Melissa Clark’s Girl Scout or Creme Brûlée French Toast

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If you scroll down this page, you’ll see that we show 15 posts. What I aim to do is never to have two similar dishes in the mix. Most of the time, that’s easy to accomplish. I just avoid cooking the same raw ingredient and I try to keep the mixture fresh by varying cooking techniques and even courses in the meal. So it may come as a surprise to see that today’s post follows closely on the heels of one for a French Toast casserole made in October. However, Melissa Clark knocked French toast out of the ballpark recently and the dish is so perfect for New Year’s Day breakfast that I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to pass it on.

Melissa Clark is one of my favorite food writers and recipe creators and I eagerly await her New York Times Food section articles every Wednesday. Last week, on Christmas Eve, Melissa shared what turned out to be our Christmas morning breakfast and am I glad she did. As Melissa headlined “Girl Scout French Toast: As Good as the Cookies”. Quite honestly, I think she beat the cookies when she adapted a recipe from a friend’s days in the Girl Scouts. (Perhaps not the Samoas, but almost everything else.) Apparently Melissa’s friend nagged and kvetched for so long and so often that Melissa finally caved and made the dish. It should be noted that Melissa is incapable of following a recipe without tweaking it to her own satisfaction and this was the case here too. She upped the egg yolks and cream and she changed the bread from white bread to Challah. She added dark rum and nutmeg. What she ended up with bears some resemblance to an egg nog custard with a topping that resembles crème brûlée.

Melissa suggests that the bread be soaked for a minimum of 4 hours. I made this in the early afternoon and left it in the refrigerator overnight, giving it the required flip first thing in the morning. I’d suggest using this timetable for New Year’s Day too. New Year’s Eve afternoon, put this together and the next morning, it goes into the oven and a half an hour later, you’ve got a decadent and delicious brunch or breakfast dish. I served this with strips of the thickest cut bacon I could find “Bacon Steak Cuts from Burgers’ Smokehouse in California Missouri. The bacon cooks in the oven right along side the brown sugar encrusted French Toast And while Melissa recommends skipping the Maple syrup as overkill, never say that to a Canadian. Especially not this one. Here is the recipe:

Melissa Clark’s recipe for Girl Scout (or Crème Brûlée) French Toast

6 to 8 servings. Active Time: 40 minutes plus at least 4 hours soaking time.
(I halved the recipe with ease.)

5 large eggs plus 2 yolks (or 6 whole eggs)

2 ¼ cups whole milk

½ cup heavy cream (or use more milk)

3 tablespoons dark rum or orange juice

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

¾ teaspoon grated nutmeg

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

1 loaf challah bread, sliced 1 inch thick, preferably stale (about 1 pound)

1 cup packed light brown sugar

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1. In a bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, cream, rum, vanilla, nutmeg and salt.

2. Spread bread out in 1 layer on a large rimmed baking sheet (about 11 by 17 inches). Pour custard over bread, cover with plastic wrap, and let soak in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or preferably overnight. Flip bread slices over once while they soak. This can be halfway through the soaking, or about an hour before baking, whichever is more convenient.

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together brown sugar and butter. Pour mixture onto another large rimmed baking sheet, using a spatula if necessary to spread into an even layer.

4. Transfer soaked bread to sugared baking sheet, placing slices on top of the brown sugar mixture. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until tops are golden brown and sugar is bubbling.

5. Serve immediately while still hot, with the crunchy brown sugar side up, spooning more of pan syrup over the top.

Melissa Clark’s Girl Scout or Creme Brûlée French Toast

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