Heather McDougall's French Toast

The last time I made French Toast, my now almost-30 year old was still a picky eater toddler and I took a box of frost bitten pre-made French Toast sticks out of the freezer and ate a few while still frozen. Before I had my son it was about 20 years since I had previously had the stuff.

When my mom made the stuff it was always a special occasion, because making it was a big to-do, and when you've got three kids to get out the door in the morning, the last thing you want to do is spend a lot of time cooking a hot breakfast, then fighting with my even picker younger brother to get him to eat, and of course, the clean-up afterwards. After a few times doing this French Toast was relegated to one of those "special occasion" meals made only on someone's birthday and only for that person, if they wanted it. You can see why I hadn't had it in around 2 decades.

But this morning I have some more tastebuds and brain power back, and after finally reading the December 2012 McDougall newsletter decided THAT'S what I want for breakfast today - French Toast. I've seen dozens of other recipes for French toast, all including a dozen or more ingredients and a blender, usually a high-powered one strong enough to liquify cashew nuts, but this one just had a handful of easy to mix ingredients and required only a bowl and a whisk to make. It's not one of Mary McDougall's recipes but her daughter Heather's.

The recipe:

FRENCH TOAST
Preparation Time:  5 minutes
Cooking Time:  10 minutes
Servings:  makes 6-8 slices of toast 

1 cup non-dairy milk
1/2 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
6-8 slices of bread

Mix all ingredients together with a whisk.
Preheat a non-stick skillet to medium-high.
Quickly dip bread into mixture and place on skillet for about 3 minutes each side. Repeat with remaining bread until mixture runs out. If you do not use all of the mixture, you can easily refrigerate and use another day. It will keep for about 5 days in the fridge.

Luckily, because of this cold/flu thing, I had some of the  whole wheat panini bread around, the one filled with delicious healthy seeds and made with no added oils. These are gigantic slices, like old-fashioned rye bread. Fantastic food, one that kept me going on days when I couldn't eat much else.

My changes? Well, for the first time in a while I made NO changes to a recipe. I made this as-written, and it mixed up beautifully in seconds.

While doing that, I set my non-stick griddle on the stove and turned on the gas to heat it up. When the batter was ready I did the drop of water test and yes, the water beaded up and skittered around the pan. Time to get started!

I dunked on slice of bread completely in the liquid then placed in onto the griddle and it started to sizzle immediately. The second slice quickly followed. I set a timer for 4 minutes and got out my special spatula that I use when cooking in this griddle. It's thin enough to flip stuff and actually safe for non-stick coatings. Others that claim to be safe, aren't. I do a lot of testing before using a new spatula on any of my non-stick cookware and have had to toss out way too many spatulas and pans that didn't pass the test.

Okay, timer dinged, time to flip these babies over.

But I can't get the spatula in there. The bread is fused to the non-stick coating.

Keep cool and think. I guess I'll turn the heat up a bit and let them toast up a bit more. Maybe then they'll be flippable.

Sure enough, it took a total of 7 minutes on medium-high heat before these solidified enough to allow a spatula under them without leaving half the coated bread behind. Over they went, then another 5 minutes of cooking.

The final result:

They look pretty darn good!

I already put the rest of the liquid away in a jar in the fridge because I only have 2 more slices of bread left in that package and need them for later. I have to hit the grocery store before the weekend and I'm thinking of buying a loaf of Ezekial or Alvarado Street Bakery California bread and make up a slew of slices to keep in the freezer for quick breakfasts or snacks. It may be easier using the smaller slices of bread, although I'm also tempted to make a loaf of homemade raisin bread and using that in nice thick slabs, but think that may be too decadent.

Thanks, Heaher, for another quick and easy - and tasty - recipe!