Puffed French Toast

Being in our new home has brought my creativity back out of hiding. Either that or I'm bored with all my current recipes. Probably more the latter than the former. Anyway here are two fabulous new ones.

The first I got from Our Best Bites it's called Puffed French Toast. Gotta give credit where credit is due. They call it a once a year recipe and I agree. You look forward to it all year (I'm thinking it will make a great General Conference breakfast) but if you eat it more than once or twice a year you'll be able to watch your butt grow bigger. It was sooooo good. This is definitely a keeper. Next time I will half the recipe though. My toddlers don't eat that much and DA and I don't need to eat all that is leftover.

Puffed French Toast

2 eggs
2 ½ Tbsp. sugar
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. vanilla extract
2 c. milk
1 c. flour
2 ½ tsp. baking powder
12 slices Texas style toast, cut in half diagonally

Directions

In a large skillet or frying pan, heat about 1/4" of vegetable oil (not olive oil) over medium heat. In a shallow bowl or pie plate, whisk together eggs, sugar, salt, vanilla, milk, flour, and baking powder. Test oil heat by flicking some water into the frying pan. If it pops, reduce the heat. If hardly anything happens, turn up the heat. If it sizzles, it's just right.

Take each 1/2 slice of bread and soak it both sides in the milk/egg/flour mixture. If you leave it in too long, it will get soggy, but you want to make sure enough of the egg mixture has soaked into the bread. Gently shake to remove excess batter and place in hot oil. Cook until puffed, golden brown, and a nice, crispy crust has formed on each side (probably 3-5 minutes per side; you really need to babysit them and make sure they're cooking correctly) and then remove from oil and drain on a paper towel. While cooking remaining French toast, keep cooked pieces warm in an oven set to the lowest temperature it will go.

When ready to serve, roll each piece in cinnamon sugar. I personally thought the cinnamon sugar made it too sweet, but DA loved it. So did the kids. I think I would rather have powdered sugar.

Top with your favorite version of maple syrup.

Chicken Parmesan

Chicken Parmesan

4 to 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3 large eggs

1 tablespoon water

1 1/4 cups Panko bread crumbs (seasoned with Italian seasoning)

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for serving

Unsalted butter

Directions

Pound the chicken breasts until they are 1/4-inch thick. You can use either a meat mallet or a rolling pin. (If you use cutlets then you can skip this step)
Combine the flour, salt, and pepper on a dinner plate. On a second plate, beat the eggs with 1 tablespoon of water. On a third plate, combine the bread crumbs and 1/2 cup grated Parmesan. Coat the chicken breasts on both sides with the flour mixture, then dip both sides into the egg mixture and dredge both sides in the bread-crumb mixture, pressing lightly.
Heat 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large saute pan and cook 2 or 3 chicken breasts on medium-low heat for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, until cooked through.
Serve with spaghetti and top both with Prego traditional spaghetti sauce.
Hope you enjoy both recipes!