Rabanada: Brazilian Christmas French Toast
Rabanada is the dessert no Brazilian Christmas table goes without: yesterday’s bread soaked in milk, dipped in egg, fried and rolled in cinnamon sugar. The two things that decide the outcome: the bread has to be stale —fresh falls apart in the milk— and the soak is short, just a few seconds a side.
Ingredients
- 1 baguette or white loaf from the day before, cut into 2 cm slices
- 500 ml milk
- 100 g sugar
- 1 tin condensed milk (optional, for the sweeter Brazilian version)
- 3 eggs
- 1 cinnamon stick
- Zest of 1 lemon
- Neutral oil or butter for frying
- To dust: 100 g sugar and 2 tbsp ground cinnamon
Method
- 1
Heat the milk with the sugar, cinnamon stick and lemon zest until it steams, without boiling. Let it cool a little and remove the cinnamon. If you are using condensed milk, stir it in now.
- 2
Beat the eggs in a separate shallow dish.
- 3
Pass each slice through the milk for just a few seconds a side. This is the point that decides everything: stale bread absorbs fast, and go past it and the slice collapses as you lift it.
- 4
Drain carefully and coat both sides in the beaten egg.
- 5
Fry in hot but not smoking oil, 1 to 2 minutes a side, until golden.
- 6
Drain on kitchen paper.
- 7
Mix the sugar with the cinnamon and roll the rabanadas while still hot: cold, the sugar will not stick.
- 8
Serve warm or at room temperature. They keep two days in the fridge.