World Wide, the Croissant is everyone’s favorite pastry, but now in a mouth-watering loaf-style toast. I discovered this wonder bread while stocking my kitchen box from Imperfect Foods. With a glossy crust and a soft buttery inside, it looks almost too good to eat. Almost. A simple addition to any breakfast or lunch, enjoy it fresh with butter and jam, toasted and topped with avocado, or go crazy and make French toast, like I did in the recipe below. With top-quality, non-GMO ingredients and cage-free eggs, this toast tastes like it is just fresh out of a Parisien bakery. Who says you cannot travel from your kitchen!
And even if you cannot find LA BOULANGERIE Super Flakey Croissant Toast in your area, any thick sliced, brioche, challah, Italian, or plain white sandwich bread will work as well.
Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients: 8 slices (1-inch thick) brioche, Italian, or plain white sandwich bread 1 cup whole milk 1 cup heavy cream 1/2 cup sugar 3 eggs 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
6-8 tablespoons unsalted butter confectioners’ sugar, for dusting seasonal fresh fruit, for garnish warm maple syrup,for serving
Directions: Preheat the oven to 170º F.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the milk, cream, sugar and cinnamon; and then whisk in the eggs and vanilla. Pour the egg batter into a shallow 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Add the bread and allow the bread to soak for 5 minutes.
Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a cast iron skillet of medium heat. Add the soaked bread to skillet, two pieces at at time, and fry until golden brown on both sides. Placed the toast on a baking sheet and place it in oven to keep warm. Repeat the process with remaining slices of bread.
Transfer the toast of a platter. Dust with confectioners’ sugar and garnish with seasonal fresh fruit. Serve family style with maple syrup, if desired.
Voila, easy French toast.
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Great food, a bottle of wine and great literature go hand in hand…….
New York Time journalist Elizabeth Harris interviewed the poet Nikki Giovanni for an article that appeared in the newspaper during the week of December 14,2020. Giovanni, 77, whose 19th collection of poems, “Make Me Rain,” came out this Fall. In the course of their discussion, Giovanni told Harris about the butter-fried chicken she makes for dinner sometimes. That recipe didn’t make it into the final copy of the interview, but Harris did share Giovanni’s recipe with the rest of us in a .a brief excerpt found in the NYT Cooking column on-line.
It’s not so much a recipe as it is a no-recipe recipe, like the one’s our Grandmothers would hand down by word of mouth, and it results in an excellent chicken dish. The texture of the outer layer is crispy and the inner part is juicy and tender. And in Giovanni’s own words:
“I’m a Southern cook so I use whatever is around. Cut the chicken up or if you are lucky and working purchase wings. There is no such thing as too much butter. A half stick is usually good, though. Put a couple of cloves of garlic in the skillet to let them simmer. I like to rub the wings with ginger but I forgot to tell you a shake or two of nutmeg really helps. If summer, get your rosemary from the garden or your tarragon or whatever is green growing. Do not roll a lot of flour on them. Just enough to cover then shake off. Do not batter them. You are not, after all, a chef trying to stretch your money.”
“Cook that floured chicken slowly,” Giovanni emphasized. “If you don’t have time to slowly fry,” she wrote, “then remember the old blues song: ‘Come back tomorrow and try it again.’ ”
It really takes the hand of an experienced cook to fry chicken in butter as it is a slow and tedious process. Scientifically, it is possible to cook boneless, skinless chicken breasts in butter, provided the temperature is kept below the 350° F frying point without danger of burning the chicken and the milk proteins found in the butter, as you find in Italian cuisine. As for bone-in chicken with the skin on, butter helps the skin to go brown because the milk solids in the butter brown, but it doesn’t make the chicken crispier by any means. Butter is used for colour and flavor. For that very reason, we adapted Nikki Giovanni’s recipe and we recommend frying the chicken in a combination of vegetable oil and butter, after thoroughly drying your bird, and reducing the temperature while frying the chicken to a slow simmer. This slow simmering of the chicken in butter is reminiscent of the term, à la meunière, which can be roughly translated as,in the manner of miller’s wife, in reference to a French cooking technique in which a whole fish or fish fillets are lightly dusted in flour and then sautéed in butter. The technique is easily adapted by replacing the main ingredients or incorporating additional elements.
