baked french toast

I am currently obsessed with pinterest.  

For those that don't know, pinterest allows you to 'pin' images/videos to your virtual pinboards which are shared with your followers and all the other pinners out there.  You can 'repin' images that other people have collected or leave comments.  The images should, in theory, take you back to the original source and, as I mentioned in my previous post, I've seen steady traffic to this site from my pictures that people have pinned. 

I almost use pinterest more than google now, especially when I'm looking for food/fashion/home inspiration.  Plus I love the fact that I no longer have to remember in which online store I saw a particular cardigan that I liked (for I have an entire board just devoted to cardigans) but I can just pin the image and quickly find it again.  I've spent more time than I care to admit in the last couple of days making a Christmas board filled with festive treats and craft ideas.  So much so that I almost started listening to my Christmas playlist yesterday before I exercised some restraint and reminded myself that it was only just the start of September.  

This recipe for baked french toast was one particularly good find on pinterest.  I repinned it from Tracy of Shutterbean who probably repinned it from someone else who repinned it from someone else who repinned it from someone else etc etc.  It's original source was a beautiful feature in the Sweet Paul magazine about making breakfast the coolest meal of the day.  I'm totally down with that, especially when it involves sweet baked goodness.

The concept is pretty simple - brioche soaked in milk, egg and sugar and baked until golden brown -  and not dissimilar to a bread and butter pudding except you can legitimately eat this for breakfast.  It's one of those brilliant recipes that is ridiculously simple but the end product looks and tastes far more impressive than the (minimal) effort warrants.   

I made a few changes to the original not least to omit the amaretto because I wasn't sure I could cope with hard liqueur first thing in the morning.  I also used a chocolate chip brioche because I had them on hand but I think it would also be more than acceptable to throw a few chocolate chips in there instead if you only have a plain brioche.  I also left out the pecans and didn't bother serving mine with maple syrup but I'm sure that would fancy up the dish nicely especially if you were making it for more of an occasion than a hungover Saturday morning in front of the TV.  

Baked french toast (serves 2)

Recipe from Sweet Paul via pinterest

75g chocolate chip brioche

1 egg

120ml semi-skimmed milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp sugar plus 1 tsp for the top

Butter to grease the ramekins (just realised I left this out...oops)

1.  Preheat the oven 180C/350F.  Butter your ramekins.  

2.  In a bowl, mix your egg, milk, vanilla and sugar.  Chop your brioche up into 1/2 inch squares and add them to the bowl.  Leave to soak for 5 minutes. 

3.  Spoon the mixture into your ramekins sprinkle your remaining sugar on top. 

4.  Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.  

NB this is enough for two little ramekins.  I say this serves two although I did eat both myself because I am greedy.