Challah Pain Perdu with Vanilla Crème Anglaise Recipe
Pain perdu is a French nursery dessert. Meaning "lost bread," it reclaims day-old leftover bread and is the French answer to, aptly named, French toast.
Challah is a traditional Jewish egg bread, slightly sweet and buttery, and very similar to a brioche, only it is braided and easily torn into soft, sinewy chunks. This recipe is the perfect way to use all the leftover challah from Hanukkah and turn it into a warming, winter breakfast that rekindles the holiday flames.
If you don't feel like making the vanilla custard sauce to spoon down on top, simply melt a jarful of good-quality fruit jam over low heat in a pot and serve it alongside.
- Yield:4 to 8
- Rated:
Ingredients
- For the Challah Pain Perdu
- 8 one-inch slices of challah, preferably stale (or substitute brioche)
- 2 cups of half and half
- 6 tablespoons of sugar
- 2 tablespoons of honey
- 3 eggs
- Butter for frying
- Powdered sugar for dusting
- For the Vanilla Crème Anglaise
- 4 egg yolks
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 2 cups half and half
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
Directions
-
1.
Begin by making the crème anglaise. Heat the half and half in a saucepot over medium heat.
-
2.
Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks and sugar with a hand mixer until they are light and pale in color.
-
3.
Very slowly stream the hot half and half, while mixing, into the sugar-yolk mixture.
-
4.
Return the mixture to the saucepot and heat over medium heat. Add the vanilla. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the crème anglaise coats is thick and coats the back of the spoons. Pass through a strainer so that any bits of egg that have scrambled will be removed. Allow to cool only slightly while you assemble the pain perdu.
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5.
Whisk together the half and half, sugar, honey, and eggs. In a large nonstick sauté pan over medium-low heat, melt 1 tablespoons of butter. Press the challah, one piece at a time, into the custard, flipping once, so the bread has a chance to soak it up, but not to become overly saturated. Sauté the custard-soaked bread about 4-5 minutes per side, or until golden, in batches, using more butter as necessary.
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6.
Dust powdered sugar over the top of the pain perdu. Serve with the crème anglaise.
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