French Toast with Walnuts and Manuka Honey

You really don't need maple syrup with honey-drenched French toast.

The sun brings frigid temps today in Wisconsin.  This time of year, gray days are damp but milder than gold days. This post is from 2008:

Apricot-Walnut French Toast

Apricot-Walnut French Toast

I am fairly conservative with money, preferring to save what I can for travel. I never buy anything not on sale and in the past year, I've become a thrifter, haunting second-hand stores for clothing made when clothing was well made, and buying it for a few dollars.

When it comes to grocery shopping, I look around for the best deals. I have been known to clip coupons, read weekly circulars, shop at several different stores and use leftovers - or pop unused portions in the freezer.

All this careful frugality goes out the window when I am in or near a patisserie or baker's market stall in France.

I buy more than my husband and I can eat, just because I want to try it. Financiers, tarte tatin, Jesuits, brioche, olive bread, pain au chocolate and more. I cannot resist. I am helpless. Weak.

Fortunately, I know what to do with leftovers. French toasts and bread pudding are an excellent way to use up what we cannot eat. French people buy bread daily for a reason: It grows hard in a day or two, unlike the bread we buy so carefully sliced and wrapper.

Apricot-Walnut French Toast for Two

For the bread

• 6 slices apricot or cinnamon-raisin bread (I used apricot bread with raisins)
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup cream or whole milk
• tablespoon brown sugar
• teaspoon vanilla extract
• dash cinnamon
• pinch salt
• butter to melt in skillet

For the sauce:

• 1/2 cup apricot preserves (something I always buy in France, but you can use honey)
• tablespoon melted butter
• 1/3 cup walnuts, chopped*

Beat eggs, cream or milk, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon in large bowl. Soak bread until it is thoroughly moist, but not falling apart. Butter skillet; use medium heat to melt butter. Place in skillet, continuing to use medium heat, and brown on both sides, carefully turning over frequently with a spatula.

While bread is turning golden brown, heat preserves in a small saucepan over a low burner. Add butter and walnuts.

Remove bread from skillet and smother in apricot-walnut sauce. This is delicious when served with vanilla yogurt and apricot nectar. I have also paired it with cream cheese, which I consider breakfast food, and maple sausage.

*As I recall, I could not find a nut grinder in the kitchen we were renting, so I skipped this step.


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Frugal French Friday: French Toast

As we close the book on September, I'm reminded of the year we were lucky enough to spend more than two weeks in France, watching summer turn into fall in the Midi Pyrenees and in Paris.

Our previous trips to France had been in the spring. A few years previous, we had spent a week at a lovely little house in the vineyards, where the air was perfumed with the scent of lilac and juniper and filled with the song of cuckoo and rooster.

We wanted to return, this time in a different season. And so we did, and it was like coming home. The little house, which bears the patina of age so gracefully - it is nearly 300 years old - and still smells of must and lavender, seemed to welcome us back.

Nights were long and clear and cold and each night before bed I would open the north-facing window before sleep so that I could listen to the silence. We woke to the proud cacophony of roosters and the sweet murmur of doves and the aroma of the rich African coffee my husband likes to sample when we are in France.

There is too much frugality in me not to find a use for day-old bread, and so every morning, I made some new version of French toast. Honey and walnuts, creme fraiche and cherries, orange and pecan, and blueberry are my favorites. In Paris once, I found a bottle of cassis syrup in our hostess's cupboard. That was an excellent addition.

To make basic French toast for two, you will need:

• 2-3 eggs
• 1/2 cup cream or 2 percent milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• dash sea salt
• splash of Calvados or Cognac
• 6-8 slices of day-old baguette
• 1-2 Tablespoons butter

Blend eggs, cream, vanilla, sugar, salt and Calvados in a wide bowl or baking dish. Soak the dry bread slices until thoroughly drenched. Add more cream if necessary.

Melt butter in a frying pan or skillet under medium heat. Using a large spatula, carefully removed the soaked bread and brown both sides in the pan, turning frequently. Serve with more butter, nuts, fruit and maple syrup.

Cost: I have made this for breakfast in France for under $1.75 for two servings. The cost is comparable here. This is truly a frugal breakfast, and it's a great way to use leftover bread, as well as eggs close to their "use by" date.