Tough Decisions & Tender Biscuits

I have been sitting in front of a blank post form for about 30 minutes now. I think I have started a first sentence at least ten times and promptly deleted the boring, meaningless words. Maybe it's the day-quil giving me serious writing block or, it could be all the butter I have consumed in the last few days.

The writers block and lack of posting in the past few weeks is more likely due to the slightly drastic changes my life has taken in 2011. It is almost February and all of the sudden I find myself once again with one job. I officially quit my design job (you know the one that I was laid off from, and was rehired to, all in the past 15 months) after a lot of pushing for some commitment and security, which turns out was all in vain. Hard decisions had to be made. What was best for my soul, my sanity, and my career? Was it better to take a part time job in a environment that wasn't healthy but where I was using my degree, or is it better to keep my job as a food server where my managers care about my well being and my sense of job security?

This dilemma was something I had been struggling with for about 3-4 months, but the issue was pushed front and center when I decided to enroll in a baking and pastry certificate program here in Chicago. This is something I have wanted to do for a long long time, and I finally decided to take the plunge and go for it. I am three weeks in, and besides a long and boring weekend sanitation class, it is everything I hoped it would be and more. We have made scones and biscuits, focaccia, challah, french baguettes, and other goodies. I have learned so much in the little time I have been in school and can hardly wait for what the rest of the year will bring.

I have come to feel really good about the tough choice I felt I had to make, and cannot wait to be able to put all my positive energy into school and the many baking jobs I have lined up for the spring. So, let's kick off what will probably be a long string of baked goods here on the blog with some delicious buttermilk biscuits. I have never made biscuits before, and for some reason had gotten it in my head that they were a difficult thing to make. I don't know what I was thinking, they are incredibly easy, and so fast. Most importantly though, they are buttery and flaky and taste amazing.

Buttermilk Biscuits
adapted from Professional Baking by Wayne Gisslen


2 lbs. 8 oz. all purpose flour (if you have them available, use half bread flour and half pastry flour for better results, but for the everyday home cook, AP still produces an excellent biscuit)
.75 oz. salt
2 ounces sugar
1.5 oz baking powder
.4 oz baking soda
14 oz. unsalted butter, cold and cubed into 1/2 inch pieces (plus some extra melted for brushing)
1 lb 10 oz buttermilk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Sprinkle the cold butter over the dry mixture and with your fingers, break up the butter into smaller pieces to evenly distribute throughout flour (you can also use a pastry cutter, but using your fingers is way more fun). For flakier biscuits, do this until you have chickpea sized pieces, in other words, leave fairly big chunks of butter in your mixture. Just walk away, stop touching the butter (I know it's hard). For more mealy textured biscuits, you can break up the butter until it is in very teeny pieces, but I recommend the layered flaky goodness.

Add the buttermilk to your flour and butter mixture and mix with a spoon until dough starts to come together, then get in their with your hands and form the dough into a rough ball. Turn out onto a clean, lightly floured surface, and knead just a few times until you form a cohesive dough.

Gently press into a rectangular shape, and roll out with a rolling pin until about 3/4 inch thick, being sure to keep your surface underneath the dough floured to prevent sticking. Cut into 12-16 rectangles, depending on how big you would like your biscuits, and place on a parchment or silicone lined baking sheet. You can either keep them together in a tight rectangle for soft interior sides, or spread them out for a evenly baked, crispier biscuit. Brush tops lightly with a bit of melted butter. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until biscuits are golden brown and have puffed up.

Curried Squash & Wild Rice Soup

The weekend has once again come and gone, and yet again I am left with thoughts unfinished and tasks undone. My to do list has grown exponentially, and it seems that I am playing an endless game of catch up. Sunday marked the first day in weeks that my alarm clock was quiet until after the sun came up.

