Canarian · Dessert · From the menu Huerta
Torrija de plátano
Plantain custard French toast with honey rum
Brioche soaked overnight in a plantain custard, coloured in butter, then brûléed so the top cracks under the spoon. The dessert that closes the Huerta menu.
I checked five Spanish torrija recipes to settle the custard and the soak, and the two things they taught me were worth the reading. The first is that the overnight soak I had already been using is right for bread this thick: Camarena gives at least twelve hours refrigerated and Berasategui eight to twelve, while the traditional one-hour soak is written for much thinner slices. The second is that the custard has to be completely cold before the bread goes anywhere near it. The plantain and the honey rum are mine and appear in none of them.
Ingredients
- 6 slices brioche or good white bread, 2 to 3 cm thick, day old
- 300 ml whole milk
- 300 ml double cream
- 3 egg yolks
- 60 g caster sugar, plus more for the top
- 1 cinnamon stick
- Half a vanilla pod
- 1 strip lemon peel and 1 strip orange peel
- 3 very ripe plantains, black-skinned
- Butter for the pan
- Honey rum to serve
Method
- Bring the milk and cream to just below a simmer with the cinnamon, vanilla and the two peels. Take it off the heat and leave it 20 minutes to infuse, then strain.
- Blitz two of the plantains into the warm infused milk until completely smooth.
- Whisk the yolks and sugar, pour the warm plantain milk over while whisking, then strain again.
- Cool the custard completely. This matters: warm custard starts cooking the surface of the bread and you get a skin instead of an even soak.
- Lay the bread in a dish, pour the cold custard over, cover, and refrigerate overnight. Twelve hours is the figure the chefs give for bread this thick. It should be saturated and heavy in the morning.
- Lift each slice out carefully and colour it in foaming butter over a medium heat, about five minutes a side, until deep brown. Handle it like it will fall apart, because it will.
- Slice the last plantain. Dust the torrijas and the plantain with sugar and caramelise: a blowtorch is what three of the five use, or the grill at 250 °C turning every four to five minutes.
- Pour the honey rum at the table, while it is still too hot to eat.
Serve it with. Nothing. It does not need cream and it does not need ice cream. The lighter brunch version is a different dish.