Random Recipes #24 Torrijas

This month's Random Recipes challenge was a) not soup and b) not phallic looking which was a nice change - phew! It's been an odd couple of  months on the challenge front. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, have a look here!

Our host, Dom at Belleau Kitchen has come up with a great random recipe selection method this month... choosing a random recipe from someone else kitchen!

So I decided to ask my lovely Mum, since she's got a fairly eclectic kitchen literature assortment. I called her to say she had to pick me a book and a recipe, and whilst I was busy chatting away on the phone in the middle of explaining she could chose whichever way she liked to randomly select the book and recipe, she said definitively "The Festive Food of Spain. Okay, how about Torrijas, hmmm it's got milk in it but I suppose you can substitute it" and that was it - picked!

Crispy, sugary, fried bready goodness

So I duly made my adapted version of 'Torrijas' from The Festive Food of Spain by Nicholas Butcher.

Torrijas are a sweet deep fried Spanish version of french toast - so really bad for the new Belleau Kitchen healthy eating regime - sorry!

Bread ready for soaking

I decided that since we so rarely eat anything fried, in the grand scheme of things, it's OK to embrace the grease and deep fry occasionally... and the result was very tasty. Plus we had soup for dinner, so eating bready deep fried deliciousness didn't seem too heavy. Needless to say, we waited until Mini-M was well and truly asleep - there's no way I'm deep frying anything whilst she's scuttling around the kitchen!

Torrijas (serves 2 heartily, or 3 if you've had more than just soup for dinner!)

• 2 slices of bread - the book advocates bread with a 'stout crumb' and warns against using sliced bread. In the name of scientific testing (and also only having one slice of 'proper' bread left), I used one of each.
• 100ml Oatly oat milk
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• Pinch ground cinnamon
• 1 egg
• 1more tbsp Oatly oat milk
• 2 tbsp runny honey
• 2 tsp sugar (mine was hazelnut sugar)

Cut your bread into quarters or chunks.
Warm the oat milk, sugar and cinnamon together until the sugar has dissolved and spoon over the bread.
Leave to soak for 15 mins.
Heat oil for deepfrying (mine was a mixture of sunflower and rapeseed) in a small pan until a cube of bread sizzles and rises quickly to the top.
Beat the egg with the tbsp milk.
Dip each piece of bread in the egg mix, then fry in small batches for a couple of minutes on each side until golden brown and crispy.
Drain on kitchen paper.
Drizzle over the runny honey, and then sprinkle with the sugar.
Eat whilst still warm, with a napkin close at hand to wipe your sticky fingers!

Drained and about to be doused in honey

These were really good - in the way that only deepfried bread products sprinkled in sugar can be! And as for the scientific bread test - well, they both worked! The homemade bread (amazing stuff made by my Dad incidentally - maybe I'll have to get him to share is secrets some day) was much denser (and given that it was full of chia seeds, oatmeal and a host of other seeds arguably a lot healthier if you overlook the deep frying). But the white sliced wasn't the abomination the original recipe might have you believe, and I think I have the secret solution - if you find yourself in a Torrijas making mood and only have fresh white sliced, then toast it on a very low heat first - instant stale-ification!

Quick! Take a photo before it's all gone...

Thanks for another great challenge - here's hoping next month's is as tasty!