Margarita's International Recipes

Jerez de la Frontera

Torrijas Jerezanas

Jerez Style French Toast


Jerez Style French Toast


This is a dessert recipe.

What Americans refer to as "French Toast" and Spanish speakers know as torrijas, bread dipped in milk and then fried, have been eaten in Europe at least since late antiquity. By the Middle Ages, they were dipped in egg, sweetened and served as side dishes to roasts. In Spain, there are references to torrejas being served with honey from the XV century onward. Today, they are commonly eaten as treats during Holy Week and Lent.

In Jerez, torrijas often substitute sherry wine for the milk. This particular recipe calls for sweet, oloroso or fino sherry, but I used cream sherry as it's what I could easily find at my supermarket. It worked very well.

The technique of thinning the honey with water and dipping the whole torrija in it was new to me, and while it meant dirtying yet another pan, it worked quite well. Indeed, I would say this rivaled maple syrup as far as flavor went.

Finally, in Spain you can buy bread specially made for torrijas. In the US, substitute with sliced brioche bread.

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Jerez Style French Toast

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1/4 cup water
  • olive oil
  • 4 slices brioche bread
  • 2/3 cup sweet, oloroso, fino or cream sherry
  • 3 eggs, beaten

Directions

Combine honey and water in a frying pan, and put on the stove over low heat.

Heat a thin layer of olive oil in another frying pan over medium-heat

Splash sherry on top of the brioche slices. Dip each slice in the beaten egg and transfer to the pan with the olive oil. Brown on both sides. Once cooked, transfer to the pan with the honey liquid and let the bread absorb the liquid for a minute before flipping and repeating.


Adapted from a recipe at Jerez Sin Fronteras

See also Gibraltarian Torrijas, Hong Kong Style French Toast, Best French Toast Ever.


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