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Nadiya Hussain’s Brioche Custard French Toast

This inventive French toast recipe from Nadiya Hussain's Fast Flavours substitutes the traditional eggs for custard, with delectable results.

From the book

Introduction

This is my emergency French toast for when I am out of eggs, which isn’t often, but as a family we do get through them fast, and once we’re down to two or three, that isn’t even enough to feed the cat. But every problem has a solution. I don’t let a lack of eggs stop us from having French toast, so this is made with – yes! – custard powder. And I love to use brioche, because why not? It’s served with a pistachio maple drizzle.

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Ingredients

For the pistachio maple drizzle:
100g pistachios, plus extra for serving
150ml maple syrup
A pinch of pinch of salt
For the French toast:
50g custard powder
30g icing sugar
225ml whole milk
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
8 thickly cut slices of brioche (about 40g a slice)
75g butter, softened
To serve:
200g strawberries, halved
icing sugar, for dusting

Essential kit

You will need: a large non-stick pan

Method

Start by making the pistachio maple drizzle. Place the pistachios in a food processor and blitz to a fine dust. Add the maple syrup and blitz till fully combined. Add the pinch of salt. Transfer to a serving dish and set aside.

Now on to the French toast. Put the custard powder in a bowl along with the sugar and whisk to combine. Add the milk and vanilla and whisk till you have no more lumps left.

Take the slices of thick brioche and dip them in one by one, briefly on both sides, and pop onto a plate. Do this till you have used up all the custard mixture.

Get a large non-stick pan and put over a medium heat. Add a large knob of the butter to the pan and wait for it to melt. As soon as it’s melted and there is enough butter covering the base in a decent layer, pop the first brioche slice in. The pan needs to be hot when the brioche goes in, so reduce the heat to low as soon as the brioche is in and fry in the butter on a medium heat for 2–3 minutes, keeping a close eye to make sure it doesn’t burn. Turn over and cook for 1–2 minutes on the other side. It should be evenly coloured and golden where the sugar has melted.

Do this to each one, making sure to add enough butter each time to fry the slices. If you are using a large non-stick pan, you can cook
them in batches of three to four. Wipe out the butter from the pan in between batches to avoid burnt butter.

Serve the hot French toast with fresh strawberries and a drizzle of that delicious pistachio maple drizzle, then add a few extra chopped pistachios to go on top. Dust with icing sugar to finish, if you like.

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From the book: Nadiya’s Fast Flavours

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