I suppose I could have caught up on the sleep lost over the past few weeks to racing thoughts and hard decisions, instead, I rolled myself out of bed and pulled out my Le Crueset. I flicked the burner on, and in went the turkey carcass that has been waiting in my freezer since thanksgiving, some carrots, onions, herbs, and garlic. Soon, the wonderful scent of homemade stock was filling the apartment. All I had to do was wait, so I pulled out another stock pot, and went to work peeling squash, sweet potatoes, and apples.

Soon enough, my stove was full of soups bubbling away, and my mind was perfectly clear. I was no longer worrying about the big changes about to come, or the new directions my life may be taking. I wasn't thinking about jobs and money and bills and credit cards. All I had to think about was not burning the chicken and apple sausage or over cooking the wild rice that were destined to join the roasted squash in the soup pot. I was filled with the anticipation of a new recipe working out with no kinks, and most of all filling my tummy with a wonderfully hearty and comforting soup.

This soup is chocked full of good stuff. Butternut squash, sweet potatoes, apples, and shallots, get roasted together and pureed. Then nutty wild rice is added, and topped with some chicken apple sausage. Lets not forget the warming kick from a little curry powder that really balances out the sweetness from the apple and squash. I have a few soups I tend to make over and over again, so this time I was looking for a little familiarity, but also something new.

I kept thinking about a butternut and wild rice soup from Emril Lagasse, recommended to me by my sister, but when I went to look up the recipe, it had a ton of heavy cream, and just didn't appeal to my mood at the time. So I took the notion of combining squash, sausage, and wild rice and made it my own. This was a great adaptation of a simple roasted vegetable soup, I hope you all get the chance to try it soon.

Curried Squash and Wild Rice Soup
this makes a HUGE pot of soup, feel free to halve

1 - 4 lb butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cubed into 1 inch pieces
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed into 1/2 inch pieces
6 shallots, peeled and quartered
2 small granny smith apples, or 1 large, peeled, cored, and quartered
10-12 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 cups wild rice, cooked according to package directions
1-2 tablespoons curry powder
4 chicken-apple sausages (feel free to substitute any sort of sausage here) quartered lengthwise and diced
olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Toss squash, apples, shallots, and sweet potatoes with a few tablespoons olive oil, season generously with salt and pepper, and spread in an ever layer on two baking sheets. Roast for about an hour, tossing a few times, until soft and cooked through, and beginning to turn golden brown.

Transfer about 1/2 the vegetables to a food processor with 2-4 cups of chicken stock (enough to cover veggies), and puree until smooth. Transfer to stock pot, and repeat with remaining vegetables.  Stir in the cooked wild rice, and add the remaining chicken stock to desired thickness. Season with 1-2 tablespoons of curry powder, depending on how spicy you like it, and salt and pepper to taste. Bring the soup up to a very gentle simmer.

Meanwhile, heat a small amount of olive oil in a medium saute pan, and cook the sausage over medium high heat until cooked though and crispy brown on the outside. You can either stir the sausage in, I prefer to use it more as a garnish.

This soup freezes very well, so feel free to make a huge batch, it will be enough to get you through the remaining months of winter.

A Nearly Perfect Christmas Eve Eve Dinner

For years, my immediate family has had a tradition of making an extravagant meal the night before Christmas Eve, also known as 'Christmas Eve Eve'. It's like a kickoff to the main event, though in recent years it has become my favorite part of the entire holiday. We have made blinis and beef cheeks, lamb shanks and crab cakes, gougeres, tarts, truffles, and about anything else you can think of. We have opened numerous bottles of Brunello and Porto and Champagne, and spent many many hours and days prepping and cooking and baking.

While every year has been memorable, this year topped them all. And it wasn't just the food that made this year outshine them all. Yes the revamped-retro inspired menu was incredibly aggressive, and we pulled it off swimmingly, savoring each and every bite, but it was the company, and the laughter, that will stay with me the most when I reflect back on this Christmas. We cooked and baked for two days, all four of us squeezed into the kitchen for one of them. There was laughing and heckling (in the most loving sense possible), lessons being taught, and skills being eagerly learned. Stories of our lives spent apart over the past month were told, encouragement and understanding were shared. Wine flowed freely into skillets and stomachs, and the food that we worked so hard on, was eaten around a beautifuly decorated table. Most importantly though, the meal that night was eaten together, the four of us, celebrating our health and happiness.

