Rick's French Toast with Strawberries

I'm about to share with you a little French toast* secret that I learned from the owner/head chef of the Alameda, the restaurant in Louisville, KY where I used to work. The secret to amazing French toast is...cheese. That's right. We always served Asiago cheese bread at the Alameda, but some days when it was really slow or we were opening early for lunch, Rick would slice up thick chunks of the cheese bread and turn them into the best French toast I've ever eaten. Sounds strange, but if you haven't tried cheese bread French toast, I'm telling you, you haven't lived.

We had some Asiago kaiser rolls left over from the pulled pork extravaganza, and since it was a lazy Sunday morning, I decided to bring Rick's French Toast to Portland. It's a pretty classic recipe: just mix up eggs, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and sugar, then dip the bread in there and fry it up. I simply topped it with some fresh, lightly mascerated strawberries and a dusting of powdered sugar. The slight saltiness from the cheese brings out the sweetness of the egg coating and the berries. Serve with coffee and public radio jazz. (Or a screwdriver and public radio bluegrass, if you're feeling feisty.)


*Make any mention of "Freedom Toast" and I'll slap you in the face with it.

Buttermilk Biscuits to Save My Reputation

I'm embarrassed to say that this was my first attempt at homemade buttermilk biscuits. I come from a long line of feisty Southern belles, so actually this is more than embarrassment. It's like...sacrilege. Even worse is that the only reason I made them was because of a carton of buttermilk in the fridge that was about to turn. Or at least, about to expire. Buttermilk is kind of already "turned," isn't it? I'm a little confused by this.

Anyway, I did some research, made some modifications, and decided on this recipe:

2 cups self-rising flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
a good pinch of salt
6 tbsp cold butter, cut into small cubes
3/4 cup buttermilk

I discovered some great advice in my research that suggested doing this in the food processor. Pulse dry ingredients in the FP, then add butter and pulse again until the mixture looks like the topping for an apple crisp. Note: make sure the butter is cold when you do this. Little bits of butter in the dough equal unsucky biscuits. Next, pour in the buttermilk and pulse just until it becomes dough. (This will happen very quickly, and impressively easily. God bless the FP.) Once this happens, turn the dough out onto a floured surface and press out to about 1/2" thickness. Fold it over on top of itself like twice, but don't mess with it too much. Cut it into 12 pieces with a pastry cutter, or if you aren't that cool, just use a pizza cutter like me. The idea is to handle the dough as little as possible.

Since I'm trying to regain some respect from my Southern ancestors, I baked these in a cast iron skillet. I don't really see why you would do it in anything else, actually. Just like I don't see why you would drink out of a regular glass when you have the option of drinking out of a mason jar or a copper mug. But I digress.

We had to taste one to make sure it was biscuits. It was.

Jesse also loves things in cast iron skillets. Yes, he is always that happy.

We ate them straight up with butter and honey and jam, but I'm looking forward to making them into a slutty breakfast sandwich one morning after a hootenanny, as my friend Brandon would say. Get some Grisman/Garcia on the speakers when you're eating these.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

What? I had 3/4 of a tub of Tillamook sour cream left in the fridge and I live with a lactose-averse "healthy eater" (i.e. the arch nemesis of sour cream.) Have to disguise it, but can't let it go to waste.... We're in a recession, haven't you heard?!?

Note: This recipe was adapted, or rather, basically hijacked from Ina Garten.
Check out the real deal here.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Berry Streusel
-1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
-1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
-3 large eggs
-1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
-1 1/4 cups sour cream
-2 1/2 cups AP flour
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350 F. Cream butter and sugar until its fluffy, try not to eat it just like that, then add sour cream, eggs, and vanilla. Combine (or sift, if you can) dry ingredients in a separate bowl and add slowly to wet mixture. Don't over mix. Spread about 1/2 the mixture into a greased loaf or tube pan.

Berry Streusel
-1/2 cup AP flour
-1/4 cup brown sugar
-1 tsp ground cinnamon
-1/4 tsp salt
-3 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
-1/2 pints each, raspberries and blackberries (or whatever you like)

Combine everything but the berries in a bowl and pinch with your fingers until it forms a crumble. Butter must be cold for this or it will just melt and clump together.

Sprinkle 2/3 of the streusel over the batter in the pan, then dot with berries (all of them), spreading evenly. Spread remaining batter over that and top with the rest of the streusel. By the way, this recipe is for a tube pan, so it will be a bit much for a loaf pan. It also rises a lot, so be careful not to overfill the pan. Not a bad idea to bake on top of a sheet pan in the oven, in case of messy overflow. Bake for 50-60 min in tube pan, or more like 70 in a loaf pan. Test with cake tester (i.e. bamboo skewer!) to be sure.

When the "cake tester" comes out clean, fight the urge to dive in immediately and let cool for about 30 minutes. In the meantime, mix up a glaze of your choice. Confectioners' sugar, vanilla, and water make a nice simple glaze, but you can also add maple syrup for extra flava, as Ina suggests. You want the consistency to be thick but drizzle-able. When cake is cooled, remove from pan and drizzle with glaze.

This is almost even better the second day, so resist the urge to eat the whole thing in one sitting. Eat your heart out, Jim and Patty's!

(I'm just kidding, I love you J & P's. Seriously, though, this coffee cake is damn good.)