Marscapone French Toast with Honey-Stewed Apricots

and toasted pistachios!

I’m deep in baby land, nursing Hobby for what seems to be on an hourly schedule whilst trying to find rare moments to create or dive into projects. I count dinner, and in fact all meals as “projects” these days, as cooking seems to be my only creative outlet at the moment. Our mornings have been slow as Hobby is loving a long and leisurely post-dawn nap so Trevor and I have both been making the most of that slip of time, and that means a well-considered breakfast!

Enter French toast, an American staple that probably hasn’t paid a visit to France in quite some time. Thick, sweet and cinnamon-dredged bread dipped in egg and pan-fried in copious amount of butter, all served up with more butter and maple syrup is something simply delicious and not a meal we eat often. We eat a savory version in England aptly named “eggy bread” which is French toast without all of the flavour and a big dollop of tomato sauce on the side. Simple and effective, like most British grub.

I’ve been thinking about tiramisu a lot lately and all of the wonderful variations of it, and do you know something? It’s actually quite healthy if you believe, like me, that high-quality animal foods are health and hormone supporting. Full-fat cream and marscapone, raw golden egg yolks and coffee are perfect breakfast foods!

This French toast recipe is all about the cream; a somewhat hybrid of the lucious creamy innards of a tiramisu and a sexy Italian zabaione, and really just an excuse to eat more beautifying egg yolks. Dollop the cream onto slightly cooled French toast, ladle on honey-stewed fresh apricots and top with toasted pistachios for a well-deserved and highly satiating breakfast.

You can make both the cream and the stewed fruit the day before to make your morning even more relaxing. I chose apricots because they are just coming into season here but I can only imagine what fresh figs would do when gently simmered in brown sugar, espresso and marsala wine… I used jaggery to sweeten my version as I’ve been really enjoying the complex and mineral flavours of the unadulterated sugar, but any soft brown sugar would work, or non-Indian versions of jaggery like panela, sucanat or rapadura.

I’ve included the ingredients and method for the French toast bit as well but it’s basic and you probably have a wicked recipe that you like to use already, so just switch them out.

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Marscapone and Honey-Stewed Apricot Sourdough French Toast

Makes 2 servings, plus a little extra for spooning in your mouth

You will need:

• 8 fresh apricots, or other plump, ripe and seasonal fruits

• 1/2 cup of honey (split into 2x 1/4 cup measurements)

• 1/4 cup of water

• 1 star anise

• 4 slices of real sourdough bread (real sourdough does not have yeast as an added ingredients)

• 3 whole eggs

• 1/4 cup of brown sugar (optional to sweeten the French toast egg batter)

• Pinch of salt

• Cinnamon

• Ghee or butter for frying

• 3 egg yolks

• 8 ounce tub of marscapone cheese

• 1/2 cup of heavy cream

• 1/4 cup of soft brown sugar or jaggery

• Optional vanilla

• 1/4 cup of toasted pistachios

How to:

Wash and stone the apricots. Cut them into halves and gently simmer them for 10 minutes in 1/4 cup of water, 1/4 cup of honey and star anise. Turn them in the syrup a few times while simmering. Remove from the heat and gently spoon out the apricots, setting them aside and leaving the syrupy juices in the pan. Add the remaining 1/4 cup of honey to the pan of juices and simmer for a further 10 minutes. You can pour off some extra juice that the apricot halves may be exuding into the syrup. Set the syrup aside to cool and thicken.

In a medium-sized bowl whisk egg yolks and sugar until light in colour, thick and doubled in volume. Set aside. In a second bowl whisk together mascarpone and heavy cream until very thick. Add vanilla or orange zest and slowly drizzle in the egg yolk mixture whilst whisking until just combined. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Prepare the French toast by whisking up the 3 whole eggs, a pinch of salt, a little optional sweetener and some cinnamon. Soak the sourdough in the batter until nice and saturated. Heat a skillet up with a generous pat of butter or ghee and cook the soaked bread until golden on each side. Allow to cool before adding the cream. Spoon on the apricots and then drizzle with the reduced syrup. Top with toasted pistachios.