I’m not one for dipping bacon in syrup, but I understand the affinity for salty sweet breakfasts and brunch, especially on the weekend.
During the workweek, we tend to stick to sweet OR salty for the first meal of the day. Cereal or a breakfast taco, brown sugar-topped oatmeal or peanut butter toast. But when we have time to linger, we get to enjoy honey on a warm croissant or sage-flecked maple sausage served alongside pancakes.
Those savory vehicles of fat and eye-opening pillows of sugar, especially in dishes like this ham and cheese sandwich-inspired French toast from "Betty Crocker The Big Book of Breakfast & Brunch" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $19.99), fire off a memo to the brain that it's time to relax and enjoy the complicated, contradictory combination of flavors.
Ham ’n’ Cheese French Toast
1 cup milk
1/3 cup Original Bisquick mix
2 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
6 slices (1 inch thick) day-old ciabatta or French bread
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
6 oz. thinly sliced cooked ham (from deli)
1 1/2 cups (6 oz.) shredded mild Cheddar cheese
2 Tbsp. butter
Powdered sugar
In shallow dish, stir milk, Bisquick mix, vanilla and eggs with fork or whisk until blended. In each slice of bread, cut 3-inch pocket through top crust. Spread about 1 teaspoon mustard in each pocket. Place a slice or two of ham and 1/4 cup cheese in each pocket.
Heat griddle or skillet over medium heat. Melt butter on griddle. Dip bread into egg mixture, coating both sides. Place bread on hot griddle; cook about 5 minutes, turning once, until golden brown.
Cut French toast in half diagonally; sprinkle with powdered sugar or jam, if using. Serves 6.
— From "The Big Book of Breakfast & Brunch" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $19.99)
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