Okay that was pretty mushy, I may or may not be suffering post-Christmas home-sickness and cookie withdrawal. Onto the good stuff (the menu of course!). It all started with the idea to recreate a dish that my family had at a new restaurant in Minneapolis, who had the audacity to serve tater tot hot dish.  Now, this was not the tater tot hot dish of my youth. You know, the one with ground beef, a can of cream of mushroom soup, canned green beans, all covering a crispy layer of frozen tater tots. Nope this was tater tot hotdish, brought into the 21st century and put on steroids. We knew we had to make this at home, but what to serve with it? The menu quickly formed by thinking of slightly kitschy, old-school, retro food, that we could revamp and put a gourmet spin onto.

First up, pigs in blankets. Actually by the end of the appetizer course these became known as 'chicks in snuggies'. I blame the Champagne. Homemade sous-vide-d chicken sausages, were sauteed and wrapped up in buttery puff pastry. We baked them up and dipped them in a horseradish-sour cream sauce, and an oatmeal stout-mustard-shallot sauce. These exceeded all expectations. We knew they were going to be good. How good though? We were blown away.

Next up, soup and salad. We took the classic wedge salad and threw it on the grill along with some cherry tomatoes. We had homemade blue cheese dressing prepared by my smarter, prettier, older sister. Here's where the fun with the deep fryer came. Pops sous-vide-d some pork belly, breaded it, and deep fried it. It was crispy, fatty, pork heaven I tell you. Pork Heaven. Amen.

We added some roasted pureed cauliflower soup for good measure, you know, cause we didn't have enough to eat already.

Now, this may not be the prettiest dish you've ever seen on camera (plus, it was dark, and I really just wanted to dig in), but trust me, you can not go wrong with oatmeal stout braised short ribs, porcini mushroom béchamel sauce, deep fried potato croquettes, and steamed buttered french green beans. This may be the peak of the proverbial comfort food mountain. I dream about this dish.

The crowning moment, the cake.

Actually this was a disappointing moment, and the reason for the title of this post being a nearly perfect dinner. This recipe came from the cover of last month's Bon Appétit Magazine. The problem was that the cake just wasn't very good. I am not sure if I did something wrong, which is entirely possible, but the actual cake was dry and crumbly. If I ever made this again, which I may, it was stunning, and the frosting was insanely good, I would stick with the chocolate devils food cake I have made many times now. Poor thing sat on the table for three days after Christmas since no one could bring themselves to toss it.

Thankfully, there was cheese.  It just wouldn't be Christmas eve eve dinner without a cheese plate and a vintage Porto. And Trivial Pursuit.

Someday, my sister and I will beat my parents....someday. Until then, we will just have to keep practicing making amazing meals, and spending much needed quality time together as a family.

Lost it?

I think I have gone and lost it. Lost my kitchen mojo that is. Usually this time of year I am constantly in the kitchen, baking cookies and stews, braising meat and making stock. This year? All I seem to be doing in the kitchen is screwing things up. Burned caramel, melted cookies, disastrous deep frying incident...it's really been bringing me down. Things have been so hectic around here, it seems that when I finally get a chance to get my butt behind the stove, I am more rushed than usual and when that happens I have a tendency to let things get out of control (see the disintegrating falafel incident).

One thing that DIDN'T get screwed up royally was our Middle Eastern/Mediterranean Christmas feast. Well, the majority turned out wonderfully anyway. I need a new falafel recipe, as the one I used completely burst into a million little pieces once dropped into the deep fryer. Luckily, we still had plenty of hummus, pitas, and beef and chicken shawarma to fill our bellies that night.