Try it for dinner and see if it doesn’t suit your taste. We think it’s delicious, warm and fragrant, and is most excellent when paired with a nice Chardonnay!
Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients: One 3-4 lb chicken cut up, or 3 pounds of thighs, drumsticks and wings 1 cup all purpose flour Salt, to taste Ground black pepper, to taste 1/2 teaspoon paprika 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 3 garlic cloves 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary 1 stalk of celery Vegetable oil, for frying 1 stick of unsalted butter
Directions: Preheat the oven to 175 º F.
To prepare a draining station, set a wire rack in a rimmed baking pan. lined with paper towels; set aside.
Using clean paper towels, pat the chicken dry. Season with salt and pepper and set aside on a clean plate.
In a large bowl, add flour, salt, pepper, paprika, nutmeg, allspice and oregano. Mix them well until it is all incorporated.
Dredge the chicken in the seasoned flour mixture. Shake off the excess flour and set aside on a rack to dry. Repeat the same dredging process for the remainder of the chicken pieces.
Add the vegetable oil to a cast iron skillet or Dutch oven to a depth of 2 inches. Heat the oil to 350 ºF. Add the butter, garlic cloves, rosemary and celery stalk. Add the chicken, and shallow fry for 3 to 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Continue to fry the chicken for 15 to 20 minutes. Using tongs, turn and rotate the chicken pieces every few minutes to ensure even cooking and prevent the skin from burning, until the chicken is golden brown in color and the internal temperature of the chicken is 165° F (See Cook’s Notes Below).
Transfer chicken to the prepared paper towel lined tray, and drain the chicken. Transfer the chicken to the oven to keep warm and repeat frying the rest of the chicken.
Serve immediately with your choice of tabasco sauce and side dishes, like potato salad, coleslaw, collard greens, or green beans.
Cook’s Notes:
As an alternative to using a mix of vegetable oil and butter, you can also use Crisco Butter Flavor Shortening. For the record, Crisco shortening has 50 percent less saturated fat than butter and 0g trans fat per serving. It is excellent for frying, and great for baking – giving you higher, lighter-textured baked goods, in addition to adding a rich buttery flavor to foods.
While frying the chicken, cook slowly of medium-low heat, just about to a simmer, to prevent the flour from burning.
Use thermometer to check the internal temperature of the chicken, being careful not to touch the bones. Don’t be afraid to break the chicken’s crust to take the meat’s internal temperature; it should read 165 ° F. Drumsticks/thighs are also done at 175 ° F. Being on the safe side, a broken crust is vastly preferable to undercooked chicken. Plan on the whole process of frying chicken to taking around 15–25 minutes, keeping in mind that white meat will cook faster than dark.
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Culinary Lavender is an incredibly versatile herb for cooking. In today’s home kitchens, fresh edible flowers are making a comeback as enhancements to both the flavor and appearance of food. As a member of the mint family it is also closely related to rosemary, sage, and thyme. It is best used with fennel, oregano, rosemary, thyme, sage, and savory.
Lavender has been a favorite herb for centuries. The historic use and recognition of lavender is almost as old the history of man. As an herb, lavender has been in documented use for over 2,500 years. In ancient times lavender was used for mummification and perfume by the Egyptian’s, Phoenicians, and peoples of Arabia. The Greeks and the Romans bathed in lavender scented water and it was from the Latin word “lavo” meaning “to wash” that the herb took it’s name. Perhaps first domesticated by the Arabians, lavender spread across Europe from Greece. Around 600 BC lavender may have come from the Greek Hyeres Islands into France and is now common in France, Spain, Italy and England.
The ‘English’ lavender varieties were not locally developed in England but rather introduced in the 1600s right around the time the first lavender plants were making their way to the Americas. English Lavender (l. angustifolia and munstead) has the sweetest fragrance of all the lavenders and is the one most commonly used in cooking. The uses of lavender are limited only by your imagination. Culinary Lavender has a sweet, floral flavor, with lemon and citrus notes. The potency of the lavender flowers increases with drying.
