Fridge Raid Meal: Blueberry French Toast
When I do these fridge raid meals, I never really follow a recipe or measure anything. I find it’s best practice to look up some recipes online or on social media to get to grips with technique and timings, but in terms of flavours and amounts, that’s where your heart and creativity comes in.
That’s what I love about cooking, it’s more of an art than a chemistry.
My friend had made wonderful blueberry and custard buns and I was not going to be caught dead putting any in the bin, even if they had gone a bit stale.
I told them to keep them and I’d make something delicious with the last one in the morning.
You could do this with any stale pastry or dough based treat, just don’t slice it in a way that will make it fall apart.
For the soak of this big bun I used:
1 egg
Approx. 100ml milk (full fat or semi, you choose!)
A good sprinkle of cinnamon
A drizzle of honey for sweetness
Let the sliced bun soak in the liquid for a good few minutes on each side, you can even pop a fork through any crusted sides of the dough you might think the custard will have issues penetrating.
In the meantime get some salted butter (please no vegetable spread or margarine, it’s just not the same) into a pan large enough for the soaked bun pieces.
I like to get this bubbling on a medium heat for a few minutes before adding the bread. One, so you get that nice sizzling sound from the bread, knowing you’ll get some brown edges. Two, to brown the milk solids in the butter (this is why it has to be proper butter) just adding another dimension of flavour to the dish.
Browning butter: brings a toasty nuttiness to the dish. For instance with French Toast, playing against the creamy dough, any fruit or coulis included, and finishing syrups or honey.
For me, that’s what these fridge raid meals are all about, thinking ahead of time for a second about which little additions of technique or ingredient could make all the difference in flavour profiles, textural differences or interesting plating.
Back to the hot pan. Make sure to be nice and gentle with your soaked dough, it’ll break easily. Place in the browned butter and let fry for a few minutes. Peeking under each piece, you’ll see when you need to flip them. Nice and brown? Maybe a crust formed? Beautiful. Flip them gently and let the other side do the same thing.
I like to quarter French toast, so that I have more edges to brown, but also to plate in a nice uniform line.
Top however you’d like! As this was a fridge raid I didn’t have any thing other than some honey but you could add:
Chopped fresh fruit
Make a quick coulis with frozen fruits
Dust with icing sugar
Roll in cinnamon sugar
Add Nutella/honey/syrup
