Once again, idle Food Network channel-surfing results in accidental inspiration. It's bound to happen if I come across a Barefoot Contessa episode.
This is a bread pudding that's a really classy twist on french toast, soaking brioche in a lot of eggs and cream -- can't go wrong with that! And, being an Ina Garten recipe, predictably it contains orange zest, a nice touch. I used a store-bought brioche loaf from Whole Foods, and with that it was easy to prepare and bake, and came out looking beautiful.
And it is so good! It's tasty and slightly different, with enough sweetness from the brioche that it doesn't need the "serving suggestion" maple syrup, ultimately resulting in less of a sugar fix than regular French Toast and syrup.
But I do have a fairly important criticism of the recipe: it takes a long time! First you have to soak the brioche in the batter for 15 minutes, then bake the whole thing for almost an hour. If the breakfast cook is up before the rest of the household, or "breakfast" is really a leisurely brunch, then it can work quite well. This preparation is too special to be gobbled down on a weekday before dashing off to work anyway.
Ina advises to put the raisins between two layers of brioche pieces so they won't burn in the oven.
Soaked and ready for the oven. The orange zest ends up on top, since it sinks to the bottom of the ultra-thin batter and pours out last.
My camera didn't get to the final product before the Christmas Day brunchers did!
This one has bubbled to the top of my special-day breakfast repertoire.
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