French Toast A Thousand Ways

MANILA, Philippines ― One of the most poignant scenes in the movie “Kramer vs. Kramer” shows Dustin Hoffman and his young son trying to move on after his wife left. They’re making French toast, the family’s breakfast favorite, and creating a mess in the kitchen. At that moment, reality sinks in for the two abandoned males and they start to bond.

My kids, who were in primary school when they first saw the film, love that scene. French toast is the first dish they learned from me; they understand the unspoken relationship developed when generations cook together.

GREAT FIRST LESSON – French toast is a simple, uncomplicated dish with very few ingredients, most of which are in every kitchen. It requires no special equipment, and can safely be prepared even by children. Here’s how to make French toast for four persons (or for two hungry kids).

In a shallow bowl, beat together 1 large or 2 medium eggs with 1/4 cup water and 4 cup evaporated milk and ? tsp vanilla. Arrange 8 slices ordinary sandwich bread on a plate and slowly pour the mixture over them. Soak both sides of the bread well, then panfry in a heated pan lightly brushed with butter. Cook over a medium flame 2 minutes per side until lightly golden. Serve with pancake syrup.

APPLE PIE ALA MODE– After a week of basic French toast with jam, bacon, sausages and ham, the kids wanted to expand their repertoire with a killer dessert; given a list, they chose Apple Pie ala Mode.

We sautéed sliced, unpeeled apples in a little butter until softened, then sprinkled the lot with brown sugar and cinnamon powder and stirred until the natural apple juices produced a light syrup. The warm apple mixture, piled on freshly made French toast, was made more festive with scoops of vanilla ice cream drizzled with chocolate syrup.

MANGO PIE ALA MODE – This variant is made from almost-ripe mango (manibalang), peeled, sliced and sauteed in butter, with sugar and cinnamon. A Rocky Road ice cream scoop and strawberry syrup completes the dressy presentation.

SAVORY FRENCH TOAST – French toast could be the basis for light lunch, dinner or brunch main courses, but remember to omit the vanilla in the egg-milk mixture; substitute a pinch of salt and black pepper instead.

Do not limit bread choices to ordinary sandwich slices; venture into whole grain and multi-grain breads for healthier options.

OPEN FACED SANDWICHES – Sandwiches these days are not limited to the old definition of two slices of bread with something between them. Open-faced sandwiches, where slices lay flat on the plate to be topped with filling, provide an unlimited selection of options.

My personal choices over the years have been fillings made from leftovers: sliced Pot Roast with gravy, Roast Chicken with mushroom cream sauce, Chicken Ala King, Seafood Bisque, Beef Stroganoff, Meatballs with Italian Sauce. In short, Western dishes with plenty of richly flavored gooey sauce.

STUFFED FRENCH TOAST – My grandson discovered this when we had a freezer filled with hamburger buns from a high school reunion. I converted the buns into stuffed French Toast Sandwiches; we had them nightly for weeks without repeating a recipe once.

As Melanie de Proft of the Culinary Arts Institute said in the Woman’s World Cook Book, “…from simple beginnings, the sandwich has developed in all directions, and has adapted itself to such varied needs that it ranges from a fragile morsel served with afternoon tea to an elaborate combination of toast, meat, tomato, sauce and any number of other things which combine to make it a complete and satisfying meal.”

Those words, first published 51 years ago, still ring true today, and especially with the endless combinations inside the Stuffed French Toast.

PIZZA FRENCH TOAST – Brush one side of each bread with tomato paste or pizza sauce. Top one bread for each sandwich with any combination of the following: sliced pepperoni, salami, ham, fried bacon, roast turkey, roast chicken, smoked salmon, canned sardines or tuna, capers, cooked seafood, mushroom, tomato, caramelized onions, minced garlic, green or red pepper, fresh basil leaves and cheeses, especially mozzarella and parmesan.

Cover the filled bread with the second slice, hold firmly together and carefully dip into the egg-milk mixture until the bread pieces are slightly soaked. Slowly panfry in olive oil over medium heat until both sides are golden brown and the cheese filling is melted.

ADOBO FLYING SAUCER – The Imeldific’s favorite Aristocrat Restaurant snack is Adobo FlyingSaucer, made by stuffing shredded moist adobo between two slices of round bread and pressing the sandwich together in a hot round metal mold. The result really looks like a brown speckled flying saucer with toasted concentric circles.

