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Recipe: The quest for Craftbar’s Pain Perdu
For father’s day, we decided to treat ourselves to brunch at Tom Colicchio’s Craftbar in NYC. We’d heard about their “pain perdu”, in that it was probably THE BEST french toast out there. I mean I love a good french toast, but given that practically every review of the restaurant mentioned the mouth-watering pain perdu, I was intrigued.
So naturally, at brunch we ordered the pain perdu, amongst other things. After sipping on some really good coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice, the french toast arrived. The plating was simple – 3 slices of brioche with a light dusting of powdered sugar. I believe that was it. The maple syrup and strawberry compote arrived on a separate tray. The pain perdu was actually for my son, so we waited eagerly for him to declare he was done. Thankfully, he stopped after one toast (although he DID eat it rather quickly, for him).
So my husband and I each took a bite out of the remaining two toasts. I was nearly speechless (that’s a bit hard to do for me). The pain perdu was literally to die for. There was something about the combination of crunch and softness of the brioche. It was very rich, so I threw my diet out the door that day, but it was certainly worth every pound I put on with each bite. I’ve never had french toast so light, yet crisp, and that just melted in your mouth.
As soon as we got home, I obsessed online looking for the recipe and just couldn’t find their official recipe for the dish. I then came across this blog, about one woman’s quest to find the recipe for Craftbar’s pain perdu! I couldn’t believe. I wasn’t the only one out there looking for it.
Well, it turned out that after almost a year of testing and retesting recipes, the blogger at Culinary Musings had finally figured it out! And boy was I thrilled! She said there were 3 important elemtents to the dish 1) if you didn’t have stale bread, you had to simulate it by toasting the sliced bread first 2) instead of the usual egg and milk mixture, you had to create a custard using egg yolks only and 3) the bread, the essential part of the dish had to be brioche (which we all knew from the menu) but not just any brioche, but brioche from Balthazar!
My heart sank a bit when I read that. I’m wasn’t about to trek over to Manhattan just to pick up a loaf of Balthazar Brioche for this recipe, which at this point, I could only hope it would be similar to Craftbar’s. So instead, I headed over to Whole Foods in the next town over, looking for some local artisan brioche bread. Lo and behold, right there staring at me was a loaf of Balthazar Brioche!! I couldn’t believe it! I inquired about the bread and was told that every morning, just two loaves of this spectacular bread comes in. Since it was only Tuesday and I wanted to make the french toast on Sunday, I was told to come back. I guess there’s a fine line between stale and moldy!
So I returned on Saturday morning thrilled to pick up the brioche and everything else I needed to make this. But the brioche loaves were nowhere to be found! It turns out that two other people had beaten me to it! I was crushed! We were having guests over and I was determined to make it, and make it right ! But alas, some challah bread was all I could find, so that’s what we had.
I still followed the recipe exactly as Culinary Musings had suggested, and the end result was a pretty fantastic french toast. But I was determined to get it right. A week later, I returned for the bread, this time practically stalking the store, hoping to get my hands on the Balthazar Brioche. It was my lucky day! And the bread was 3 days old! Even better!
As soon as I got home, I got to work! Even though I made a few modifications to the recipe (which you’ll see below), it was EXACTLY like Craftbar’s Pain Perdu. Something I could probably only eat once a year, due to the richness of the dish, but having tasted this, there’s just no going back. So thanks to Culinary Musings for doing the hard work! I’ve now tasted THE BEST french toast ever, and it’s going to be pretty hard to beat.
Here’s how I made it (using Culinary Musings’ recipe with some minor modifications):
Ingredients::
1 loaf of Balthazar Brioche, cut into 12 slices
2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 egg yolks
1 TBS sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
butter as needed for frying each slice of french toast.
Yields: 12 slices
(Note: This recipe is easy to do ahead. Complete all steps a day ahead except the final oven-heating step. Place the cooked slices in the fridge, and on the day of the event, return them to room temperate and place in the oven for 10 minutes as directed.)
Method:
Preheat oven to 350F
Slice the loaf of brioche into 12 pieces. Arrange on a baking tray and toast in oven at 350F for 7 minutes. The slices should just be starting to get crunchy when you take them out. They shouldn’t be brown like toast.
In a pot, heat 2 cups of cream along with the vanilla extract. Allow the cream mixture to simmer on very low heat. In the meantime, whisk 2 egg yolks along with the sugar until the egg appears pale yellow. This took me approximately 4-5 minutes to achieve using a stand mixer (Setting no. 6).
Reduce the speed and gently add a ladle of the cream at a time to the egg. Continue until all the cream has been incorporated into the egg. Pour the cream mixture into a flat dish. You’ll notice quite a bit of froth, but if you wait about 10 minutes before proceeding, most of the froth will be gone.
Take a toasted piece of brioche and dip each side into the cream mixture for NO MORE THAN 7 seconds. Pan fry the bread in butter, cooking each side for approximately 2 minutes each, on medium flame. Once each slice is done, place it back onto the baking tray. When all 12 pieces are cooked, place them into the oven at 350F for 10 minutes. And there you have it! The best french toast you’ve ever tasted! I served the french toast with a bit of powdered sugar dusted on top, as well as a mixed berry sauce and some maple syrup.
For the mixed berry sauce, I just emptied a bag of organic frozen berries into a pot, and added about 1/4 cup of sugar. I added a splash of water to help the ingredients break down and simmered the mixture for about 20 minutes, until the liquid reduced.
Hope you decide to try this recipe! Do you have a french toast recipe you just love?
wow! am i hungry for pain perdu! looks and sounds delish!