Portuguese Christmas French Toast • Fatias Paridas

Also know in Portugal as Rabanadas, the Fatias Paridas are a sort of deep fried french toast, its a very traditional Christmas sweet in Portugal, its rare that a Christmas table doesn’t have a nice pile of these, they are super easy to make and delicious, with lots of different variations, although the recipe I’m sharing today is the standard basic one sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon.

Around Christmas time in Portugal a lot of bakeries start baking different types of breads perfect for Fatias Paridas, from a thicker baguette style bread to more french type white bread (We call it “Pão de Forma” or Pan Bread), but you can use any type really, just as long as its white bread or similar and thick so you can cut thick slices, then it perfect.

Also you need to let the bread get pretty hard, so its best to buy it fresh, cut it and then let it get hard for at least a couple of days, the more hard it becomes the better it will taste when its time to make it, lets check the recipe.

Portuguese Christmas French Toast • Fatias Paridas

Servings: 12
Time: 1hr 30mins
Difficulty: Normal
Rating: ★★★★★
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Delicious Portuguese style deep fried french toast with rustic bread and very common for Christmas.

Ingredients

Bread – 1 Rustic Bread or a Thick Baguette
Eggs – 4
Milk – 800ml
Lemon – 2 Peels
Cinnamon – 1 Stick
Cinnamon – To Sprinkle
Brown Sugar – To Sprinkle
Vegetable Oil – Enough for Frying (Cooking Oil)

Directions

Like i said, start by buying the bread 2 or 3 days before you make the these french toasts, cut the bread into slices about 2 fingers thick and cut diagonally to have more corners when frying, so the slices of bread will dry out a little more and crisp up on the edges.
First heat the milk in a small saucepan with a lemon peel and the cinnamon stick, bring it to a boil and then remove the saucepan from the heat and set aside (if necessary, return to the heat so that the milk is warm when you use it).
Whisk the eggs and put them in a large bowl where it is easy to dip the slices of bread.

In an identical bowl fill with brown sugar and cinnamon, the proportion is more or less 4 to 1, so for every 4 tablespoons of sugar, add 1 tablespoon of cinnamon.
Prepare another bowl or large tray lined with absorbent/kitchen paper, to drain the slices after frying.
Then put a deep frying pan with enough oil to easily cover at least 2/3 of each French toast, heat the oil over medium/high heat, a good way to see when the temperature is right is to put a small piece of bread into the oil when the oil starts to fry the bread then the oil is just right.
Pour the warm milk into a bowl, pass a slice of bread and let it soak both sides a little (lightly squeeze the bread to feel if its still dry in the middle or if it has absorbed well the milk), then pass the bread through the whisked egg on both sides and fry, repeat until you have 2 or 3 slices frying at the same time, do not fill the pan too much so as not to lower the temperature of the oil.

After they are golden brown on one side turn the French toast and fry the other side until both sides are golden brown, then remove from the oil to a tray lined with absorbent paper.

Repeat and fry 3 more French toast, while they are frying put the drained French toast in the sugar and cinnamon mixture and put finally display it on a serving tray (you can line it with absorbent/kitchen paper if you want to drain a bit more) and that’s it, repeat until there is no more bread, enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Notes: Like i said above get a good bread with a nice dense interior is best for this kind of desert and let it get hard for a couple of days.

Also if you have time, just let the cinnamon sticks and lemon peel stay in the milk for a while or heat it up slower so the milk has time to really absorb all the aromas ;D

These will be slight crispy and creamy after just fried, a couple of hours later or next day they will be even more creamy almost like pudding (that is if you let the bread soak really well ;D).

This recipe for Portuguese Christmas French Toast • Fatias Paridas was originally created on BakeAfter.com. Esta receita de Típicas Rabanadas Portuguesas foi publicada em português no Iguaria.com.