Inside each sandwich is a generous mound of Aristocrat’s famous adobo, which shines with every bite; the perfectly spiced flakes blend well with the crusty white bread exterior. Certainly one of the last big food bargains left.

To make a home version, we used hamburger buns, which have the right shape. We did not soak the bread too long in the egg-milk mix for a drier and crispier sandwich. While pan-frying, we pressed on the sandwich with a spatula to compress the dough.

Our version is so good I have taken to making a lot of adobo to ensure enough leftover to flake for sandwiches.

THE KING’S ALL-TIME HIT –Elvis was reported to have indulged in sandwiches filled with bananas, peanut butter and bacon. We tried that combination in a few Stuffed French Toast potluck events and The King was right; it is a killer sandwich.

To save friends and family from dying fat the way Elvis did, we make this in junior sizes skewered on sticks with cubes of fresh pineapple for vitamins and fiber. Dangerously delicious dipped in a chocolate fountain.

Hiring chillers for chocolate manufacture

In hot weather, and during other high-demand/increased production periods throughout the year Bromelain, rented chillers can help to keep chocolate at the right cooling/setting and storage temperatures. (Leased water chillers are attached to air handling units in chocolate production plants so that air conditioning is created on a large scale.)

Hiring chillers during the chocolate manufacturing process can help ensure chocolate production deadlines are met Soybean extract supplier, and that the chocolate produced is of the required Inositol manufacturer, saleable quality.

More on how it works: Leased chilling machines help to keep chocolate-making machinery at a specific temperature, so that it does not overheat. This in turn means chocolate processing is also at the required specific temperature. Thanks to rented chillers, the chocolate manufacturing process in hot weather is speeded up – to combat the slower chocolate cooling/setting time that too hot natural temperatures can create – and productivity continues as normal.

As well as chocolate melting in hot weather, it can also ‘lose its shine’ when it resets; shapes, patterns and detailed designs can be much less precise; it can also break and crumble too quickly after sale; and the underlayer of chocolate coating on bars and sweets can ‘flake’ into fillings. Also 9001-73-4, moving chocolate from one temperature extreme to another during storage – such as from a refrigerator on a hot day – can result in an oily texture and other forms of discolouration.

Sweet dreams of hand-packed ice cream

Not to take anything away from some wonderful large-scale ice-cream makers, but there is nothing like the real thing. And the real thing is the ice cream that the Prigel Family Creamery in Glen Arm makes.

I asked Bobby Prigel, who runs the dairy farming side of the operation, what he likes best about what he does.

“Pretty much everything,” he said. “I love farming, I love my family and I am happy that we spend so much time together. There are 40 family members in the area. Some of them do different things, like make sure we always have fresh eggs for sale at the Creamery.”

In 1895, John Matthias Prigel moved his family to what is now Bellevalle Farm in Glen Arm, Baltimore County. A Union soldier in the War of the States, Prigel was a sharecropper and knew good land when he saw it. He was able to buy the property in 1906.

Five generations later, the Prigel family continues his love of the land, as well as his sustainable farming and processing techniques, though John Matthias would not have called them that.

Keeping the Cows Happy

Long Green Valley has the right climate and soil for grass to grow most of the year, so the cows are pastured, not contained in concrete floored structures. I can tell you from getting up close and personal that these are the “contented cows” you have heard of.

Bobby Prigel, who runs the farm, knows all the cows in his small herd by name. The cows graze on one pasture in the morning, then are milked, walked across the road to another pasture, and milked again.

The milk they produce is certified organic and simply homogenized and pasteurized. It does not undergo the ultra-pasteurization at high heat that confinement dairy milk is subjected to. This means that Bellevale farm milk has a shorter shelf life than the commercial variety.

All the family takes part. Bobby’s father, Robert Prigel Sr., and Bobby’s father-in-law are the intrepid ice cream labelers and seem very good-natured about their work.

Robert Sr. is also a craftsman and makes hand-carved, food-safe wooden bowls that are sold in the creamery. They are used for salads, fruit or even bread baskets.

To make the ice cream, the milk is chilled to 35 degrees, pasteurized, flavors and other ingredients such as strawberries or chocolate chips are added and the mixture is homogenized to smooth it out.

The mixture is then pumped into refrigerated tanks, from which it is hand packed. Six gallons can be packed in 7 minutes. The ice cream either goes into temperature controlled freezers or packed in dry ice for immediate delivery to places such as Eddie’s in Roland Park.

