In Search of Decadent French Toast

 My obsession with french toast began with my mother's basic white bread and egg recipe and was further provoked by repeated visits to La Madeleine for their version covered in bananas, strawberries, honey, syrup and who knows what other secret, delicious ingredients.

So it is no surprise that I clipped out a recipe called "Perfect French Toast" from the Food Network Magazine and vowed to attempt all three variations -  lemon blueberry, chocolate and strawberry shortcake. I'm working in my best friend's kitchen today and I know she would appreciate the leftover english muffins, so I am going to start with the Strawberry Shortcake....

Ingredients:

Basic Recipe:
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon sugar
1 pinch salt
1/2 Tbsp butter

Extras for Strawberry Shortcake Variation:

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
3 Tbsp sugar
3 cups halved strawberries
4 English muffins, halved
Honey (for drizzling)
Vanilla Yogurt (for topping)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degress. Mix 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest with 3 Tbsp sugar, toss in strawberries
2. Whisk together eggs, milk, nutmeg, vanilla, sugar, salt in a bowl
3. Soak english muffins in egg mixture for five minutes
4. Cook english muffins in melted butter until brown, about 2-3 minutes per side 
5. Transfer english muffins to baking sheet and bake 8-10 minutes
6. Sandwich strawberries in between muffin halves and top with yogurt and honey

How do I feel about this recipe? Conflicted. On one hand, I didn't exactly follow the recipe to the letter... using cinnamon instead of nutmeg, including less milk, not measuring and replacing regular english muffins with honey wheat.  On the other hand, the flavors that really stood out to me were not really coming from the french toast... they were from the strawberries, lemon and vanilla yogurt. The egg-y wonderfulness was hidden by these much bigger flavors, producing a subtle richness that balanced the sweeter flavors, but not a wow-that's-french-toast taste. 

Conclusion: yummy, but unless this recipe is super healthy somehow, the butter, sugar, milk and egg part of this recipe are probably not worth the calories... 
The nutritionals from SparkPeople are below you can decide for yourself:
Calories: 480 
Total Fat: 12 g
   Saturated Fat: 5 g
   Polyunsaturated Fat: 1 g
   Monounsaturated Fat: 3.5 g
Cholesterol: 228.5 mg
Sodium: 327 mg
Potassium: 392 mg
Total Carbohydrate: 81 g
   Dietary Fiber: 3 g
   Sugar: 54 g
Protein: 15 g

Vitamin A: 30.5%
Vitamin B-1: 13%
Vitamin B-2: 24.5%
Vitamin B-6: 6%
Vitamin B-12: 8.5%
Vitamin C: 7%
Vitamin D: 26.5%
Vitamin E: 13.5%
Calcium: 29%
Iron: 16%


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