Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Recipe from Moroccan Cooking: Fried Moroccan bread with cinnamon

…otherwise known as Cinnamon French Toast. But who am I to argue with the authors? If they want to call it Moroccan, they can. (BTW, French toast isn’t necessarily French, the dish being a logical invention in any culture where bread is baked, as a way of using up a stale loaf. Therefore it could have arisen independently in Morocco, but it is more likely that it was brought over by the French).

When I was a child and my mother was undecided as to what to serve for lunch or dinner, I would often suggest French toast – only we called it “Poor Knights” and ate it with rhubarb jam and sometimes whipped cream as well. I make it occasionally myself as a brunch dish (without jam or cream), but I have never tried the cinnamon variety.

Servings: 4-6.
Time: 15 minutes to prepare, 10 minutes to cook.

1/2 white baguette (French stick, French loaf)
1-2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence (it says “imitation vanilla” in the book – I don’t see why I can’t use the real thing if I have it)
Butter
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 tbs ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Cut baguette diagonally into 2 cm thick slices. In a bowl, beat the eggs until well mixed and then mix in milk and vanilla. In a shallow bowl (I suggest a soup dish), mix sugar and spices. Melt some butter in a frying pan. Dip slices of bread into egg/milk mixture and fry until crisp and golden on both sides. Place for a moment on absorbent paper to drain and while it is still hot, dip into the sugar/spice mixture. Keep adding butter to the pan as needed.

The book suggests coffee as a good accompaniment.

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