McElaney French Toast Bread
November 29th, 2008Introduction
I started messing with bread for the first time a few weeks ago - at first with a basic bread recipe from the Naked Chef and later with his beer bread recipe. (If you love food and don’t have his first book get it and read it cover to cover.) I was amazed at how easy bread is to make compared to what I thought. On my last go I forgot to add the sugar to the yeast when activating - it sat there not rising for about ten minutes when I realized what a bone head I was. But bread is easy - so no problem. I just kneeded the sugar I wanted in after the fact and things continued on swimmingly from there.
This is my first attempt at a loaf of my own. I’m not straying far from Jamie’s recipe - but adjusted a few things. I’m not going to get into depth into how to make teh dough itself - so I highly recommend getting the book and reading his description on how to bake bread.
The idea behind this loaf is that French Toast is awesome and could be made more awesome if the right bread was used. This is great - but I have to say I’m not satisfied. Look out for adjustments to this recipe.
Ingredients (in order of appearance)
- Dough
- 14 grams Fast Acting Dry Yeast (2 1/4 ounce packets)
- 4 Tbls Table Sugar
- 2/3 cups Water “(Baby bottle warm)”
- 1 Tbls Kosher Salt
- 6 cups Bread Flour (fresh)
- Filling
- 2 Ounces Salted Butter (softened)
- 2 Tsp Ground Nutmeg
- 1 cup Brown Sugar
- 1/2 Tbls Vanilla Extract
- 1 cup Walnuts crushed
- Topping
- 4 Tbls Honey
- 1 Tbls Light Corn Syrup
- 3/4 Cups Brown Sugar
- 4 Ounces Salted Butter
Instructions - McElaney French Toast Bread
Read Jaime’s book on how to do this - but basically you throw the Fast Acting Dry Yeast and Table Sugar into the Water and let sit for a few minutes to get happy. Mix the Kosher Salt into the Bread Four and pour into a pile on a large flat surface. Make a bowl out of the flour in the middle of the pile that is large enough to fit all the yeast mixture - then pour in the yeast mixture. Mix with a finger until it starts to thicken to where the yeast mixture won’t spill everywhere and then kneed until you got dough. Ball up and let that bad boy rise someplace right proper. Pull out your Salted Butter to soften and go drink a frosty beverage.
Ok - a word on rising. Don’t let it go too long. You’re looking for the dough to double in size. Should take an hour. If it stops rising, find someplace warmer or throw the dough into a large tupperware bowl and close the lid. If you let it go too long it will not rise as well on the second pass - and we don’t want that.
Ok - pound out your dough and kneed some more then roll out until it’s 3/4 inch thick. If you’re lazy like me roll it 1.5 inches thick, cut it in half and roll the edges back together. Smear the Salted Butter onto the dough making sure to get an even coat. Then sprinkle on the Ground Nutmeg and get an even spread on that. Next up is the Brown Sugar. Spread that out and then sprinkle on the Vanilla Extract. Rub this into the dough until you get a paste that is spread evenly. If you do it right your dough will be a little thiner - about 1/2 inch. Spread out your Walnuts and press in a little - then roll that bad boy up as tight as you can - stretching the dough a little as you roll. The result should be the mixture rolled up in dough about 1/4 inch thick. Leave it to rise on a large flat baking sheet and fetch another frosty beverage.
Now the topping. About 20 minutes before your second rise finishes preheat your oven to 400 degrees and throw the Honey, Light Corn Syrup, Brown Sugar, and Salted Butter into a saucepan and melt it together over medium heat. Pour it over the dough and shove in the oven for 40 minutes. Again with the frosty beverages.
Pull the loaf out of the oven. It is important to note that - essentially - you have a loaf of bread covered in molten hot rock candy. HANDLE THIS VERY CAREFULLY!!! Using a spatula lift the loaf out and let cool on a rack.
Now - if you’re using this for French Toast - slice this bread about 3/4 inch thick and let sit overnight. It will get a snootch crusty. Make your french toast however you do. If you’re not making french toast, just slice and eat with a pat of butter on top, a cup of with coffee and a baseball bat to beat back any undeserving neighbors who will wander by wondering what the heck that amazing smell is.