Bourbon French Toast

French Toast (usually with a side of bacon) is my go-to brunch item and vessel of choice for delicious grade B maple syrup (mmm, impurities).

The most important decision with French Toast is, ahem, the toast bit. You can make French Toast with whatever you have in general sandwich supplies, or with leftover dinner bread (not a baguette, but larger loaves). I've had more success the thicker and fresher the bread. So, if you're buying supplies and not just scanning your kitchen come the morning, think Texas Toast (basically thicker white bread), or a loaf of challah bread from the bakery if you can get it. The best French Toast I've made is with homemade challah, but assuming you haven't just baked bread, store bought challah is easy enough to find and just the right absorbency. Plus, anytime you can cut your own bread and choose your thickness, it's is a win.

This being said, if your bread is super fresh, it will probably need to be dried out at a little in order to absorb well. The tradition for French Toast is for it to be leftover, day old bread, so that's one way to achieve it with fresh bread, but the preservatives in most store breads mean that we have to parch it out a little. What you don't want is rock-hard bread, or toast. You still want it soft in the middle. Just a bit dried out on the outside.

You want to be careful to make sure that when the bread is done soaking, the pan is already hot and buttered, which means you need to start heating the pan and adding the butter before and while the bread is soaking. If your timing does not match up perfectly, they can rest on a small plate while the butter melts, but try not to let them rest too long.

This recipe does NOT make a ton more than it says it makes, so if you have extra mouths to feed, make a double batch. Nor is this what I would call a "quick and easy" breakfast. You do indeed make a mess. But that's what Sunday breakfast is FOR. It is based loosely on this Cooks Illustrated recipe, but has since taken on a life of its own.

Bourbon French Toast

8	large slices hearty white sandwich bread or good-quality challah
11/2	cups whole milk , warmed
2	large egg yolks
1	large egg
3	tablespoons light brown sugar
11/2	teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2	teaspoon nutmeg
2	tablespoons unsalted butter , melted, plus 2 tablespoons for cooking
1/4	teaspoon table salt
1	tablespoon vanilla extract
1	tablespoon Jack Daniels bourbon
1	teaspoon honey (optional, or less to taste)
	Maple syrup, warmed

Instructions Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Place bread on wire rack set in rimmed baking sheet. Bake bread until almost dry throughout (center should remain slightly moist), about 16 minutes, flipping slices halfway through cooking. Remove bread from rack and let cool. This step can be skipped if the bread is already slightly stale (but not hard). Return baking sheet with wire rack to oven and reduce temperature to 200 degrees. Whisk warmed milk, egg and yolks from room-temp eggs (leave in a bowl of luke warm water for five minutes to bring them up to temperature straight from the fridge), sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, 2 tablespoons melted butter (pref NOT immediately from the microwave, please, though still warm), salt, Jack Daniels and vanilla in large bowl until well blended. Add honey carefully to taste. Do not overdo it on the honey. You just want a note. Remember to warm the milk before adding the melted butter or the mixture will curdle and need to be re-done. Transfer mixture to 13- by 9-inch baking pan. Soak bread in milk mixture (as many as you can fit in a frying pan) until saturated but not falling apart, 16-23 seconds per side. Count. It may require a little more or less depending on bread thickness, so its good to get an idea of how long it is (exactly) for the bread you're using. Using firm slotted spatula, pick up bread slice and allow excess milk mixture to drip off; repeat with remaining soaked slices. They should not break but should be somewhat delicate to move. Meanwhile, heat ½ tablespoon butter in 12-inch skillet over medium to medium-low heat. When foaming subsides, use slotted spatula to transfer slices soaked bread to skillet and cook until golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Flip and continue to cook until second side is golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes. (If toast is cooking too quickly, reduce temperature slightly.) Transfer to baking sheet in oven. Repeat cooking with remaining bread, adding ½ tablespoon of butter for each batch. Serve warm with maple syrup and powdered sugar on top if you are feeling fancy. As always, I prefer Grade B.

Braided Egg Bread (Non-Kosher Challah)

This is the bread recipe that made me fall in love with bread-making when I was 10. Ironically, I was a fearless child baker, but now yeast dough seems incredibly intimidating. Well, this is about as easy a yeast dough as one can make, with the bonus of being very beautiful. The thing to remember with bread is that while the idea of taking 3 or 5 hours to make something sounds like a huge hassle, in reality, you knead out all your stress for ten minutes, then you wait an hour, etc. etc. etc. This is not to say that bread can't break your heart. Anything can break your heart. I think my biggest food meltdown ever was making Michel Richard's Once a Year Mashed Potatoes. Mashed potatoes. The point is that bread is not any more likely to break your heart than the braise you mess up at the last minute when reducing the liquid, and may in fact be easier.

As with most of my prepubescent baking recipes, this is from the Better Homes and Garden cookbook, which comes in binder format. Each edition seems to vary up the recipe for their basic challah or at least the breast cancer edition does, but this recipe is the real childhood deal. I recommend if you have extra to use it in French toast, because nothing really beats fresh challah in French toast. Or you could just eat it with Nutella on top. I am not going to say I have never done this.

Egg Bread (non-Kosher Challah)

4 3/4 to 5 1/4	cups all-purpose flour
1	package active dry yeast
1 1/3	cups milk
3	tablespoons sugar
3	tablespoons butter
1/2	teaspoon salt
2	eggs

1. In a large mixing bowl stir together 2 cups of the flour and the yeast; set aside. 
2. In a medium saucepan heat and stir water, sugar, margarine, and salt just until warm (120 to 130 degrees) and margarine almost melts. Use a thermometer on this, as yeast is a fickle thing. 
3. Add water mixture to dry mixture along with the eggs. 
4. Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed for 30 seconds, scraping the sides of the bowl constantly. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. This can test the limits of your mixer pretty quickly. If it's threatening to clog up your mixer and is stiff and difficult to move, switch to a spoon or even your hands. Bread is not a clean endeavor. Get your hands dirty. Using a wooden spoon, stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can.
5. Now for the fun part! Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (6 to 8 minutes total). Shape the dough into a ball. Place in a lightly greased bowl (use the wrapper from a stick of butter), turning once to grease surface of the dough. Cover with a dish towel and let rise in a warm place until double in size (about 1 hour).Warm place does not mean in an oven, but is a pretty freaking vague term. I've always just put it next to the oven on the counter or in a sunny room (but not in direct sunlight).
6. Punch dough down; divide in thirds. Cover; let rest 10 minutes. 
7. Roll each third into an 18-inch rope. Place each rope on a large baking sheet 1 inch apart and braid. Cover; let rise 30 minutes or until nearly double. You can either brush the braid with an egg yolk to brown the tops or wait until the end and brush a couple times with melted butter. I've had trouble with egg yolks burning the tops of the bread, so I stick with butter, but really, I feel this is my own insecurity. An egg wash is an egg wash, and can create a delightful crust if done correctly.
8. Bake in a 375 degree F oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until bread sounds hollow when you tap the top (if necessary to prevent overbrowning, cover loosely with foil the last 10 minutes of baking, hint, hint, egg wash folk). The inner parts of the braid may still look underdone. Cool on wire rack. Makes 1 braid (32 servings).

Cooking Time; 2 1/2 hours (prep 30 minutes, bake 30 minutes, rise 1 1/2 hours)