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Pain Perdu

Pain Perdu

Pain Perdu (French Toast)

(recipe from Savoring Provence: Recipes and Reflections on Provencal Cooking)

slices of a day old bread from a square cornered loaf
100 g butter, at room temperature
100 g red currant jam
500 ml milk
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
3 whole eggs, + 2 egg yolks
125 g + 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
boiling water, as needed
powdered sugar

Spread each slice of bread with butter and cut in half on the diagonal. Arrange the slices, buttered side up, on a baking sheet and slip under the preheated broiler close to the heat source to brown. This should take only about 30-45 seconds. Remove from the broiler and turn the oven to 200°C/390°F.

Pain Perdu

Arrange the toasted slices, points of the triangles facing the same direction (like on the photo above), and each slice overlapping another in a rectangular gratin dish 30×20 cm. When the dish is filled, spoon a little jam here and there among the slices.

Boil milk with vanilla bean. Remove from heat and let cool. While the milk is cooling, whisk together the eggs and egg yolks with granulated sugar until creamy and light in color. Remove the vanilla bean from the cooled milk and discard. Whisk the milk into the egg mixture and pour over the bread slices.

Pain Perdu

Place the gratin dish into a large baking pan and fill the baking pan with boiling water to reach halfway up the height of gratin dish. Bake for about 5 minutes, then, using large metal spatula, press on the bread slices to embed into the custard. Bake for another 25 minutes.

Carefully remove the baking pan from the oven and let stand for about 30 minutes. Remove the gratin dish from the pan and dust with powdered sugar.

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22 Comments

  • Kitchen Flavours August 6, 2010 4:42 am

    Wow…. delicious…..

  • jelena August 6, 2010 7:51 am

    ovo je tako lako za napraviti da mogu i suprugu da dam recept….cini mi se da sam videla nesto slicno na prvom kanalu ,Kod Brke mislim, sa hlebom, ali ovo izgleda lepse…

  • pity August 6, 2010 8:33 am

    that looks divine, perfect comfort food, well done! cheers from london

  • ? August 6, 2010 5:15 pm

    Looks delicious; have bookmarked it!

  • Memória August 7, 2010 12:01 am

    What an impressive dish. I've never heard of it. Wow.

  • Chocolate Shavings August 7, 2010 7:43 am

    Love the look of the pain perdu with the bread arranged like that – beautiful!

  • Magic of Spice August 7, 2010 9:07 am

    Looks gorgeous:)

  • Xiaolu @ 6 Bittersweets August 7, 2010 10:27 am

    Very pretty. Always love learning about new dishes from your blog.

  • Ana Powell August 8, 2010 3:52 am

    Very similar to our bread and butter pudding.Delicious.Wishing you a great Sunday ♥

  • baking.serendipity August 8, 2010 11:25 am

    This looks delicious!

  • M. August 8, 2010 6:26 pm

    this sounds and looks amazing :)

  • Miskokulu Lezzetler -Mine- August 9, 2010 6:10 am

    Delicious recepts…

  • Sarah August 10, 2010 5:05 am

    The only thing that makes this different from plain ole french toast is the type of bread you use. It did make a nice batter that coated well though. I just used french bread left from NY's dinner.

  • Gabby August 11, 2010 5:44 am

    This is an excellent recipe to use as a basic pain perdu recipe, to which you can add warm gnutella and make sandwiches of before french-toasting, or cream cheese and orange marmalade a la Mimi's Restaurant.

  • Monika August 16, 2010 1:23 am

    wow! ovo izgleda sjajno. a fotke su savršene :)

  • Andrea August 18, 2010 3:19 am

    Vrlo jednostavno, a efektno. Baš mi se sviđa kombinacija, a fotke su savršene. :)

  • Boabe de Cafea August 21, 2010 12:39 am

    Wonderful recipe!I will try it for sure!

  • Jenny August 22, 2010 4:21 am

    Love the look of the pain perdu with the bread arranged like that – beautiful!

  • Kaitlin November 2, 2010 11:45 am

    MMMmmmm… I love the presentation. This sounds heavenly!

  • Renata December 11, 2011 10:31 am

    I definitely must make those for my kids and I am sure they will love them . Thanks for sharing !

  • Alviana December 23, 2011 8:27 am

    this is definitely a must-try! looks pretty easy. one question, what if i don’t have vanilla bean?

    • Marija December 23, 2011 4:24 pm

      No problem, you can use 1 sachet vanilla sugar or you don’t have to put anything. It’s to enhance flavor, but the dessert will be wonderful even without it.

Comments are closed.