Upholding Baltimore’s Ice Cream Traditions

The ice cream business has a long history in Baltimore. There is a plaque on Exeter Street proclaiming the location “The Birthplace of the American Ice Cream Industry.”

“Also we’ve been blessed with a community of people that are very supportive. And thanks to the creamery we meet more and more people that like our ice cream. We sell to a few stores and restaurants, and word is getting out.”

Bobby, in short, sounds as contented as his cows.

Candy Making for Beginners

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So you’ve decided to start making candy at home―great! Whether you’re a novice in the kitchen or an experienced cook looking to try your hand at candy, these tips and instructions will provide all the information you need to get started.
Common Candy Ingredients
There are two main factors that affect the taste of your candy: the ingredients you use and the procedure you follow. By educating yourself about common candy ingredients such as chocolate and sugar, and by selecting the best ingredients you can find, you will go a long way toward ensuring successful, delicious candy.

There is nothing terribly mysterious or complicated about making candy, but if you are new to the world of confectionery, you might find some of the recipe instructions confusing. Candies that are based on a sugar syrup―sugar and water boiled together―often give instructions to boil the syrup to a specific temperature. To make these recipes, you will either need a candy thermometer, or will need to be familiar with the “cold-water method” of temperature checking. The chart and pictorial guide below will explain how to use this old-fashioned method to determine candy temperature.

Additionally, some traditional recipes call for the candy to be “pulled,” as in taffy or ribbon candy. Pulling candy takes a little practice, and the photo guide below will help you understand each step of the process.

Working With Chocolate
After sugar, chocolate is probably the most common candy ingredient, so it is important to know how to successfully work with chocolate. These pages will explain how to properly perform the most common chocolate tasks, from chopping to melting to tempering. If you make a mistake while working with chocolate―and who hasn’t?―there are also solutions and suggestions for salvaging your chocolate.

In general, candy making does not require much in the way of specialized equipment. Many candies can be made using basic kitchen tools that most people already possess. But there are a few tools that reappear in recipes over and over again, like a candy thermometer, and if you anticipate making candy on a regular basis, it will be helpful to familiarize yourself with the most commonly used candy and chocolate equipment.

Chocolate Candymaking Equipment

One of the most important elements for chocolate work is melting equipment. A double boiler is most commonly used. This tool usually consists of a saucepan that is filled with simmering water, and a fitted metal bowl that sits over the top of the saucepan and holds the melting chocolate. This setup ensures that the chocolate receives gentle heat from the hot water below, but does not overheat or come into contact with the water. A makeshift double boiler can be fashioned from a metal or glass bowl that sits snugly over the top of a saucepan, but extra care must be taken so that water droplets and steam from the lower pan do not accidentally splash into the chocolate.

Chocolate can also be melted in the microwave. To use this method, it is best to have a microwave with an adjustable power feature, so you can heat the chocolate at 50% power and avoid the possibility of overheating it. If your microwave does not have this option, you can still microwave chocolate, but you will have to heat in shorter intervals and be very careful. For microwaving chocolate, I prefer using a heavy glass bowl that distributes heat evenly and does not get too hot.

An accurate thermometer is necessary for tempering chocolate. Look for a thermometer with a range of at least 60 degrees to 130 degrees Fahrenheit. A standard mercury laboratory thermometer will work, as will an instant-read thermometer or a specialized chocolate thermometer. Be aware, however, that the sensor on many instant-read thermometers is located at least an inch above the tip, so it can be hard to gauge the temperature of a small quantity of chocolate. Most candy thermometers are designed to measure the high temperatures of sugar syrups, so they do not have the necessary range of low temperatures for chocolate work.

To work seriously with chocolate, you need a kitchen scale to weigh the quantity of chocolate. It is nearly impossible to get accurate quantities of chopped chocolate using measuring cups. Look for a kitchen scale that goes up to at least 5 pounds and allows you to switch easily between ounces and grams. Other helpful chocolate accessories include flavored oils and extracts, heatproof spatulas for stirring chocolate, dipping forks for dipping flavored centers and truffles, and pastry bags and tips for piping chocolate and decorations. If you’re molding chocolates, you will need the molds, of course, and perhaps also candy colors and small pastry brushes with which to decorate the candies. There is a near-endless list of optional chocolate accessories you might need, depending on your recipe, but this short list covers most basic needs.