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Eggnog French Toast with Apple Cranberry Compote |
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A special make-ahead breakfast for Christmas morning. Thick slices of panettone or another bread are soaked overnight in eggnog, then buttered and baked, sprinkled with powder sugar and then, spooned with a delicious apple and cranberry sauce.
One year, an Italian fruit bread called panettone [pan-uh-TOH-nee] appeared beneath the Christmas tree. Ever since, it’s been an essential holiday ingredient.
Panettone makes lovely toast, lightly textured and barely sweet. It has replaced lady fingers in our Christmas trifle. Last year, we made Eggnog French Toast on Christmas morning and this year, by popular demand, it will return, the new family tradition.
Panettone comes in large festive boxes and is easy to find before Christmas, if you look. The Italian groceries on The Hill sell panettone and I’ve also seen it in local groceries and even stores like Home Goods, World Market and Trader Joe’s.
UPDATE Use panettone to make Christmas Trifle too!
For the compote, Golden Delicious really are the perfect apple, they soften just right and still hold their shape. Here, well, Delicious are delicious! If you plan to drink the eggnog and are concerned about raw eggs, do use pasteurized eggs. Don't feel like you have to make the homemade eggnog for the French toast, commercial eggnog works just fine.
Do you have a favorite recipe for Christmas morning that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. If you like Kitchen Parade, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. Become a Kitchen Parade fan on Facebook! EGGNOG FRENCH TOAST with
APPLE CRANBERRY COMPOTE
Serves 4
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HOMEMADE EGGNOG
- 2 eggs (see TIPS)
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 cups milk (low-fat is good)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla (for French toast, peppermint for drinking)
- Freshly grated nutmeg
- Brandy to taste (omit for French toast, optional for drinking)
-
EGGNOG FRENCH TOAST
- 8 slices panettone (from half a two-pound loaf) or another good bread such as challah
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups homemade eggnog (or commercial eggnog)
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- Melted butter
- Powdered sugar
HOMEMADE EGGNOG Whisk eggnog ingredients. Makes 2-1/2 cups, reserve half cup for the cook!
EGGNOG FRENCH TOAST Whisk eggs, 2 cups eggnog and spices. Drizzle some of the eggnog mixture over the bottom of a glass or ceramic dish, then arrange bread in a single layer. Pour the eggnog mixture over top. Cover, refrigerate overnight.
Preheat oven to 450F. Brush slices on both sides with butter. Arrange on a rimmed baking sheet, bake for 15 minutes. Turn slices over, bake another 15 minutes or until golden brown and slightly puffy.
TO SERVE Transfer French toast to plates and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Top with warm apple cranberry compote. Buon appetito!
Believe it or not, this recipe has been 'Alanna-sized' with reductions in fat and sugar. A NOTE ON CALORIES & NUTRITION ANALYSIS This make-ahead French toast recipe is so easy to make and tastes so good. But yes, especially when it's made with panettone, it's laden with calories -- even though I've included plenty of fruit, reduced the use of butter and sugar -- sooo many calories, I seriously considered not sharing the recipe at all. Still, the recipe is instructive. Look it over. It looks rich, yes, but really, 'not that bad' for a special occasion. It just goes to show how important it is to use recipes from sources that include nutrition analysis, not just for weight loss and weight management purposes but because, truly, we deserve to know and too often, it's just not easy to tell. Off my soapbox! HOW MUCH BREAD For a double batch, I used 1-1/2 pounds of Great Harvest's cranberry orange bread, twas plenty. I used a double layer of bread for soaking, making sure that the first layer was pretty wet before adding the second. HALVING THE RECIPE For a half batch, there was less soaking liquid than needed. (In this batch, I also used the Great Harvest bread and only soaked the slices 4 hours. Either one might have contributed. I do believe that the bread should soak overnight, not just a few hours.) 
The slightly tart Apple Cranberry Compote and the slightly sweet Eggnog French Toast are a beautiful combination.
Homemade Eggnog is light for drinking (none of that heavy stuff from the carton) and wonderful in French toast.
More Make-Ahead Recipes for Christmas Morning
from BlogHer, a piece I wrote with recipes from fellow bloggers
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(for easy bookmarking and searching)~ Apple Cranberry Compote ~
~ Homemade Eggnog ~
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Oh how I love eggnog. Have never had it in a French Toast before. I just posted an Eggnog Coffee Cake you may like...
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