Brunch it Yourself – Coconut French Toast

Most of us can make a solid basic brunch at home: fry an egg, cook some bacon, burn some toast and voila!  Many have also mastered the art of pancakes without Bisquick, crepes, waffles, and french toast.  Are you one of the wonderful people who bakes your own muffins, folds omelettes perfectly, or makes cinnamon buns from scratch?  Brunch is a pretty accessible meal, and I am here to make it even moreso.  I adore going out for a fabulous brunch so much I made a damn blog about it, but I am a baker at heart and also enjoy bringing it home.

Do you want fancy, delicious french toast in your own kitchen?  Awesome!  It’s totally within your grasp.

Ingredients:

  • bread, preferably something “plain” like white, wheat, or multigrain
  • eggs
  • milk, cream, or your dairy substitute of choice
  • dried coconut flakes
USE ALL THE COCONUT.

USE ALL THE COCONUT.

Tools:

  • shallow bowl
  • plate
  • whisk or fork
  • spatula
  • griddle or frying pan

 

I use four eggs to make six pieces of coconut french toast

I use four eggs to make six pieces of coconut french toast

  1. Set pan or griddle on stove and turn the burner on to medium to medium low heat.  If your pan/griddle is non-stick, don’t worry about greasing it.  If it isn’t, wait until a little water sprinkled on it sizzles and then grease with butter or veggie oil depending on your dairy tolerance.
  2. While your griddle/pan is heating, crack eggs into your bowl and whisk together with milk/cream/dairy substitute.  Place a slice of bread in bowl for soaking.
  3. Pour a thick layer of coconut flakes on to plate.
  4. Flip bread and soak other side.
  5. When bread is fully soaked with egg mixture, place it on the plate and “bread” it with coconut flakes.  Do the same to the other side.
  6. When the bread is fully coconut flaked, put it on the hot griddle/pan.
  7. Flip bread when the egg is fully cooked and then coconut is singed.  This will take longer than standard french toast.  Repeat for the other side.
  8. Repeat steps 2 through 8 for each slice.  Enjoy delicious coconut french toast!
  9. For added deliciousness, eat with pineapple.  The best is fresh pineapple seared on a grill, but you can also throw fresh or canned on to your griddle/pan when you’re done with your toast for tastiness as well.
On the griddle like regular french toast, just "breaded" with coconut first.

On the griddle like regular french toast, just “breaded” with coconut first.

 

photo 1 photo 2

Serve with maple syrup and enjoy!

Serve with maple syrup and enjoy!

Brunch it Yourself – Buttermilk

The key to good, fluffy-as-fuck pancakes is buttermilk.  Buttermilk is, at it’s heart curdled milk.  It’s super easy to make and there’s basically no reason to pony up for the pre-ruined stuff.  Here are a few simple but fab tips for making your own buttermilk AND non-dairy buttermilk:

  • You can sour your milk with basically anything acidic, but I prefer lemon or lime juice.  It goes fast and doesn’t give your pancakes a sour taste.  The most common alternative to this is vinegar.
  • Ratios for lemon or lime juice: 3/4 cup milk, 2 tablespoons juice.
  • Ratios for vinegar: 1 cup milk, 1 tablespoon vinegar.
  • Fat content in the milk does not matter.  I use 1% because I want skim and my partner wants full fat, but do whatever youse feel.
  • You can sour soy milk with the same ratios listed above!  The pancakes will be slightly less fluffy, but still wonderful.  I am more than happy to have this when a non-dairy friend comes by.

Take these notes and go out and make amazing, fucking fluffy pancakes.  You can never go wrong with these at a bitchin’ American brunch!

 

Brunch it Yourself – Crepes

When I want to feel I’m eating a fancy brunch, I make crepes.  They’re super easy, very versatile, and since they aren’t something most Americans have grown up eating they seem more lavish than other breakfasty brunch foods.  Note: if you are feeding English people this will not work, as crepes are their standard pancakes.  Which means they have crepe stands in major cities where you can just walk up and get a fresh, delicious crepe for lunch or something.  Dicks.  Why the fuck did that not come over on the Mayflower?

Ingredients: (this amount feeds two adults)

  • 1 cup flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/2 cup milk/dairy substitute
  • 2 tablespoons butter/oil
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
Ingredients!

Ingredients!

Tools:

  • mixing bowl
  • whisk
  • 1/4 cup measure
  • low edged pan (ideally small)
The perfect crepe pan.

The perfect crepe pan.

  1. Whisk flour and eggs together.  They will clump.  This is fine.
  2. Slowly add water and milk to eggs and flour.  There will be much less clumping, but still a few lumps here and there.  This is not considered perfect for a crepe, but I like the texture so I keep them in.
  3. Melt butter.  Mix salt into butter.  Pour butter and salt into the rest of the batter and stir.
  4. Set the stove to medium and wait to put batter in until a little water flicked in sizzles on the pan.  I never have to grease my pan due to the butter content in the crepes themselves, but if you want to do so sparingly.
  5. Use the 1/4 cup measure to pour batter into the pan.  Then pick up the pan and slowly move it so that the thin batter coats the entire bottom surface. Replace pan on stove.
  6. When the edges of the crepe curl up, flip it.  The second side will take roughly a minute or two to cook.
  7. Place finished crepe on a plate and repeat steps 5 and 6 til you use up your batter.  You can stack finished crepes right off the stove as they won’t stick together.
A finished pile of crepes.

A finished pile of crepes.

Now comes the fun part: what will you put inside them?  My giant sweet tooth means I always have at least one jam and nutella as an option.  Anything that goes on toast well goes in a crepe.  Fresh fruit and nuts also work well.  If you want to go savory get some shredded cheese, meat, veggies, or cooked eggs.  Cheddar, apples, ham, and a fried egg is one of my favorites.

Nutella, Strawberry Jam, Crystalized Honey, and cooked down grapefruit were the options today.

Nutella, Strawberry Jam, Crystalized Honey, and cooked down grapefruit were the options today.

Fill, roll, enjoy!

Le Om Nom Nom!

Le Om Nom Nom!