Citrus French Toast


The end of January had us dreaming of french toast. I keep wanting to make brunch plans and then ultimately decide that I should just stay home and keep up on everything that I need to do here. This French toast is dreamy and although there are a lot of ingredients it's not difficult to create a brunch-worthy French toast at home. We had blood oranges already on hand and navel oranges from our Perfectly Imperfect Produce box but you can play with the citrus that you put into this based on what you have on hand. I thought the blood orange syrup gave this dish such a gorgeous color. The whipped honey ricotta helped cut through the acidity of the citrus and the crumble gave the dish a nice added crunch. Dave really enjoyed the crunch of the crumble and thought the toasted flavor of the crumble gave this an added depth. We served this French toast with other breakfast items so we only made three large slices, but you can always increase the number of bread slices to feed more people. 


A Vegetarian & Cooking original.

Ingredients:
Crumble
-1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts
-1/4 cup oats
-1/2 tablespoon melted butter
-1 tablespoon brown sugar

Blood Orange Syrup
-Juice of 2 blood oranges
-2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Whipped Ricotta
-1/2 cup ricotta
-1 tablespoon honey, warmed

Vanilla French Toast
-3 slices Italian bread (1.25 inch thick)
-2 eggs
-3 tablespoons heavy cream
-1 tablespoon granulated sugar
-2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Garnishes
-1 orange, supremes* and zest
-1 tablespoon slivered almonds

*Supreming citrus means removing the membrane from citrus so that it can be served in slices with no membrane or pith.

Combine hazelnuts, oats, melted butter and brown sugar, spread evenly over parchment paper and bake at 350 for 5-10 minutes, stirring every couple minutes to prevent burning.

Juice the blood oranges into a small saucepan, whisk in granulated sugar and heat over medium so that it starts to simmer. Whisk occasionally and let simmer until the syrup is reduced by at last half. At this point, you may allow it to cool somewhat since it will continue to thicken as it cools.

Whip the honey and ricotta in a small bowl with a hand mixer until smooth. Now would also be a good time to supreme and zest the orange.

Beat the eggs, heavy cream, granulated sugar and vanilla extract together until thoroughly mixed. Dip each slice of bread into the egg mixture, coating completely and allowing to soak for a moment, then carefully wipe away the excess egg. Cook over medium heat about 3-5 minutes per side.

Plate in order of french toast, dollops of whipped honey ricotta, orange supremes, crumble, blood orange syrup drizzle, zest, and almond slivers. Enjoy!




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