Lemon Ricotta Mascarpone Stuffed French Toast

Image May 20, 2023 Tangie Holifield

Berries are in season and there is nothing better like a bright, celebratory brunch punctuated with lemon, and this stuffed French toast is just that. Fluffy, custard-like slices of brioche get filled with creamy ricotta and mascarpone cheese that is flavored with fresh lemon juice and zest, and then get toasted in butter until golden-brown. It’s the classic French toast you know and love, only elevated with a decadent center that makes it fit for a celebration.

Serves 4 to 6

INGREDIENTS:

One pound loaf unsliced brioche bread

1 large lemon

One 16-ounce container ricotta cheese

4 ounces mascarpone cheese

1/2 cup granulated sugar, divided

3 teaspoons vanilla extract, divided

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 1/2 cups whole or 2% milk

6 large eggs

4 to 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided

For garnish: toasted pecans, cooked bacon crumbles

For serving: fresh berries, maple syrup, powdered sugar and finely grated lemon zest

DIRECTIONS:

Trim the ends off an unsliced loaf brioche or challah bread. Cut crosswise into 2-inch thick slices (4 to 6 slices total). Cut a pocket into each slice: Arrange it cut-side down on the cutting board. Position a small knife parallel to the cutting board and use it to cut a pocket into the side, being careful not to cut all the way through. Insert your fingers into the pocket and gently press around with your fingers to compress the bread slightly.

Finely grate the zest of 1 large lemon into a medium bowl (about 2 teaspoons); juice the lemon into the bowl until you have 2 tablespoons. Add ricotta cheese, mascarpone cheese 1/4 cup of the granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon of the vanilla extract, and 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt. Stir until the sugar is almost completely dissolved.

Transfer into a piping bag or large plastic zip-top bag. Cut off one bottom corner of the zip-top or the tip of the piping bag and generously pipe the filling into the pocket of each bread slice. The filling should completely fill the pocket but not overflow, and you may have leftover filling.

Place 1 1/2 cups whole, 6 large eggs, remaining 1/4 cup granulated sugar, and remaining 2 teaspoons vanilla extract in a 9×13-inch baking dish and whisk until smooth and no streaks of unincorporated egg are visible. Fit a wire rack inside a rimmed baking sheet.

Place as many bread slices as can fit in a single layer into the milk mixture. Soak, flipping once, until the bread is saturated but not soggy, about 30 seconds per side. Transfer the bread slices to the wire rack; repeat soaking the remaining slices.

Melt 2 tablespoons of the unsalted butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add as many bread slices as can fit in a single layer with space around each one. Cook until golden-brown and the custard in the bread is cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes per side (reduce the heat as needed to cook the toast for the full amount of time). Transfer to serving plates and tent with aluminum foil if not serving right away or keep warm in a 250ºF oven.

Cook the remaining bread slices, melting 2 tablespoons of the unsalted butter in the pan before each batch. Garnish with pecans, bacon crumbles, and mint, if deired. Serve with a dusting of powdered sugar, maple syrup, berries, and more lemon zest if desired.

RECIPE NOTES
Make ahead: The cheese filling can be made up to 3 days ahead and refrigerated in an airtight container. Storage: Leftovers can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

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Fantastic French Toast

Image February 14, 2021 Tangie Holifield

French Toasts made with LA BOULANGERIE Super Flakey Croissant Toast and Fresh Raspberries.

I think I am in love!

I found the perfect bread to make French Toast and itis LA BOULANGERIE Super Flakey Croissant Toast!

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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Nikki Giovanni’s Butter-Fried Chicken

Image December 21, 2020 Tangie Holifield

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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