Miss the Pain?
Pain Per Due — French for “lost bread”, was always a show-stopper during our brunch service, due to its dramatic presentation of the three vertically positioned baguette logs, lathered on top with red wine compote and strawberry pieces. It’s time consuming — soaked overnight then browned, and baked for 35 mins per order, but it is really worth it to do it right.
Pain Per Due (French Toast)
A show-stopping presentation, time-consuming but the resulted taste really worths the effort
Ingredients
Pain Nog (makes about 4 cups)
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 2 cups milk
- 1 cup cream
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 pinch kosher salt
- 2 tbsp whiskey of choice
- 1 tbsp dark rum
Wines Compote
- 1/4 cup red wine
- 1/4 cup white wine
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 clove star anise
- 1 stick cinnamon
- 1 dash ground Allspice
- 1 tsp corn starch for thickening
- 4 tsp frozen apple juice, thawed
Main Ingredients
- 6 logs baguettes, cut crosswise about 3.5" long (from day before bread, or let it dry)
- 1 tbsp melted butter, for browning
- 1 handful fresh strawberry, or mix berries
- powder sugar
- mint sprigs (for garnish)
Instructions
The day before:
- put all pain nog ingredients in mixing bowl, mix well
- soak baguette logs in pain nog in refrigerator overnight, flipping once or twice to make sure the logs are soaked through
An hour before serving:
- preheat oven to 375ºF
- heat up butter in oven-safe skillet (preferably iron skillet), brown the ends of 3 baguette logs, about 3 mins each end
- in a separate skillet, brown the ends of the other 3 baguette logs
- put both skillets in preheated oven, cook for about 35 mins, or to your liking of crispiness (make sure the liquid comes out clear when piercing a knife tip in)
- in the meantime, in a sauce pan, reduce red wine, white wine, sugar, cinnamon stick, star anise clove, & allspice over low heat for about 15 mins
- mix cornstarch in the thawed frozen apple juice, then add to the reduce wines mixture, for about 2 mins, or until clear color; turn off heat and let it cool down
Serving:
- arrange the baked logs standing up, 3 on each serving plate
- ladle the wine compote over the logs
- scatter the strawberry (or mix berries) on top
- sprinkle with powder sugar and garnish with the mint sprigs
- take a photo and enjoy!
Notes
- the red/white wine compote could be prepared the day before
- make extra pain nog & soaked baguette for a bread pudding, the best bread pudding ever!!
