{"id":6059,"date":"2015-03-26T16:10:55","date_gmt":"2015-03-26T23:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amyglaze.com\/?p=6059"},"modified":"2015-04-09T13:36:56","modified_gmt":"2015-04-09T20:36:56","slug":"baked-french-toast-with-orange-blossom-maple-syrup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.amyglaze.com\/baked-french-toast-with-orange-blossom-maple-syrup\/","title":{"rendered":"Baked French Toast with Orange Blossom Maple Syrup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is it the weekend yet? I’m ready for Sunday brunch! This might be the most over engineered baked french toast recipe on earth, but it also elicits comments like: “This is the best I’ve ever had”. The extra steps aren’t really that<\/em> much more time consuming and if you choose to skip them, I completely understand (and I will point out the shortcuts) but as is, the result is \u00a0custard-y French toast with a buttery crispy outer coating.<\/p>\n

\"Baked<\/a><\/p>\n

Baked French Toast with Orange Blossom Maple Syrup<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Instead of just mixing the half-half and eggs together, I make a cr\u00e8me anglaise base (with whole eggs instead of just yolks) which gives the soaked bread a silkier, creamier, fluffier texture when baked. \u00a0Heat the half-half up to a simmer adding the green cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks, scraped vanilla bean, and orange zest. Let the mixture infuse and cool a little and then whisk it into the beaten eggs \u2013 tempering the eggs first with just a scosh of warm milk and whisking the remaining in a steady stream. I pour the cr\u00e8me anglaise base over the thick-cut bread,which is normally challah or brioche, and let everything soak for an hour or two.<\/p>\n

Bake the bread in a single layer covered with foil until it’s poofy and golden brown on the bottom. Then remove and fry the top un-browned side in foamy butter on the stove top right before serving \u2013 this last step you can take or leave. I really like the buttery crispy addition, because let’s face it, butter is better with everything! But if time doesn’t permit, just remove the foil after ten minutes so the top browns too. \u00a0Or skip the baking and fry in butter on the stove top \u2013 although it won’t be as custardy inside.<\/p>\n

\"Orange<\/a><\/p>\n

Orange Blossom Maple Syrup over French Toast<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

My dear friend Chef Ivan Shaw<\/a>\u00a0(check his blog out! I’m addicted to the great stories and recipes.) and his beautiful wife Nadine sent me and my husband a very special Christmas gift all the way from Canada. We received 8 cans of the purest highest grade maple syrup, maple butter, maple granules, maple candies, smoked duck breast, Grade extra-fancy foie gras lobes, and foie gras terrine. I think seared foie gras or even foie gras butter with this decadent Pain Perdu<\/em> would be fantastic. And the smoked duck breast would be a killer pairing \u2013 much more interesting than bacon or sausage!<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0176\"<\/a><\/p>\n

baked and pan fried french toast with orange blossom maple syrup<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

To add a little je ne sais quoi<\/em> to the maple syrup I heated it up with a few splashes of orange blossom water (I use Carlo which can be sourced in Middle Eastern Stores and Whole Foods Market) and a few pods of star anise \u2013 not that it needed anything extra \u2013 I just like the two together because the perfume is heavenly. The orange blossom water is very very strong, add too much and the syrup will taste more like perfume or a bar of soap so go easy with splashes.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_0081\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Soaking up all the good stuff!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is it the weekend yet? I’m ready for Sunday brunch! This might be the most over engineered baked french toast recipe on earth, but it also elicits comments… Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,674],"tags":[26,1476,48,925,1378,90,1474,100,120,938,1473,1477,150,187,202,224,225,232,242,245,818,263,283,1478,329,836,1479,374,1475,1393,404,430,510,511,1480,699,601,1317,1472,1457],"class_list":["post-6059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recipes-2","category-sweet-pastry","tag-amy","tag-anglaise","tag-baked","tag-blog","tag-blossom","tag-breakfast","tag-brioche","tag-brunch","tag-cardamom","tag-celebration","tag-challah","tag-cinnamon","tag-citrus","tag-creme","tag-day","tag-easter","tag-easy","tag-elegant","tag-fancy","tag-featured","tag-foie","tag-french","tag-glaze","tag-gras","tag-ideas","tag-image","tag-ivan","tag-lunch","tag-maple","tag-mothers","tag-ms-glaze","tag-orange","tag-recipe","tag-recipes","tag-shaw","tag-spring","tag-summer","tag-syrup","tag-toast","tag-website"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.amyglaze.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/DSC_01423.jpg?fit=4288%2C2848","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2kn35-1zJ","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amyglaze.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amyglaze.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amyglaze.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amyglaze.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amyglaze.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6059"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"http:\/\/www.amyglaze.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6154,"href":"http:\/\/www.amyglaze.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6059\/revisions\/6154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amyglaze.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amyglaze.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amyglaze.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amyglaze.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}