Cinnamon-Raisen French Toast and Applesauce Coffee Cake

For brunch, we feasted on cinnamon-raisin french toast (page 594). This was really a straight forward classic recipe...I wonder what makes it worthy of the cook book at all. Martha insisted on using buttermilk, as opposed to regular milk, for the egg bath. I don't usually keep buttermilk around, so I bought a pint, thankfully only an expense of $1.39. The french toast came out tasty, although Melissa (visiting friend of southern descent) attested to the fact that the buttermilk subtly could not be detected...thus use of regular milk would likely work just fine.

To my surprise, we only had a whopping tablespoon of maple syrup left, requiring me to open a jar of applesauce for a suitable french toast topping. Mike opted for yogurt, and Melissa, in true southern fashion, took charge of the remaining tablespoon of real maple syrup.

Given I now had a huge vat of applesauce commencing to rot in my fridge, destined for a layer of blue mold once forgotten in the far rear corner of the bottom shelf, I took advantage of the applesauce coffee cake (page 599). The coffee cake came out lovely, although next time (as if there will ever be a next time), I would double the recipe for the crumb topping.