Oh the wonders of French toast.
One of my very favourite things in this world, is French toast.
There are plenty of different varieties of French toast. Some coated in cinnamon sugar, some served with ketchup as a savory dish. Some people dip the bread in egg and Corn Flakes, some soak the bread in a custard mixture and bake it in the oven. Those are all great, but when I think of French toast, I think of a nice big slab of some sort of bread, dipped in egg and pan fried to golden deliciousness.. Not necessarily sweet or savory, no frills or bells or whistles, just plain and simple.
I usually just use regular bread. Lately, I’ve been expanding my French toast horizons, and I’ve been trying new breads. Some favourites are French baguettes, day old Challah, Any sort of cinnamon swirl bread (bonus points for raisins!) but today, I think I found my new favourite type of bread to use for French toast…
Danish buttered bread.
Oddly enough, the only place I can find this bread is at an Asian grocery store. Online, the only information I could find was by looking up the name, and it sent me to an Asian grocery store website, where it explained that Danish buttered bread is really popular in Japan. I live in The U.S. so, I guess it just never got as popular here, which explains its limited availability, at least in my region.
Just to illustrate the difference between regular bread and this bread, here is a photo I took of a slice before making it into French toast-
I could speak for hours about how delicious this bread is, plain, or with a variety of toppings, but right now, its all about the French toast.
A detail shot to show those wonderful little nooks and crannies that soak up the egg and make the French toast SO tender..
And a closeup of the top of the bread. Its much like a loaf shaped giant croissant, really.
I had mine with butter, and some strawberry jam with some real maple syrup mixed in.
Paired up with some maple bacon, some yogurt and berries…mmm..berries..
So I suppose if you’re unable to find this delicious bread, you could just slice up a croissant and use that in its stead. I’m sure that would be just as delicious!
Happy eating!
-A.
P.S. I did some research and found that another name for this Danish buttered bread is “Russenzopf” I have since begun the hunt for a recipe, which is proving much more difficult than expected. If you know of one, please leave a comment and let me know!
March 29th, 2007 at 9:52 pm
YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! stuffed french toast w/ challah is what i usually make and i don’t eat bacon, but as usual, you have me drooling!
March 30th, 2007 at 12:29 am
I came to your site via a recomendation from Muffin (via her LJ), and I’m so glad I did! I love french toast and your photos / description of yours is enough to make me want to run into the kitchen and fix some right this minute, even if it is 11:00 at night. I’m looking forward to discovering the rest of your blog.
March 30th, 2007 at 11:47 am
There’s a recipe for something called “Russenzopf” here:
http://tinyurl.com/39fk9c
but it has a filling and doesn’t quite look the same as your fab pictures. Hope it helps.
Bri
the
Pie
Guy
March 31st, 2007 at 6:48 pm
THANK YOU SO MUCH BRI! I’m going to have to try that asap!
I’m thinking maybe it’s just the Danish Dough, and not the filling, perhaps.. I’ll have to experiment. Whatever it is, it looks delicious! Even if it’s not exactly the same as the stuff I bought, I’m still looking forward to trying it!
I have no idea how you found that recipe, I searched for like 4 hours and found bubkus. I appreciate your looking for me! Thank you!
April 1st, 2007 at 10:37 am
Mmmm that looks divine. Don’t forget you can “frenchify” quite a few things! Check out my French Toast Danish ;)
http://www.breakfastblogger.com/2006/07/05/french-toast-danish/
April 2nd, 2007 at 7:51 am
That bread looks very much like what the French call Brioche. You might have more luck finding that.
April 4th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Muffin, if you do figure it out can you PLEASE post the recipe on Never Bashful with Butter. That bread looks like the yummiest ever.
April 15th, 2007 at 12:44 am
Hello, Muffin! I’m Gina, and that was my blog with the Russenzopf recipe on it (nice to be noticed…thanks!). I must confess, though, that I got the recipe from Jen the Bakerina (www.bakerina.com), and she, in turn, got it from King Arthur Flour when she took a baking class there. It was all in metric measurements, though, so I converted it to conventional amounts. It was my first attempt at such an involved pastry made with laminated dough, and I panicked and almost gave up along the way, but it turned out just WONDERFUL! The recipe makes two loaves, so we ate one and froze one for a rainy day. The best thing to do with it IMHO is to slice it thickly and lightly toast it. YUM!
Like you, one of my greatest pleasures in life is French toast. I love making it with either challah or a brioche loaf, or any kind of sweet, eggy bread. But I think the bread you posted about must be made from a yeasted, laminated dough like Danish or croissants. Danish dough would be a little sweeter, although croissants would be a bit flakier, because they have more turns or folds when making the dough. I think, for your purposes, Danish dough might be perfect. In fact, you might use the recipe for the Russenzopf but not fill it and just make regular loaves instead of braids to eventually make the French toast. In fact, I think I’ll try that myself at some point, as your pics make it look TO DIE FOR! :-)
April 19th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
holy crap. i just had breakfast and i’m hungry already looking at all your pics!!!!! i wish they had decent french toast like that in taipei!
May 3rd, 2007 at 2:42 am
I am a great fan of breakfast. Which is a tragedy, because I never get to have it. These pictures are orgasmically delicious! In the morning, there will be no stopping me from having a heaping plate of delicious breakfast items! Maybe, I will even get TWO plates :-D