Brioche French Toast with Blueberry Compote

Let’s talk about breakfast. Bryan LOVES breakfast! Every Saturday, we go out for brunch. Our favorite place is The Original Pancake House. Bryan only orders their eggs benedict. It is absolutely the best in town. Their poached eggs are always cooked to perfection and stay runny. I prefer sweets, so I usually order their pancakes. Some of my go-to choices are chocolate chips, Hawaiian (pineapple), and blueberries. Unlike most pancakes, these are super light and fluffy. Even through there is always a line, we never mind waiting. Check it out if you ever get a chance.

Because Bryan loves breakfast so much, we have decided to do “breakfast night” every Wednesday. We have been doing this for 4 – 5 years. We make something quick and easy. Browned some sausages, fried a few eggs, heated up some tortillas, peeled a couple of oranges. Recently, a few of Bryan’s coworkers found out about this breakfast for dinner idea. Since then, a couple of them have started breakfast night too. They sometimes even send pictures of homemade breakfasts to each other. Pretty hilarious!

Every once a while, I will make something fancier for our breakfast night. This French toast recipe is exactly what I am talking about. It is still simple, but looks fancy. The French toast was made with brioche burger buns. The buns were lying around the counter. I really didn’t want to waste them, so I turned them into French toast. I soaked them up in the orange and honey milk mixture, then browned them in some oil. They tasted like a cross between bread pudding and custard. Rich and satisfying! The compote was made with these jumbo blueberries that I found in Bristol Farms. They are almost the size of raspberries, but very sweet. I tossed them with some lemon juice and sugar and cooked until the sauce was thick and syrupy. Anything would taste wonderful with this warm and sweet compote.

Brioche French Toast with Blueberry Compote

1 full serving or 2 side servings

Ingredients:

–   2 large eggs

–   1/3 cup milk

–   2 tablespoons heavy cream

–   zest of 1/2 orange

–   ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

–   ½ teaspoon honey

–   ¼ teaspoon salt

–   3 brioche burger buns (6 slices) or 3 slices brioche

–   unsalted butter

–   vegetable oil

Blueberry Compote:

–   6 ounces fresh blueberries

–   1½ tablespoon sugar

–   zest of ½ lemon

–   2 teaspoons lemon juice

Directions:

1. In a large shallow bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, heavy cream, orange zest, vanilla, honey and salt together.
2. To make the compote, in a small saucepan over medium heat, add blueberries, sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice. Cook until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is thick and syrupy, about 5 – 7 minutes. Keep warm over very low heat.
3. Meanwhile, dip the bread into the egg mixture and make sure all sides are covered.
4. In a large pan over medium heat, heat up ½ tablespoon butter and ½ tablespoon vegetable oil. Add half of the bread and cook until golden brown, about 2 – 3 minutes on each side. Transfer the French toast to serving plates. Continue with the rest of the bread. If needed, add more butter and oil.
5. Top the French toast with some of the blueberry compote. Serve immediately.

Tips:

1. You can substitute the brioche with challah.
2. The reason I used brioche buns because they were leftover.
3. Use fresh and ripe blueberries. If not, use frozen ones.

(Adapted from Ina Garten and Curtis Stone via Foodnetwork.com)