Panettone French Toast

While I was tempted to call this Italian Toast, rather than the almost tactless Panettone French Toast, I felt the latter title had the benefit of conveying to you exactly what this is. You can certainly make it with plainer golden pandoro, but it may also be useful to know that should you have made, or be making, the Italian Christmas Pudding Cake, the amount of panettone specified below is pretty much what you’ll have leftover if you started with a 1kg/2¼lb panettone. Besides, the panettone with its spicy studding of sweet fruits does make this feel like a fully festive breakfast. Dried and candied fruit phobes should obviously take the pandoro path.

If you cook these, as I do, for 1 minute a side, the egg will be soft inside, so some eaters may want them cooked longer.

For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.

INGREDIENTS
Serves: 4-6

FOR THE FRENCH TOAST

• 4 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons mascarpone cheese
• 125 full fat milk
• 300 grams panettone , slightly staled, cut into 8 equal pieces
• 50 grams unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon flavourless vegetable oil

TO SERVE

• 50 grams pomegranate seeds
• 1 teaspoon icing sugar

METHOD

In a dish that will take half the panettone pieces easily — I use a 24cm / 9inch square glass dish — whisk the eggs together with the mascarpone and milk; you will have to be a bit patient to smooth out the mascarpone — not that a normal person would register this, but my impatience colours my judgement.
Dunk 4 of the panettone slices in the egg mixture and leave to soak for 1 minute.
Put 25g / half the butter and ½ teaspoon oil in a large frying pan, and set over a low heat to melt. Turn the panettone slices in the egg mixture, and soak the other side for another minute, by which time the bread should have soaked up enough to soften it and the butter should have melted in the pan.
Turn up the heat, then add the soaked slices to the frying pan and cook for 1 minute each side, so that their egg-soaked surfaces are golden, and browned in part. Meanwhile, soak the remaining 4 slices in the egg mixture for their 1 minute a side.
Remove the first batch of Panettone French Toast from the pan to a large plate, add the remaining butter and oil to the pan, and cook the second batch as you did the first.
When all the pieces are cooked and on the platter, scatter with pomegranate seeds, then dust thickly with the icing sugar pressed through a tea strainer, letting the “snow” fall mostly on the golden sweet-bread slices rather than on the fruit.

AS FEATURED IN
NIGELLISSIMA UK book cover
NIGELLISSIMA
2012