The Art of Making Savory French Toast: A Recipe to Impress

Making savory French toast is a unique twist on the classic breakfast dish, and it's a game-changer for those who want to add some excitement to their brunch routine. In this article, we'll explore the world of savory French toast and provide you with a recipe that combines rich flavors and textures.

Bacon: The Smoky Star of the Show

The foundation of any great savory French toast is, of course, bacon. And when it comes to cooking bacon, there's no substitute for hickory-smoked bacon. This type of bacon has a deep, smoky flavor that adds depth and complexity to our dish. As we cook the bacon in a pan, the aroma fills the air, tantalizing our taste buds and building anticipation for what's to come.

Creating the Condiment: A Mix of Creamy and Spicy

While the bacon is cooking, we can start working on our condiment. This mixture will tie together all the flavors in our savory French toast, adding a tangy kick from the mustard and hot sauce. We combine creme fraiche, dijon mustard, and a splash of hot sauce to create a creamy and spicy blend that will complement our bacon perfectly.

Making the Custard: A Rich and Velvety Base

With the condiment in place, we can start making our custard. This is where things get really interesting, as we add three eggs and an extra yolk to give our French toast a rich and velvety base. The egg yolks add a depth of flavor that's hard to replicate with just plain old eggs. We also add half-and-half, grated parmesan reggiano cheese, and a pinch of salt to create a flavor profile that's both savory and satisfying.

Assembling the French Toast: A Symphony of Flavors

Now it's time to assemble our savory French toast. We start by spreading a layer of dijon mustard and creme fraiche on one slice of bread, followed by a sprinkle of gruyere cheese. Next, we add some crispy bacon, mustard greens, and a few slices of red onion, all cooked to perfection in the bacon fat. Finally, we top it off with another slice of bread, drizzle it with a bit of cider vinegar, and voila! Our savory French toast is ready to be devoured.

Cooking the French Toast: A Dance of Flavors

The final step in our recipe is cooking the French toast. We place our sandwich in a pan, add a bit of canola oil and butter, and cook it over medium heat. As we flip the French toast, we watch as the custard cooks inside the bread, while the cheese melts on the outside. The result is a beautifully golden-brown crust that gives way to a rich, savory interior.

The Verdict: A Savory Delight

So, what do you get when you combine smoky bacon, creamy creme fraiche, and tangy mustard greens with a rich and velvety custard? A flavor experience that's nothing short of amazing. Each bite is a symphony of flavors, with the smoked bacon providing a deep, savory note, while the gruyere cheese adds a subtle sharpness. And let's not forget the parmesan cheese in the custard – it's the perfect finishing touch, adding a depth and complexity to our dish that's hard to resist.

Conclusion

Making savory French toast is an art form, and one that requires attention to every single component. But trust us, the end result is worth it. Whether you're serving this dish at brunch or as a special occasion meal, we guarantee that your guests will be impressed by the flavors and textures. So go ahead, give savory French toast a try, and discover a whole new world of culinary possibilities!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enall right guys here we are it's all about uh making sweet savory today we're gonna make a french toast usually french toast you know what it looks like it's got cinnamon it's got this nice sweet custard it's got some maple syrup it probably has some kind of fruits maybe some blueberries maybe some bananas who knows what it has not today we're making a savory french toast our french toast is gonna have some bacon some gruyere cheese we're gonna have some mustard some creme fraiche some mustard greens very very savory but still amazing dish of french toast we're going to start by cooking some hickory smoked bacon bacon is good for brunch i know you already knew that but i'm just gonna let you know it again gotta gotta have some bacon smells good in here already that smokiness is incredible now what we're gonna do is actually let the bacon cook and we'll keep the bacon fat and we'll cook some other things in the bacon fats we're gonna let that go while the bacon is cooking we're gonna put together sort of like a condiment this is actually gonna be creme fresh dijon mustard and um a little bit of hot sauce well you get a little creaminess there a little bit of spiciness two kinds of spiciness from the mustard and from the hot sauce and this is gonna be our condiment for our french toast all right so now we're gonna make the custard that we're gonna actually soak the bread in so it's gonna be um three eggs and an egg yolk the extra yolk is for a little richness very rich custard for this french toast savory or not and then some half and half some grated parmesan reggiano good quality cheese and this is going to give a little saltiness to the uh to the french toast but also it's gonna actually help to make the bread golden brown when we're actually cooking it in the pan let's flip our bacon nice and crispy i think bacon just always has to be crispy all right so we have our condiment our creme fraiche our dijon mustard this is our custard for our french toast and we're gonna get our bacon out of the pan we're gonna keep that beautiful bacon fat let's get a red onion going and we're going to cook the red onions with some mustard greens mustard greens that's what they taste like they taste like mustard they do have that sort of mustardy flavor they're a little bit hearty and um you know i think of them as really good with things that are smoky like bacon for instance and things that are rich like some eggs so i think the mustard greens are gonna be a really nice foil for this savory dish just savory french toast toss the red onions right into the bacon fat here are the mustard greens and they're you know they're very leafy so i'm just going to drop them in here and they should just they should really just kind of wilt you can think about um most of the greens is like kale with a mustard flavor that's sort of the texture of what mustard greens are just a splash of cider vinegar we want a little acidity in here to go with the mustard and the onions just going to wilt them down just a little splash of honey there where there's mustard there must be honey see our mustard greens and red onions cooked in our bacon fat with the cider vinegar all right so now we have all of our components ready to go except of course for our bread so i have a pan to me which is basically a uh a fancy french phrase for good quality white bread we're going to start by smearing a little bit of dijon mustard and creme fraiche and the hot sauce mixture to give the bread a little bit of moisture and also flavor for sure and then a couple of pieces of cheese some gruyere cheese it's a swiss cheese and i like putting it on both sides so that it melts on both sides and then as it melts it kind of holds all the other ingredients in the middle together and then some crispy bacon and you can let the bacon sort of fall out the end a little bit nobody will be complaining about that then we have our mustard greens with our red onions and a little bit of cider vinegar and if you notice i'm actually going all the way to the edges so it's not just in the middle i'm going to close this bad boy up let's press it down a little bit and then we're going to soak it for about 30 seconds on each side so that the custard actually goes you know through the bread itself all right so we're going to turn this over and let the other side soak and don't forget we also have the parmesan cheese running through the custard so the cheese while it cooks will get a little bit pretend it will brown a little bit on the outside that's what we want i'm going to take a little canola oil and just a little bit of butter i'm going to put our sandwich our french toast right in there so you know here's the key you want the custard to cook inside the bread and at the same time you want all the other ingredients to kind of warm through they're all cooked ready but we just need the cheese to melt a little bit i can actually smell it can you smell the parmesan cheese there i know you can you can smell the parmesan cheese it's starting to get nice and crusty on the on the bottom side there you're going to be very happy with this let's say we go out to brunch there's four people at the table you know i like to order usually maybe like a savory egg dish for my main course but i always want something sweet on the table and i always say like the table's hungry too so let's feed the table so i'll order some sort of waffle or pancake or french toast dish usually and we just put it in the middle of the table everybody gets a fork and gets a little bit of that sweetness i think that's a good way to go i'm gonna flip this over beautiful gorgeous making the savory french toast um you have to pay attention to every single component if you want to make it great mmm amazing let's give it a taste really strong robust flavors smoked bacon that's sort of spicy mustard green and then the gruyere cheese just a little sharp but melts really really nicely kind of brings it all together i'm loving the parmesan cheese in the custard because it just gave the bread a really amazing crust and a beautiful color just golden brown\n"