Canarian · Breakfast · From the menu Media Mañana
French toast, caramelised plantain, mascarpone, maple
Torrija, plátano caramelizado, mascarpone, sirope de arce
The brunch cousin of the Huerta dessert. Same soaked bread, but no plantain in the custard and no blowtorch: the plantain is caramelised in the pan, and whipped mascarpone goes on cold.
This is deliberately not the dessert version. That one is dense, brûléed and eaten with a spoon at the end of a long dinner. This is lighter, soaked for one hour rather than overnight, and the contrast is between hot bread, hot caramel and cold cream. Serve it the moment it comes out of the pan.
Ingredients
- 6 thick slices brioche, day-old, cut 3 cm thick
- 300 ml whole milk
- 150 ml double cream
- 3 eggs plus 1 yolk
- 40 g caster sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla paste, quarter tsp cinnamon
- 250 g mascarpone
- 150 ml double cream for whipping, plus 1 tbsp icing sugar
- 4 ripe plantains
- 60 g butter and 40 g brown sugar for the caramel
- Maple syrup, flaked salt
Method
- Whisk the milk, cream, eggs, yolk, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon and strain into a shallow dish.
- Lay the brioche in and leave it one hour, turning once. It should be soaked through but still liftable in one piece.
- Whip the mascarpone with the cream and icing sugar to soft peaks. Do not overwhip; mascarpone goes grainy fast. Refrigerate.
- Halve the plantains lengthways. Melt the butter in a wide pan, add the brown sugar, and cook the plantain cut side down four to five minutes until deeply caramelised. Keep them warm.
- Wipe the pan, add fresh butter, and fry the soaked brioche two to three minutes a side over a medium heat until dark gold and set through. Medium, not high; too hot and the outside burns while the middle stays raw custard.
- Plate the toast, the plantain and its caramel, a spoon of cold mascarpone, maple syrup poured at the table and a few flakes of salt over the top.
Serve it with. It closes a brunch. Put it out after the eggs, not alongside them.