Saturday, November 15, 2008

Marie Antoinette Toast


I could not eat the entire Kugelhopf myself. Well I could but chose not to, so it was sliced, wrapped and stored for a later date. Kugelhopf becomes stale very quickly and it is best eaten the day it is made. Or, oooohhh, stale bread, we all know what that means. French toast! Or in this case Austria and France, hence the title.

As a kid I hated french toast. Actually I hated most American cooking because it was a time when many women stayed home to raise children and keep the home, and they didn't do it with fake nails, big cars, pampers and cell phones. Wonder bread was wonderous, Oleo was new and green jello molds made you the most creative cook around. Okay, all together now..."Ewwww!". Yeah that's what I thought. Give me my grandmas oatmeal with butter, cream and sugar any day over that food from hell.

Because kugelhopf is a cake, though barely sweet, it does have a sugar crust and raisins. That is why there is no sugar added to the french toast as is usually done or to the pears. This was a very nice breakfast, rich and creamy, not your ordinary fare. It would be great served with bacon or sausage also.

Start the syrup first, then the french toast, and while the toast is soaking, begin the pears.

STUFFED KUGELHOPF

8 slices stale kugelhopf about 1 1/2" thick
12 T cream cheese
3/4 half and half
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
Butter

Carefully cut a slit in each kugelhopf.
Fill with 1 1/2 T cream cheese.
Blend half and half, eggs and vanilla together.
Soak kugelhopf slices in this mixture for 5-10 minutes until most of the liquid is absorbed.
In a pan, melt butter on medium.
Add slices to pan and fry until browned on each side about 10 minutes total.



MAPLE NUT SYRUP

1/2 c pure maple syrup
1/3 c butter
1/3 c chopped walnuts
1/4 t cinnamon

In a small saucepan, warm all ingredients together for about 20 minutes.

SAUTEED PEARS
2 d'anjou pears
T butter

Melt 2 T butter in a medium saucepan.
Peel, core and slice pears.
On medium/low simmer pears until tender, approximately 10 minutes.
Strain the liquid from the pears and serve.
You can add a little butter and cinnamon if desirable.


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, I'll have three servings please...lovely, lovely post.

Steph said...

I know what you mean about eating the whole thing. Sometimes when I bake a chocolate bundt cake, I wish I could eat the whole thing, but I resist...haha

I would definitely love your version of Kugelhopf fresh toast over the regular Kugelhopf!

RecipeGirl said...

What a terrific idea for those stale leftovers. Yum!

Vera said...

That's a breakfasts I approve! The toast looks fantastic!

Anonymous said...

Wish I had some Kugelhopf on hand.... Your version of French (or is it Austrian) looks good :)

Susan said...

Decadent, just like Marie. I never liked French toast as a kid, either; pancakes and waffles were "it."

BTW - You had asked how I get such large images on my blog. I load my photos onto Flickr, then cut and paste the code for any size I want into a stretched Blogger template. If you need more help, you can email me.