When I think of thyme, I think of butter basted lemon and thyme roast chicken.
On my way home from grocery shopping yesterday, in amongst other things, my bag contained a charcoal roast chicken (in order to make chicken sandwiches for packed lunch) and a punnet of fresh thyme. As the aroma of the charcoal chicken and fresh thyme started to mingle on my tram ride home, boy oh boy, it was such a tantalizing scent! Naturally, my stomach started to grumble and it felt like the longest tram ride ever ha!
I have a feeling that you may see a thyme and poultry related recipe post very soon, but today is all about using thyme in a fun way!
If orange and rosemary can work together in desserts (mainly cakes), I can’t see why not pairing thyme and orange together in a sweet dish. So I thought of this beautiful combination of flavours to go with plain french toast sticks and toasted pine nuts for some crunch.
Hmmm, I can’t decide whether to call this a dessert or breakfast but I am fine with either way. What do you think? 😉
Ingredients
- 20g pine nuts, toasted
- 2 large oranges, cut into segments
- Rind from 1/2 orange, grated
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 4 sprigs of thyme
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup low fat milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 thick-cut toasts
- Cooking oil
- Butter
Instructions
- For this recipe, I would prep the garnishes first.
- Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan until slightly golden brown. Set aside on a plate to cool.
- Grate 1/2 orange rind into a bowl.
- Then with a sharp knife, slice the peel off the oranges and cut into segments on a chopping board / plate. Pour the excess juices from the chopping board/plate into the bowl (where the grated orange rind is) and keep the orange segments in the refrigerator.
- Add thyme and maple syrup into a bowl and set aside.
- Stack all four thick-cut toasts on a chopping board. Using a sharp knife, remove the crust of the toasts and cut into 4 sticks. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk eggs, milk and vanilla extract until well mixed.
- Heat a non-stick pan with a teaspoon of cooking oil and a teaspoon of butter.
- In the meantime, quickly dunk the 4 bread sticks into the milk and egg mixture and cook them on the pan. Cook until golden brown and slightly crispy on all sides. Repeat this with the remaining bread sticks.
- After you've finished cooking all the french toast sticks, wipe the non stick pan with a paper towel and warm the orange-thyme-maple syrup over low-medium heat. As soon as the syrup almost starts to bubble, it is ready. Alternatively, you can warm up the syrup in a separate saucepan.
- Stack the french toast sticks, scatter the orange segments and toasted pine nuts and finally, drizzle with the warm syrup. Lightly sprinkle some thyme if you like.
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