Nigella Lawson's Doughnut French Toast

If there is one thing that I really love, it's NPR. I know it's really dorky, you don't have to tell me. But the other day I stumbled across an NPR interview with Nigella Lawson on eating well. This does not necessarily mean eating healthily. This is not to say that the two cannot or do not overlap. However, it is absolutely a wonderful feeling to sit down with a plate of something utterly delicious in front of you and not wonder "how many calories are in this?" Eating well is about enjoying your food.

So anyway, in this radio interview, Nigella has brought some of her food for the host to try, and he's eating while he's talking to her. Just listening to him eat this french toast I was absolutely famished, he couldn't even finish a sentence, he kept making yummy noises and getting caught with his mouth full. Naturally, I had to have this french toast that was so delicious it prevented the NPR radio host from having coherent conversation. When my friend Jess came to stay with me this weekend I decided it was the perfect opportunity. It was rich, eggy, and sugar crusted. In short, all that I could have asked from a recipe entitled 'doughnut french toast.'

Doughnut French Toast:

2 eggs
1/2 cup full fat milk
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
A couple of slices of bread
1-ounce butter (for frying)
1/4 cup sugar

Beat the eggs with the milk and vanilla in a wide shallow bowl.

Soak the bread halves in the eggy mixture for a couple of minutes on each side.

Heat the butter in a frying pan/skillet, fry the egg-soaked bread until golden and scorched in parts on both sides.

Put the sugar onto a plate and then dredge the cooked bread until coated like a sugared doughnut.

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

So the other day we made these awesome beer batter onion rings, and they were really good. But, apparently an entire dutch oven full of oil makes your apartment smell like a fast food joint. And, it doesn't matter how much air freshener you spray, or how many candles you light, or how long you leave the sliding glass door open, the smell is incredibly persistent. So i figured that the best thing to do would be to bake something else that actually smells good. This is a pretty awesome recipe from Paula Dean, and I think I've finally abolished the fast-food smell from my pad.

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread: 
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 eggs
2 cups white sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon orange zest (I used lemon zest)

Optional:
Whipped cream and Zucchini ribbons for serving (I left these off to be healthier)

Start by preheating oven at 350 degrees F. Grease (2) 9 by 5-inch loaf pans.

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, spices and baking soda.

In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and fluffy. Add sugar, and continue beating until well blended. Stir in oil, vanilla, zucchini, pecans, chocolate chips, and orange zest (I didn't have any oranges, so I used lemon zest). Stir in sifted ingredients. Pour into prepared loaf pans.

Bake for 50 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove loaves from pans and cool. Chill before slicing. Serve with whipped cream and ribbons of zucchini.

Angel Food Cake

Friday the 30th of October was my little sister's 19th birthday, and being a little broke Justin and I couldn't afford to get her the absolutely amazing gift she deserves, so I offered to make her a cake, any cake. Her choice was Angel Food, which I had never tried before. I actually really didn't know anything about angel food cakes other than that they had a lot of egg whites. Turns out "a lot" means 12 egg whites. And, I thought that I had lots of eggs (we had an 18 carton), unfortunately 9 of the 18 eggs were broken. So, half way through the cake when I started discovering that I didn't have 12 eggs, Justin had to run to the store for me.

The cake actually turned out fabulous, and we chose to do 'buffet' style toppings (everyone ended up using all 3 toppings anyway). I made fresh whipped cream, sliced up a carton of strawberries, and because blackberries were on sale for .69 cents a half-pint, blackberry coulis. YUM.

Angel Food Cake

1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar, divided
12 egg whites, very cold
1 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp salt

*Make sure all of your tools, including your pan, mixer, etc, are clean and completely free of any oil. Even a trace of oil will ruin your cake.

1. Sift together cake flour with 3/4 cup of the granulated sugar

2. In a mixer fitted with a whip attachment, whip the egg whites, cream of tartar, vanilla and almond extracts and salt on high speed until soft peaks form. It will take around 4 minutes. With the mixer still running slowly add in remaining 3/4 cup sugar, beating until stiff, glossy peaks form. Using your trusty rubber spatula gradually fold in flour mixture until just incorporated.


3.  Pour the batter into a angel food cake pan/ tube pan (no oil or grease!) and smooth the top, carefully smoothing out any bubbles. Bake in a preheated oven until golden brown and top springs back when lightly touched. It should take about 40 to 45 minutes. Invert your pan and let the cake cool completely upside-down. It will probably just sort of fall off the tube pan when cool, but if it doesn't, use a rubber spatula to separate it from the pan. I had no trouble with the sides sticking, but I did need to run a spatula under the bottom of the cake.

As far as toppings for the angel food cake, I made a few choices and served them as sort of a buffet. I made blackberry coulis and whipped cream with strawberries.

Whip cream is easy enough - heavy whipping cream in your mixer, whip until peaks start to form and slowly add powdered sugar to taste.

Blackberry coulis - in a food processor puree a pint of blackberries with 3 to 4 tablespoons of granulated sugar (again, to taste), then strain to remove any chunks or seeds. This can be done with just about any berry.