French Milk

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Cover the pans with a clean tea towel, and place the pans somewhere warm for about 30 minutes, or until the buns have risen and puffed up slightly. Portion your dough into 16 equal pieces. If you have some kitchen scales, weigh the dough and then divide this number by 16. This will be the weight of each bun dough. You can find Pains au Lait at many French bakeries, and they are often shaped in a long oval bun with an exposed seam down the middle. There wasn't much to recommend this book. At least one huge bonus of this being traditionally published was that it didn't contain quite as many spelling mistakes as Knisley's work usually does - I understand some people have difficulty with that, but that's why you get a more orthographically-inclined friend to look over important documents before you put them online or sell them to people.

Add the egg to the bowl. Slowly add the warm milk (you may not need all of it), and lightly beat everything with the dough hook until it comes together into a large ball of dough. Only add as much milk as you need to bring the ingredients together into a dough. Step 3 Vanilla and cinnamon: The best French toast is warm, cozy, aromatic, and sweet. The cinnamon and vanilla in this recipe are optional, but we definitely recommend using them for the most delicious experience. You could even add a little nutmeg or sugar if you feel like it.

Pains au Lait

I happen to love the mass-produced Pains au Lait 🙂 In the same way that I love plastic white bread for making toast, there is something about the unnaturally soft and bouncy supermarket versions of Pains au Lait that is very comforting and satisfying to eat.

Whatever you have on hand goes, the glorious food’s logic says; just dip the carbs in eggs, spices, and milk, fry the slices, and you’re good to go. This also makes frequent appearances in French recipes. It is made from fermented cream, so its name (fresh cream) is a bit of a mystery to me. Typically crème fraîche comes in little tubs and is firm, but it is also sold in liquid form, ideal for incorporating into recipes. You might liken it to sour cream, but it is distinctly different in taste and consistency. It has a velvety texture and a nutty and just ever so slightly acidic taste, and it does not separate when heated. Cut the bread on the diagonal and divide between 2 plates, then add your toppings. A drizzle of honey or maple syrup works really well, or a sprinkling of cinnamon mixed with sugar. Add some jam, fruit compote or a few slices of fresh fruit or berries if you like. You can even turn it into dessert with the addition of crème fraiche or ice cream. Depending on where you are in the world, you may be able to buy this French dairy product as it is becoming more and more popular outside of France. However, if you can't find it or it is just too expensive (paying more than a couple of Euros for a small tub would be silly), you can make your own. It is very easy -- you just need milk, vinegar and a bit of time. Try my crème fraîche recipe here. One of the many reasons to love the decadent brekkie is its adaptability; old white sliced pan can be subbed for hardening sourdough, stiff panettone, and rubbery brioche. Once, I even French toast-ed some leftover fruit cake (not bad, if you’re wondering).Let it soak:Allow the bread to soak in the egg mixture for a sufficient amount of time, usually around 30 seconds to 1 minute per side, to ensure that it is fully coated. This is a great way to add moisture to the bread. Use high-quality eggs:The quality of your eggs will have a big impact on the flavor of your French toast. Use fresh, high-quality eggs for the best results. If you are in France, you might like to try some AOC ( appellation d'origine contrôlée) crème d'Isigny. This is produced and conditioned in Normandy and is reputed to be the some of the best cream you will ever taste. Once the dough has puffed up nicely, lightly brush with egg wash, and generously sprinkle with pearl sugar.

Once all of the butter has been added, continue kneading the dough on medium speed for about 15 to 20 minutes. It’s not exactly two weeks. Since 2009, a new technique allows milk to be kept fresh for a few weeks, however it doesn’t last as long as long-life milk. The fact remains that milk is kept in the fridge and it doesn’t taste like UHT milk. I am a milk, drinker as older Americans are supposed to drink at least 3 glasses of milk (24 oz) per day. Look at the epidemic of osteoporosis in America because of low calcium intake. And milk is still a lot better than 5 lbs of chard to get that calcium. I live in France, between Brittany and Paris at least 3 months a year. Fresh milk is in every supermarket that I’ve been in. You’ll notice that Parisians are slighter build, don’t mean just slimmer, as they certainly are slimmer than Americans. Yes, the French historically drank less milk than Americans and the cities had less milk available because they had little refrigeration in the past. In Paris there were goats on ropes and should an apartment dweller need fresh milk they’d yell to the goat owner to send up the goat! Goats naturally keep going up and when they got to the etage (floor) the dweller would milk a liter of milk, pay their francs in a pay-collar and send the goat down. So you see, milk was hard to come by. Parisians got their calcium in cheese and yogurt, which didn’t require refrigeration. It wasn’t so much a preference, but a necessity. Cultural norms are hard to drop. During this time, preheat the oven to 200°C/ 390°F (without fan) with a metal baking tray on the middle shelf.Between breakfast cereal, muesli in the afternoon (my oldest daughter after school) and homemade chocolate creams, we need about 2 gallons of milk per week. There’s no need to return to the supermarket during the week, as my fridge is big enough for eight liters (2 gallons) of milk! A lot of Europeans migrated to the USA in the 19th century believing it to be a land of milk and honey. Having recently tried using Baileys as an alternative, I’ve been sold on the rich, sweet, caramel-y booziness. The sugary, dairy-rich mix already provides a base for the toast; it only becomes richer and more toffee-like as it fries.

Dairy-free milk:Instead of water, you can use any plant-based milk in this basic recipe. Almond milk, soy milk, or oat milk are great. This will give you a richer French toast. Serve it fresh: French toast tastes best when served immediately. Enjoy it while it's still warm and crispy. This recipe for fudge calls for one cup of condensed milk. Condensed milk is much sweeter than evaporated milk. After discovering the advantage of the larger bottles, I had to learn about the differences. Americans have the choice of four levels of fat. They have whole milk and skim milk like in France, in addition to two kinds of semi-skimmed milk. In France, semi-skimmed has 1.5% in fat. Here, we can choose between 2% (reduced fat) and 1% (lowfat). My husband and I can never agree when we talk about milk. I believe that milk is healthy, especially for the children. For the same reason, he prefers eggs for breakfast. In his opinion, milk is indigestible, with the proof being that Asians only consume very little.I get the feeling this book was not started as a travel journal to be published (I hope), but as a personal travel log and I think this is its biggest flaw; the audience was not a real consideration during its creation. It feels like I'm reading my own travel journal (I went to Paris with my father when I was nineteen), but the difference between rereading my travel diary and Knisley's is that I actually care about the trip I took and I did not make my journal into something more than it is. The taste is a little different from pasteurized or raw milk, but unlike many French people, my kids guzzle it by the gallon. Normally you can find it in whole ( entière), low fat ( demi-ecrémé) and non-fat ( ecrémé) versions. I really appreciated how much angst Lucy gives us without fear, too. She's very honest and realistic about having days where she just didn't feel like being present because her own mind space was begging her to lay in bed and do little else. There's a line she shares about how she only feels good when she's being productive, and I not only relate to that sentiment, but I think it sort of puts the book in a place that's not about showing off her travels but instead about exposing that sometimes you simply cannot "be" in the place you are.