LOST BREAD

Just a sprinkle of sugar, promise

The pre-sliced plastic wrapped grainy bread so favoured by folks in this part of the world is something of an anomaly in France, where they have a much greater fondness for the staple white baguette. Personally I prefer to buy my loaves from a baker (and consequently have an elaborate wrapping system of cloth and paper to keep them fresh for as long as possible in the fridge - though it's worth noting that bread freezes very well).
The thing is about baguettes or other fresh baked loaves is that they often dry up faster than you can eat them, and based on a brief review on the history of reclaiming stale bread this is a problem we've been dealing with for about as long as we've been baking the stuff. My (French) grandmother often rehydrates an ailing loaf with either a bit of water or milk and then toasts it (and of course chunks of dried bread make a great addition to soups), but rarely if ever would it get thrown out (even the driest bread can be pulverised to make a breadcrumb mix).

More often than not, I'll use stale bread as an excuse to whip up some not-entirely-healthy French toast  - or, as the French call it, pain perdu (lost bread). This can either be savory or sweet, but my personal preference is with a sprinkle of sugar and cinnamon.
It's super easy to prepare, simply soak bread slices in a shallow bowl containing a mixture of one beaten egg and some milk. Depending on how dry the bread is, they may take a good 20 minutes to plump up. Once they are soaked through, fry them in butter (yes, butter. I'm a descendant of 2 butter loving nations and both sides of my family down through the generations are exceptionally long lived and have been buttered up to their eyeballs all their lives. Just fry them in butter, ok?)

Now, if you have a spaniel that happens to know what fried bread tastes like, this is the part where said spaniel turns up and makes his presence felt in no uncertain terms.

please, sir?

Dusted with a little sugar* and cinnamon, and washed down with a freshly brewed coffee - this is how the perfect Sunday starts.

*The picture above is an one from my archives, as I'm more careful with sugar these days I'd now use coconut palm sugar