I don't know how authentic these recipes are, but the spices in both the chicken and the beef meatballs, tasted just like the shawarma you would get from your local middle eastern take-out place. Shawarma is typically roasted on a spit over hot fire and sliced off in thin layers, similar to a kebab, but since I have neither a large spit, nor a large fire, I opted for my broiler and a charcoal grill. Topped with some very pungent tahini sauce and stuffed into a soft, thick pita, they hit the spot.

Chicken Shawarma
adapted from about.com
makes about 4-6 sandwiches

1 1/2 pounds boneless chicken breast tenders
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/4 cup white distilled vinegar
3 garlic cloves, minced finely
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground allspice
juice of 1 lemon

Combine all ingredients minus chicken in a large ziploc bag and mix until combined. Add chicken, coat evenly, and let marinate in the refrigerator overnight, or at least 8 hours.

Prepare grill. I grilled these on a charcoal grill over direct heat, moving the chicken to indirect heat when they were nice and seared. The chicken I used was pretty thin, so it took about 10-15 minutes total cooking time. Just be sure to bring the internal temperature up to 165. You can also cook these on a grill pan indoors if you have a good vent hood, as the marinade is going to create some serious smoke.

Serve warm or at room temperature in pitas with hummus or tahini sauce. If you are one of those crazy people who actually likes cucumbers, I hear some slices are particularly good on this sandwich.

Beef Shawarma Meatballs
adapted from Evil Shenanigans
makes about 20-24 meatballs

1 pound ground beef (I used 80/20, but you can go a little leaner if you want)
3 garlic cloves, minced finely
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 onion, diced finely
2 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt

Line a baking sheet with tin foil and spray lightly with non-stick cooking spray.

In a large bowl, mix all ingredients until well combined. Gather about two tablespoons, roll into a ball, place on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining beef mixture. You should get about 20-24 meatballs. Let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Preheat your broiler, bake for 15-20 minutes, until the internal temperature reaches 155. Cover with foil and let rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Tahini Sauce

1 cup tahini
1/4 cup Greek yogurt
3 cloves garlic, minced very finely
1/4 cup lemon juice

1 teaspoon ground cumin

Mix all ingredients together in a medium bowl. Let stand at room temperature until serving.

Pumpkin Mac

Thanksgiving is long gone, the Christmas decorations are up, the ground is covered in snow....and yet I am still finding random cans of pumpkin around my apartment. I am not kidding, they are everywhere. I think that as a result from the big pumpkin-shortage scare of 2009, I over compensated with my pumpkin purchasing this fall. Every time I went to the grocery store in late October and early November, I picked up a can, you know, just in case they ran out before Thanksgiving. I wonder if I am beginning to exhibit hoarding tendencies.

Luckily, after all the pumpkin pies and tarts were made, I found an even better way to use up my seemingly endless supply of extra pumpkin. Pumpkin macaroni and cheese. I have been seeing versions of this creation all over the blog-o-sphere lately, and I am so glad I tried it. It wasn't overwhelmingly pumpkin-y, but very rich and creamy with a hint of squash flavor at the end. I added some Gorgonzola and ground mustard to the mix, just to give a little extra bite to cut through the rich cheesy pumpkin sauce.

Pumpkin Macaroni and Cheese
serves 8-10

1 pound dried pasta (I prefer cavatappi or penne rigate, it holds the sauce really well)
1 quart whole milk
1 stick butter, divided
1/2 cup flour
1 15 ounce can pure pumpkin puree (DO NOT use pumpkin pie filling, not the same thing!)
8 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated
8 ounces cheddar cheese, grated
4 ounces crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
1 teaspoon ground mustard powder
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon salt
1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup pecorino romano cheese, grated

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, and cooked the pasta until just al dente. It should still have some bite to it as it will continue to cook while baking. Drain, set aside.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Meanwhile, heat the milk in a small saucepan over low heat, being careful not to let it boil or burn.

Melt 6 tablespoons of the butter in a large, heavy bottomed pot over medium-low heat. Add the flour and whisk constantly until combined and just starting to turn a light brown color, about 2-3 minutes. Slowly add in the milk, whisking until smooth and thick, about 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the Gruyere, cheddar, and Gorgonzola cheeses, pumpkin puree, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and ground mustard.

