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
Nadiya’s Fast Flavours
Clever, flavour-focussed recipes from Nadiya Hussain
From midweek meals to celebration centrepieces
Including plenty of Nadiya's signature bakes
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.
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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