Custard Battered French Toast

When I ran across this recipe on Pottery Barn's Farmhouse Brunch Party Planner this summer, I knew I wanted to make it someday.  Unfortunately, I waited too long to print it out and now the season is over and it is no longer listed.  I was, however, able to find this video online and follow the recipe pretty easily.  I don't like exact measurements (hence my very limited baking skills) so winging it worked out well for me.  My custard didn't end up quite as thick as the one appears to be in the video, but it turned out delicious anyway!  I will list the approximate recipe below.  If anyone has the exact recipe, please feel free to share.  This made 4 large pieces of French toast with enough custard leftover for another batch tomorrow morning!

Ingredients:

1 Loaf French bread

1/2 pint heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 tblsp butter

1 tsp pure vanilla extract (or seeds from 1 vanilla bean)

2 egg yolks

1.  Slice the French bread on a diagonal to create large, one-inch thick slices.  Set the bread slices aside.

2.  In a medium saucepan, bring the cream, milk, sugar, butter and vanilla to a simmer.  Watch carefully, as it tends to boil over very quickly once it heats up.  Remove from heat.

3.  In a medium bowl, add the egg yolks and break lightly with a wisk.  To temper the egg yolks, whisk in a few tablespoons of the hot cream mixture, then add the rest of the cream to the tempered eggs VERY SLOWLY while whisking.  If you do this too quickly, you could scramble your eggs.

4.  Pour the custard back into the saucepan and place it on LOW heat, stirring constantly until thickened.  A good way to tell if it's thick enough is if the mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon.  DO NOT walk away from the pan, you may accidentally end up cooking the eggs.  Pour custard into a shallow dish.

5.  Place a non-stick skillet over medium heat and melt about one tablespoon of butter in the skillet.

6.  Take your bread slices and dunk each side into the custard for about three seconds and place in skillet. 

7.  The toast is ready to flip when the edges closest to the bottom of the pan are becoming brown and carmelized.  

8.  Cook the other side for about 4-5 minutes.  Remove from skillet.

I served mine with a little bit more butter, a light dusting of powdered sugar and warmed maple syrup.  

(We also had a side of scrambled eggs, adding the leftover egg whites from the custard recipe to 4 more whole eggs, and a generous splash of milk.  This made them very light and fluffy!  I almost always top my finished scrambled eggs with a sprinkling of some type of cheese.  This time I just used sharp cheddar cheese)

Goblet:  Pottery Barn

Plates:   IKEA

Urn:      Pottery Barn

Floral:   Target