Add the pasta and stir until pasta is evenly coated. Pour into a 10 x 14 baking dish, or alternatively you can use two slightly smaller ones. (I do this, and freeze one of the pans after baking, that way I am only tempted to eat half a pound of pasta in one sitting, rather than the entire pound.)

Melt the remaining two tablespoons of butter in the microwave, then mix with the panko and pecorino romano. Sprinkle the bread crumb mixture all over the top of the pasta and bake for 30-40 minutes, until top is golden brown and bubbly.

If anyone has any other more savory ways to use up excess pumpkin, please let me know in the comments, I think I still have a few cans lying around...

Home Sweet Home...and Pie

Home sweet home. I finally picked a day to drive to Minnesota that was not smack dab in the middle of a snowstorm. The past few years for Christmas and Thanksgiving, whenever i decide to make the drive, old man winter decides to throw a ridiculous snowstorm at me. I am not sure what he has against me going home, but I showed him this year. Though, it was intensely sunny and when I opened up my sunglasses case, one of the screws was missing, so I spent the entire 7 hour drive squinting into the setting sun....I can't win.

It is wonderful to be home, I am sitting in my pj's, dad cooked me truffled eggs for breakfast, we are bracing for the storm of the century, and the smells of thanksgiving dinner are beginning to waft through the house. Onions caramelizing, sage frying, homemade turkey broth bubbling, it all has me salivating for tomorrow's feast. It is just a lovely way to start the day.

Are you ready for thanksgiving? Is all your shopping done, and food prepped? The nice thing about coming home is that all I have to do is drink wine and chop/stir/plate where needed. I already had my effort-heavy thanksgiving meal last weekend, so this time around I just get to kick back and enjoy it. I was in charge of dessert last weekend, and, though most of us were too full by the time we got there, it was a tasty ending to a fun and friend-filled day.

I made this pumpkin pie from the Thanksgiving Bon Apetit Magazine, substituting my very favorite pate brisee crust. It is a beautiful twist on the plain whipped-cream topped pumpkin pie we are used to seeing around this time of year. Toasted nuts with crystallized ginger creates a pretty border and adds that crunchy extra-something to the creamy pie and buttery crust.

Pumpkin Pie with Glaze Ginger-Nut Topping
adapted from Bon Apetit Magazine

1/2 batch pate brisee (or pie crust of your choice), rolled out to 1/4 inch thick disc and chilled

Topping:

1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1/4 cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons pepitas
2 tablespoons brown sugar
large pinch of salt
2 tablespoons minced crystallized ginger

Filling:

1 - 15 ounce can pure pumpkin puree
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon molasses
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs + 1 large egg yolk
1 1/4 cups heavy cream

Transfer crust to a 9-inch pie pan, pressing the dough into the corners. Cut off excess dough, and crimp edges with thumbs. Freeze for 1 hour before baking.

In a large non-stick skillet, heat the butter over medium high heat. Add almonds, pecans, and pepitas and saute until nuts begin to brown slightly, just about 2 minutes. Sprinkle brown sugar and salt over and stir and cook another 2 minutes, until sugar has melted and nuts have been coated. remove from heat and stir in ginger. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F, with rack in center position. Line the pie crust with tin foil, and fill with pie weights, rice, or dried beans. Bake crust for 25 minutes, remove weights and tin foil, and bake for another 8 minutes. Remove crust from oven, but leave the oven on.

While the crust is blind baking, in a large bowl combine the pumpkin, both sugars, molasses, flour, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt. Whisk together until combined. Add the eggs, yolk, and cream. Whisk until smooth.

Pour filling into warm crust and bake for 20 minutes. remove pie from oven, and wrap strips of foil gently around the exposed crust to prevent it from becoming too dark and/or burning. Return to oven and bake for another 40-55 minutes, depending on how deep your pie pan is. Mine is very deep so it took close to 55 minutes for middle to set. It may still jiggle a bit in the center, but if you touch the center with your finger, and it is tacky, but not liquid-y, the pie should be good to go.

