Farmers' Market French Toast

Every spring I look forward to the beginning of farmers' market season in the D.C. metro area. The county I live in hosts a farmers' market every day of the week where farmers from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia come to sell their products and produce. I frequent the one held on Tuesdays, usually with my farmers' market buddy, Paloma. Last summer I decided to use my weekly trips to the market to inspire meal creations. I would buy whatever ingredients struck my fancy, looked interesting, or smelled good and create a recipe around them. I would go in with no preconceived notions of what I wanted to make - I let the produce make that decision for me. It was not only tasty but really fun, thus I decided to do it again this year.

So for the rest of the season, I'm going to do a regular feature on my blog about the meals I come up with as a result of my trips to the farmers' market. It won't always be a weekly thing but you'll be able to recognize these special entries by the titles: they will all start with "Farmers' Market..." Pretty easy, right?

For the first Farmers' Market feature, I'm going to share with you a recipe for French toast. This recipe was not only inspired by my first trip to the market this season, but by a local restaurant as well. The Carlyle is probably the most well-known restaurant in my neighborhood, and with good reason. The food is fantastic! My favorite meal to consume there would have to be brunch. They have crabcakes Benedict, omelettes, but MY absolute favorite thing is the French toast. It's coated in finely ground granola (I know this because a friend and I were so curious one time, we had to ask!), which makes it so sweet and crunchy, it's impossible to not finish the entire plate full. I have made my own homemade version of this before, but my trip to the farmers' market encouraged me to try again with some new components and ingredients.

The Atwater Breads stand was selling a bread that I nor Paloma had ever heard of. It was called struan. According to the merchant, struan is a type of Irish harvest bread and is great for toast. When I heard her say that, I immediately thought of French toast and my favorite recipe from The Carlyle. I decided to use this new (to me) bread for some French toast and promptly picked up some fresh, organic strawberries to slice on top. While perusing the rest of the market, we came across a stand selling jams, fruit butters, pies, and honey. The merchant there told us that his best seller was a low sugar blackberry butter and shared a spoonful with us to taste. I was sold! I bought a jar and decided to use it to make a fruit compote by combining it with the strawberries. My French toast was coming together nicely!

I pulled a few ingredients from my fridge and cabinet to complete the recipe, and the result was this decadent meal perfect for any homemade brunch. It is almost like a dessert so get your sweet tooth ready!

If you can't find struan, not to worry. Use Texas toast or any sweet bread you like - such as challah (which is what I usually use for French toast) or a friend recommended Hawaiian bread.


I am *so* excited to share this one with you! Let's get cookin'!


Granola Crusted French Toast with Berry Compote

Before we get started I would like to share a trick for some prep work. Since the strawberries I got are organic and from the farmers' market, I wanted to wash them to make sure any mold spores are killed before putting them in the food. I learned this trick from, where else? Pinterest.

You simply fill a big sealable baggie with ten parts water and one part white vinegar. Put the berries in the mixture and toss them around.

Then drain them into a colander and rinse with cold water. You can do this as soon as you get home from the market, dry them off, pop them in the fridge, and then they're ready to use when you're ready to eat or cook them. This works with all berries, not just strawberries. Pretty sweet, huh?

OK, back to the recipe...


Servings: 1
Prep. time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
10 small strawberries, sliced
6 teaspoons blackberry butter/jam
1/4 cup chocolate chips (semi-sweet)
3/4 cup plain granola
3 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons light brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1 egg
2 half-inch slices of bread
4 teaspoons butter
1/4 cup maple syrup


Place the sliced strawberries and blackberry butter/jam in a small pot on the stove over low heat. Stir so that the butter mixes in with the berries. Leave to simmer while you're melting the chocolate and making the French toast.

Speaking of melting the chocolate, do so after you get the fruit compote cooking. Heat it in a double boiler set-up, like we did here.

Start putting together the French toast. Pre-heat a non-stick or cast iron skillet over medium heat so that it's ready to use as soon as you're prepared to cook the French toast.

Place the granola in a large plastic baggie with a seal. Seal the baggie closed and place it between a folded kitchen towel. Using a meat tenderizer, hammer the granola until it's broken down to about half the size grains it was to begin with.

Open the baggie and add the cinnamon, ginger, brown sugar, and regular sugar. Seal the baggie once again and shake to combine all of the ingredients. Open the baggie and dump the granola mixture onto a dinner plate.

On a second dinner plate, crack one egg and use a whisk to scramble it.

Place your slices of bread one at a time in the egg to coat them. Flip the slices over and make sure each side is completely covered in the scrambled egg.

Next, use tongs to transfer each egg-coated slice of bread to the plate with the granola. Gently press the bread into the granola using the flat side of the tongs. Flip the slice over and coat the other side.

Once both sides of the bread slices are covered in the granola mixture, they're ready to be cooked. Place one teaspoon of butter into your pre-heated skillet and allow it to melt. Move the butter around with a spatula to coat the bottom of the pan.

Once the butter is melted, immediately place your coated bread slices in the pan. Let it cook for about three minutes. When it's ready to flip over, add another teaspoon of butter to the pan. Flip it over and allow to cook on that side for three minutes.

While the French toast is cooking, use this time to check on the fruit compote and the melting chocolate. Give them both a stir. They should both be ready by the time the toast is ready, so turn both burners off. Remove the compote from the heat.

Warm the maple syrup in the microwave in 15 second intervals until it's liquified.

Once each side of both of your French toast slices are golden brown and toasty, remove them from the skillet and place them on your serving plate. Pour the heated-up maple syrup over the toast.

Next, spoon the compote over the toast - use as much or as little as you want. (Leftovers would be great over vanilla ice cream as dessert at the end of the day!)

Last, use a spoon to drizzle the melted chocolate over the toast. I know it looks like kind of a hot mess in this picture, but whatever - it tastes insanely delicious!

Serve alongside some bacon or fruit salad (for me it was filling by itself!) and enjoy. Salute!