Fast Low-Fat French Toast with Fresh Strawberries: Necessity is the Mother of Invention with Stale Challah

Want a quick brunch dish when you have a bunch of leftovers?

I found myself with the ends of a nice sesame challah, an egg white (left from the yolk I needed for the chewy brown sugar cookies), local strawberries which needed to be used up, and some milk which had just gone sour – I know, you probably will utter “eeew yuck!” or something to that effect.  However, I find sour milk to be a great baking medium, especially when I do not have buttermilk on hand.  Its taste is not distinguishable at all in the French toast.

Challah is a wonderful base for French toast.   I love the actual French expression for French toast:  “pain perdu”, or “lost bread”.   (No, there is no “pain français,” just like there is no “Canadian bacon” in Canada – it is “pea-meal” or “back” bacon, here in the Great White North, eh?)   “Pain perdu” always makes me think of a lonely baguette wandering the streets of Paris, not knowing its way – but maybe that says more about me and how I often felt when I lived there.  This dish is known as,  in French, “pain doré” – or golden bread, ” which is quite evocative; perhaps that expression is more of a Québecois thing.  Anyone out there know more about this?

For the recipe…

So, keeping in mind the   cliché aphorism, “waste not, want not”, I used what I had on hand to create a quick-lunch for myself.  I usually would use whole egg, and, if I were being really indulgent and entertaining, I would have used half n’ half or cream, but that is not necessary nor did I miss anything richer than the 2% milk that had gone bad…bad milk, bad!

Regardless,  this French toast is rich, flavourful, and golden – and not at all a lost cause.

French Toast with Fresh Strawberries, sort of my own creation

Serves one, but multiply, as needed

Ingredients

• Three slices of challah which has seen better days
• 1/2 cup milk, which has gone bad (or not!)
• 1 egg white
• A handful of strawberries, sliced thickly
• Butter for grill and serving
• Nutmeg to be grated on top
• Pure maple syrup – of course, I use Canadian, eh?

Directions

1. Pre-heat frying pan or griddle (it is ready when a drop or two of water does its special dance when flicked onto the surface) and add a bit of butter right before the bread.

2. Mix egg white with sour milk.

3.   Place bread into dish with milk-egg mixture for about 30 seconds, flip over for another 30 seconds or so.

4.   Sauté on preheated pan (non-stick does work better).

5.  Turn bread over once it is golden brown.

6.  Continue until the reverse side is golden brown (hence, the “pain doré moniker!).

7.  Serve with strawberries, grated nutmeg, and the maple syrup, and think of all the lost bread out there.

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