SALLY: "I made French toast."
DON: "Where did you learn how to do this?"
SALLY: "Carla taught me."
DON: "What's on this?"
SALLY: "Mrs. Butterworth's."
DON: "That's rum. Read labels."
SALLY: "Is it bad?"
ANDREW: "Hey, what's up gu--"
DON: "Not really."
ANDREW: Hey, what's up guys? Welcome back to Binging with Babish, where this week
I hope you don't mind that I've shed my sleeves because I am on vacation in Vermont.
So it seems only fitting that this week
I make a dish with lots and lots of maple syrup, or in this case, Sally Draper's mistaken use of rum.
I mean French toast and rum, how bad can it be?
Let's start our French toast equation by first solving for toast.
We're gonna make brioche by hand, because I am without stand mixer.
So I'm going to dissolve a packet of yeast and
dissolve in 1/3 cup of warm whole milk to which we're going to add a cup of flour and 1 egg.
Mix until it forms a shaggy ball, and then add another cup of flour.
We are in effect making a sponge, and then, instead of covering with plastic wrap, just covering it with flour.
So we're gonna let this rest at room temperature for 30 to 45 minutes before adding 1/3 of a cup of sugar,
2 teaspoons of kosher salt, and 4 eggs, lightly beaten.
We're adding these ingredients in specific stages, so they're more evenly incorporated
and we have less work to do with our hands, and there's a lot of work to do with our hands.
So we're gonna stir that a little bit till it just comes together, add an additional cup of flour,
continue stirring until a shaggy dough forms and we can no longer utilize our wooden spoon,
So we have to use the wooden spoons that God gave us: our hands.
Adding a final half cup of flour once the mixture becomes homogenous,
and then we are kneading for 10 minutes straight until a smooth, silky ball of dough forms,
that we're then going to turn out onto a work surface, divide in half and set aside one half...
...while we flatten the other, so we can fill it with a stick and a half of soft, unsalted butter.
And then we're going to roll that around itself and knead it until it becomes an evenly incorporated,
but sticky, horrible mess, to which we're going to add the other half of our dough and knead that
Maybe an additional 10 minutes until it stops sticking to the stupid countertop.
You're gonna notice a point when it starts to be able to pull away from the counter every time you knead it.
This is the point where we're finally gonna stop kneading and butter a large bowl into which we're going to deposit our dough,
cover in plastic wrap and stow in a warm place (in this case, I'm going to go by the wood-burning stove)
and let rise for two hours, or until doubled in size.
We're then going to gently deflate it by pulling the edges of the dough in towards the center around the circumference of the dough,
before covering yet again in plastic wrap and refrigerating four to six hours.
Or, ideally, overnight, as you can tell by the dramatic change in lighting and my restored sleeves.
I hope you feel more comfortable now.
It's time to start shaping our dough into brioche, and in this case I'm going to go for a bubble top brioche.
That requires dividing the dough into eighteen evenly sized balls
and placing them into a bombastically-buttered, parchment-papered bread baking boat (or, loaf pan).
Divide the dough into thirds and then each of those thirds into six equal pieces.
Roll them into balls and deposit them into the bread baking boat, taking care to ensure that it is evenly filled.
We're then going to loosely wrap this in plastic wrap, buttered plastic wrap, ideally,
and place it in a warm spot for two to three hours (again, illustrated by a lighting change) until doubled in size.
This is more like tripled in size: I way over-proofed this loaf,
which is going to result in a denser, less springy texture, which, I think it might actually be better for french toast.
So I'm gonna move forward with this, brushing with a beaten egg and baking at 375 F for 30 to 40 minutes
until you get a nice hollow thump, and the internal temperature is 200 F.
Now, let's take a look at the interior of our loaf.
Not bad, but if you want true brioche, make sure you don't over-proof like I did.
But, again, I think this might be an interesting experiment for French toast.
I'm going to simulate the staling process by placing in a 200 F oven for 30 to 40 minutes.
During which time we're going to make our custard, combining: 3 eggs, 1/2 a cup of heavy cream,
a pinch of salt, 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon (or a couple shakes) of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of vanilla, a few of what I'm calling 'tablespoons' of sugar,
and, our titular ingredient, a splash of dark rum.
Whisk to combine, tasting a few times along the way if you're not scared of raw eggs,
and start soaking the toasted bread in the custard 30 seconds to a minute on each side,
before placing in a heavy bottomed skillet with a tablespoon each butter and canola oil, heated to foaming.
And first up we gotta make our accurate version, which is just rum straight-up poured over french toast.
Let's try a bite and you can see me retch a little bit right there, but, I got to be honest,
I like rum, I like french toast, they don't really go well together at least not in its uncooked form.
I think Don Draper is just a massive alcoholic.
Let's see if we can incorporate it in other more palatable ways. How about rum whipped cream?
Prepare whipped cream as you normally would: heavy cream, sugar, vanilla, and add a little splash of dark rum,
Before whipping to a soft peak consistency because I want this whipped cream to sort of melt over the French toast.
Mmm. It's pretty good.
We've already got rum in our custard, but what about the maple syrup?
Pure™ Vermont™ Maple Syrup™?
(Sorry.)
We're gonna combine about 1/2 cup of maple syrup with a tablespoon of butter and a solid 1/4 cup of dark rum.
Simmer until reduced and...uh...syrupy.
During which time I'm going to prepare three slices of french toast, because a single slice on a plate just kind of looks sad,
and to our syrup mixture, I'm going to add maybe a quarter cup of heavy cream.
This stuff might not be thick enough so, if viscosity is an issue go ahead and boil it down some more,
before hitting it with some powdered sugar, tapped by a clenched fist through a fine mesh strainer,
and of course a generous dollop of our rum whipped cream.
Now, I think I was right about this overproofed brioche being a better framework for french toast,
But it definitely requires a longer soaking time. Either way, if you're gonna make brioche, use a stand mixer.