Recipe: Pain Perdu with Spiced Pears
Pain Perdu with Spiced Pears Mascarpone & Walnuts
Serves 4
literally translated as “lost bread”, Pain Perdu or French toast as it is better known is a great way to use up bread that has become too stale to use for sandwiches.
Ingredients
• 4 x 2cm thick slices sourdough bread
• 2 eggs
• 100ml milk
• 100gm butter
• 75gm caster sugar
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• 2 beurre bosc or William pears
• 250ml white wine
• 250ml water
• 1 cup castor sugar
• 1 vanilla bean, split and scarped
• 4 whole cloves
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 piece lemon peel
• 150gm mascarpone
• 75gm walnuts, toasted
Method
In a medium saucepan, combine the wine, water, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, cloves, bay leaves and lemon peel and bring to the boil. Simmer until the sugar has dissolved.
Peel, halve and core the pears and gently drop into the syrup. Simmer gently for 10 minutes, turn off heat and allow the pears to cool down in the cooking liquid.
Whisk together the eggs and milk. Soak the bread in the egg mixture until completely absorbed.
In a large frying pan, melt the butter over a medium heat. Add the soaked bread and fry until golden on both sides. Remove from the pan and immediately toss in a mixture of the castor sugar and cinnamon.
Spread each slice of bread with a large spoonful of mascarpone and top with half a pear.
Pour over some of the reduced cooking liquid and garnish with the roasted walnuts.