Transfer to pie rack and sprinkle the nut topping around the perimeter of the filling, leaving a circle in the center exposed.

Cranberry Wild Rice French Toast

Pie dough is chilling in the fridge, cranberries are popping on the stove, sugared nuts are toasting in the oven, coffee is brewing....uh, in the coffee maker. Its only 9:30 and I am well into a mad dash to get everything made for Thanksgiving #2 this afternoon. I am not hosting this year, so the turkey was passed along to someone else, but I have plenty of other items to share with the party.

I am so looking forward to this feast (and of course the one next week as well) especially after spending last weekend not eating. At all. My boyfriend and I came down with the stomach flu on Saturday, and it pretty much put me out of commission the entire weekend and the beginning of the week. What started out as a nice, relaxing Saturday morning with a pot full of coffee and some delicious french toast, turned into a nightmarish 48 hours. I was at least lucky enough to get one last meal in before the flu set in, the boyfriend wasn't so lucky.

A few months back I was watching the Food Network, and they were profiling a diner somewhere in Minnesota whose specialty was their french toast. This was no normal french toast however. They made it with bread, cooked in house. Sound delicious? I'm not done yet. The bread has cranberries and wild rice baked right in. YUM. I knew I had to make this soon, and just happened to pick up a bag of Minnesota grown wild rice last time I was up visiting my family. Game on.

It is a lot of work, obviously you want to make the bread ahead of time, and use any leftovers to make some sublime french toast. Unless you want to do it all in one day and eat breakfast for dinner, which is totally allowed in my book. The bread on its own is delicious, smeared with a bit of butter, or used as sandwich bread.

Cranberry Wild Rice Bread
makes one large loaf, or one small loaf and 6 rolls
recipe adapted from A Bread A Day

2 1/2 cups bread flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry or instant yeast
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 cups water, room temperature
2 tablespoons molasses, room temperature
1 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 cup wild rice, cooked and cooled
1/2 dried cranberries, chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the flours, yeast, and salt. Switch to the dough hook attachment, and add the water, molasses, and olive oil. Mix on low until a shaggy dough forms, then increase the speed to medium and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 7-8 minutes.

Turn the speed back to low, and add the cranberries and wild rice, and knead until evenly distributed throughout the dough. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled glass or metal bowl, and tossed the dough around to coat the entire ball with oil. Cover with plastic wrap, and place in a warm place to rise for about 1 1/2 hours, until doubled in size.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (if you are making rolls) or spray a loaf pan lightly with oil (if you are making a loaf). Lightly deflate the dough and either divide it into 12 pieces, shape into round rolls and place on baking sheet, or place the entire dough ball into the loaf pan.

Cover with a oiled piece of plastic wrap and let rise again for about an hour. Meanwhile preheat your oven to 400F if you are baking rolls, 375 if you are baking a loaf. Brush the tops of the rolls or loaf with melted butter and bake until golden brown. The rolls will take about 20 minutes, the loaf will take about 45-50 minutes.

Let loaf cool in pan for about 30 minutes then remove and let cool completely on wire rack. The rolls you can move directly to the wire rack to cool.

French Toast

1 cup half and half
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons honey, warmed in microwave for about 20 seconds
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 - 1/2 inch slices cranberry wild rice bread
4 tablespoons butter

Mix together the half and half, eggs, honey, and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Pour mixture into baking dish. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a wire rack.

Dip each piece of bread into the egg mixture and let soak for 30 seconds. Flip, and soak for another 30 seconds. Transfer each piece to the wire rack and let wit for 2 minutes before cooking.

Melt one tablespoon of butter in a skillet of medium low heat. Place two slices of bread in the pan at a time, and cook 2-3 minutes on each side. Remove from pan and place on wire rack. Repeat with the rest of the bread, adding more butter to the pan as needed. Bake on wire rack for 5 minutes.

Top with maple syrup or whipped cream, serve hot.