french toast

there isn’t much of a story to french toast. i call it polish-style, because it doesn’t require the usual custard-making. it gets as simple as possible. there is no cream here, either, and no fancy ingredients to boost the flavour, what could be a story for another time. i make my french toast this way, always, just with milk and eggs, sometimes omitting even sugar and trusting the delicate sweetness of challah itself. it has to be challah as toast bread or just plain white bread do not have the specific taste and consistency (although one could do with some plain bun), and it has to be stale, because otherwise it will fall apart.

my mom always tells me stories of what they ate at home, and coming from rather poor family it had to be simple and economical.  those toasts were served often, to use up old challah and buns. i can imagine my mum, as small skinny cheeky girl, standing on a stool to see how the food was being made on an old tile stove (alike this), and it makes me wonder dreamily why i don’t prepare this more often myself.

polish-style simplest french toast 

4 big slices of stale challah
2 eggs
100 ml milk
2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp butter
optional: vanilla bean, cinnamon, cardamom etc.

whisk the eggs with milk and spices
soak the challah slices in the mixture until they are nod dry anymore (check the middle)
melt the butter in a non-stick pan and fry the challah for 3-5 minutes on medium heat – so that they don’t get burned but the egg settles
serve with fruit, crème fraîche, mascarpone (like i did), whipped cream, jams