread becomes friable when wet).

Cook a minute or two each side until you are satisfied with how the egg coating looks. Remove from pan and serve with syrup, powdered sugar, jam, or cinnamon sugar.


The dressing patties are fairly self-explanatory. I think they might have held together a bit better if mixed with a bit of egg, but they held together just fine just from being pressed together in my palms and lightly toasted on the griddle.

The fried ham is obvious - slice, fry on a griddle or pan until warm, serve. If you cook it just after the Pain Perdu, you should not need to use more oil on the pan.

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