Queen Elizabeth I of England valued lavender as a conserve and a perfume. It has been said that she commanded that the royal table should never be without conserve of lavender and she issued orders to her gardeners that fresh lavender flowers should be available all year round! She also drank an abundance of Lavender tea to help ease her migraines and used it as a body perfume. Queen Victoria of England is most notable for making Lavender popular across England and it could be found, in one form or another, in every one of her rooms, as she used it to wash floors and furniture, freshen the air, and had it strewn among the linens. During the First World War, nurses bathed soldiers’ wounds with lavender washes. To this day, the French continue to send baby lamb to graze in fields of lavender, so their meat will be tender and fragrant.
But I digress……the subject at hand was desserts.
This lemon lavender berry cake is soooooo good. It is not too sweet, but just sweet and savory enough to satisfy your sweet tooth. Sometimes, Bundt cakes can end up heavy, dry and tasteless. This one, I promise you, is neither of those things. Buttermilk, lemon juice, lemon zest, and plenty of butter make sure the cake remains light and airy and moist and full of flavor. The cake is perfect for tea time or even served for brunch on a Sunday morning.
Serves 8 to 10
Ingredients: 3 3/4 cups all purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon sea salt 3 large eggs, room temperature 2 egg whites, room temperature 2 cups granulated sugar 1 tablespoon lemon zest 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 teaspoon lavender extract (See Cook’s Notes) 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature 1 1/2 cups buttermilk 1/3 cup lemon juice 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries, plus extra for garnish 1/2 cup fresh raspberries, optional
Confectioner’s sugar, for dusting
Directions: Preheat oven to 350˚F.
Using vegetable cooking spray, coat a 10 cup capacity Bundt cake pan.
In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together. Whisk until completely mixed. In a standing mixer or with a hand held mixer and a large bowl, cream butter, sugar, and lemon zest until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
Whisk in eggs, egg whites, vanilla extract, and lavender extract on a high speed until combined, about 2 minutes, scraping down sides as needed.
On a low speed, whisk the flour mixture to the egg mixture until just combined.
Still on a low speed, pour in the buttermilk and lemon juice, mixing until just combined. Gently fold in blueberries and raspberries until just combined.
Pour batter evenly into the prepared. Gently tap the pan on the counter top to release any air bubbles. Place the cake in the oven. Bake for 30 -45 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of each cake. Set on a wire rack to cool, at least one hour and remove from the cake pan
Dust the cake with confectioner’s sugar. Garnish with berries, if desired and serve.
Cook’s Notes: If you are having trouble finding lavender extract in your area, do not fret. There is a relatively new product by Taylor & Colledge Lavender that manufactures lavender a paste, made from the finest Lavender (Lavandula angustifoila) grown in southern Australia. In January, flowers are harvested and distilled to capture the true essence at its source. This naturally flavored paste delivers a fresh new taste to try in your recipes. Just recently, the product is being carried in most major supermarkets in the United States and can be bought on line for a fairly reasonable price. The paste comes in a 1.4 oz (40 g) tube, and the beauty of it all is that you only need to use 1/2 teaspoon for most recipes, making it very economical.
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All photographs and content, excepted where noted, are copyright protected. Please do not use these photos without prior written permission. If you wish to republish this photograph and all other contents, then we kindly ask that you link back to this site. We are eternally grateful and we appreciate your support of this blog.
Thank You!
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As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, we earn a very small commission from qualifying purchases. Thank you for browsing and shopping! It is greatly appreciated.
All photographs and content, excepted where noted, are copyright protected. Please do not use these photos without prior written permission. If you wish to republish this photograph and all other contents, then we kindly ask that you link back to this site. We are eternally grateful and we appreciate your support of this blog.
World Wide, the Croissant is everyone’s favorite pastry, but now in a mouth-watering loaf-style toast. I discovered this wonder bread while stocking my kitchen box from Imperfect Foods. With a glossy crust and a soft buttery inside, it looks almost too good to eat. Almost. A simple addition to any breakfast or lunch, enjoy it fresh with butter and jam, toasted and topped with avocado, or go crazy and make French toast, like I did in the recipe below. With top-quality, non-GMO ingredients and cage-free eggs, this toast tastes like it is just fresh out of a Parisien bakery. Who says you cannot travel from your kitchen! 
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