Portuguese French Toast • Rabanadas

The holidays are a special time for all of us, in Portugal one of the traditional sweets is a deep fried french toast topped with plenty of sugar and cinnamon called Rabanada, the result is a creamy almost pudding like french toast with a crunchy exterior.

To make this usually we use a thick long bread similar to a chuncky baguette bread, but in this case I used bakery white bread just for a change (don’t use plain white bread, because that is too soft, too thin and all the additives wont let the bread get hard and stale), the most important is to cut and let the bread get very stale, the best is to buy and cut the bread 3 days before the day you are going to make these french toasts.

The great thing about these is that the day after you make them, they are even better, more soft and more like pudding, this is the classic recipe, perfect for any Christmas table, lets check the recipe.

Portuguese French Toast • Rabanadas Recipe

Portuguese French Toast • Rabanadas

Servings: 10
Time: 1hr 30mins
Difficulty: Normal
Rating: ★★★★★
Print

Portuguese French Toast is an incredibly delicious and festive dessert very traditional for Christmas in Portugal. The sweet and creamy texture of the French toast is a perfect pairing with the cinnamon and sugar topping. What are you waiting for?

Ingredients

Bread – 10 Slices (White Stale Bread, Thick Slices)
Eggs – 5
Milk – 2000 ml
Lemon – 2 Peels
Cinnamon – 1 Stick
Vannilla Extract – 1 tbsp
Salt – A Pinch
Sugar – To Sprinkle
Cinnamon – To Sprinkle
Sunflower Oil – 800ml (Aproximate)

Directions

You should start about 3 days before buying the bread and cut it into slices, I like two fingers thick for each slice, but you can cut a little thinner if you want, as long as they are all the same thickness, leave the bread in a bag or bread box for 3 days to dry.

When it’s time to prepare, pour the milk in a small saucepan with two lemon peels and a cinnamon stick, heat the milk until it’s very hot but not boiling, pour this into a large bowl and mix in the vanilla (if all of the milk doesn’t fit in the bowl, add the remaining hot milk later).

Whisk the eggs and add these to another bowl with a pinch of salt.

Also prepare a wide platter with a rack or paper towel to dry the French toast after frying.
In a third bowl add some sugar and cinnamon powder, the proportion I use is three spoons of sugar to one of cinnamon.

Put the oil in a frying pan you want it to cover at least half of each French fry, bring it to a medium/high heat, set it at 190°C if you have a thermometer, if not throw in some bread when it starts to bubble then the oil is good for frying.
Since the bread is so dense, while the oil heats up add slices to the milk, let it soak in the liquid, turning the slices, a good trick is to press the sides of the bread, if you feel resistance then let it soak in more, when you feel that the bread has absorbed all it can, take it out of the milk and let it drip a little in your hand, you can even squeeze it very slightly (like a sponge) just to remove the excess.

Then pass the slice through the egg on both sides, I usually pass it 2 times on each side, and put it in the oil to fry.

When one side is golden brown turn and fry the other side until both sides are nicely browned, usually it’s about 2 minutes each side, but these were practically 3 minutes each side.
Remove to the grill or paper towel, fry 2 or 3 at a time.

Let the French toast rest for 1 minute to drain and then sprinkle them with the cinnamon-sugar mixture, it is important to do this while they are still warm and moist, so that they are well coated.

Finally put them on a serving dish, enjoy them and Merry Christmas!

Notes: Sometimes the milk or egg is all absorbed into the bread you can prepare a bit more, sometime it happens ;D

Well soaked the bread so these French will last several days always moist and delicious, this bread absorbs and retains very easily a huge amount of liquid.

If the bread is too soft, let it dry for at least a day before cutting the slices, this way the bread will be harder and you will be able to cut the slices more easily, its a good idea to cut a few days before because the bread will get dry and stale faster if cut.

Taste the first french toasts you make to see if it needs more salt, more soaking in the milk, to adjust the fry, so you will make perfect portuguese style french toasts.

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