Peanut Butter and Bacon French Toast Sandwich

Because every week is sandwich week, really.

This recipe works best with some nicely staled challah - we get ours from Costco. Don’t make any plans to do anything for at least a few hours afterwards.

Serves 2-3

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• ground cinnamon
• 300ml of whole milk
• 50ml of double cream
• Skippy Smooth peanut butter
• 6-8 rashers of smoked streaky bacon
• 1tbsp of vanilla extract
• at least half a stick of unsalted butter to hand at room temperature
• icing sugar
• blueberries
• maple syrup
• 2/3 stale challah rolls (or other white bread)

Method

1. Preheat the oven and throw the bacon in on a baking tray.

2. Beat the eggs, milk and cream together lightly. Add in a good dash of cinnamon and the vanilla extract.

3. Pour the mixture in to a flat bottomed dish.

4. Halve your rolls and submerge them into the dish for a minute, flip and then do the other side too. Try to get as good a covering as you can so the mixture has really soaked in.

5. Melt a healthy knob of butter in your favourite pan.

6. Batch fry the toast, making sure the pan doesn’t get too hot and brown the butter too much. 2-3 minutes per side should do it but you can flip pretty regularly. Keep going until they’re a pleasing golden brown.

7. Once the toast is cooked, let them cool a little and then add a healthy dollop of peanut butter. Smooth works best with this recipe since it’ll melt quickly and is easier to spread without ruining the finish of your toast.

8. The bacon should nicely crisp by this stage - wipe off any excess grease with some kitchen towel, snap them in two and put them on top of one half.

9. Apply the top half, add a liberal dose of maple syrup, a cursory handful of blueberries on the side and sieve a layer of icing sugar on top.

10. Cancel your plans for the rest of the day.

• Simon.

[RECIPE] Bacon Pickle Animal Cheese Sauce

Last weekend, we defeated rain and spread happiness throughout Brick Lane with Hot Dog hero Big Apple Hot Dogs as part of his quasi-competitive food blogger meetup #BlogEATBlog.

We didn’t think it would be worthwhile doing anything too subtle or off-brand, so here’s our down and dirty entry. It’s a four element topping: cheese sauce with bacon, an In-n-Out style ‘Animal’ sauce, chopped pickle and bacon crumbs. Here’s the recipe for the cheese bit.

The end result looked like this on the day, so here’s the recipe so you too can make it at home. It goes great with nachos.

Ingredients

This makes about 1.5 litres. Which is way more than you probably want.

• Six tablespoons of flour
• At least a pint of full fat milk
• Frank’s Hot Sauce
• Chipotle Tabasco
• Kraft cheese
• About a dozen slices of American cheese
• A pack of streaky bacon (we like Oscar Mayer for this recipe)
• Two dill pickles

Method

Lob six tablespoons of flour and a cup of milk into a bowl and mix until smooth. Lumpy sauce is bogus.

Take your bacon, lay it on baking tray and bung that in a preheated oven at about 180-200 degrees. Lowish and slowish, since we’re after crispness here folks.

While the bacon is crisping, put the flour and milk mixture into a saucepan and bring it up to a gentle simmer. While it’s coming up to temperature, chop your Kraft block into nice manageable chunks.

When the flour and milk have combined into a nice runny sauce, drop the cheese in. It’s best to introduce it in batches. Remember, Kraft is not real cheese, so it will melt slowly. Don’t turn the heat up, keep it low and slow.

Once the Kraft has disintegrated, throw your American cheese slices in. They’ll melt much quicker and change the mixture colour in a most pleasing way.

Keep it hot and check for a nice gloopy consistency. It should look like this:

Now, grab your two best friends.

Generously apply Frank’s first. Mix well and check flavour. Frank’s adds salt, flavour and colour. So this is up to you.

Do exactly the same with your Tabasco.

Dice your pickles, then dice your bacon (which you should take out the oven about now).

Introduce half of your bacon into the cheese sauce.

Mix it all up and you’re done!

To make the dog, line the bun with animal sauce, insert your frank, dollop a healthy amount of cheese sauce on top and finish with the diced pickle and bacon.

[RECIPE] The Burger-for-a-pound Experiment

“Don’t go into a butcher’s asking for 150 grams of chuck steak to be minced.”

Is it just me that thinks it, or does getting a half-decent burger feel a bit pricey all of a sudden? Seems like you can’t find a burger for less than £6.50, let alone a cheeseburger or, god forbid, a bacon cheeseburger. I mean, for f sake, even BK’s Whopper is now nearly four quid, like, whoa.

Very mildly disgruntled, I got thinking one night and reckoned I could make a pretty frickin’ awesome burger for a pound. I set about trying to do it.

Food prices? Bring it.

Meat

Easy. Down to my local butcher for some prime chuck steak, double minced. Most ‘good’ burger joints swear by patties that are 170g, but I used 150g - to save a bit but retain a similar size.

Buns

Tougher. You get the best buns from independent bakers but are 40-50p each unless you get in bulk, way too pricey. I tested mass-market buns. Disappointment after disappointment; some were just too fluffy, some practically dissolved under any patty moisture.

Step up the Warburton’s bun; with the look of a McDonald’s hamburger bun and its hint of sweetness, great spongey consistency, and ability to handle the juicy impact of a patty. Winner. Not that McD’s have juice, but you get my point.

Cheese

BA has been on an ‘American (cheese) in London’ quest for AGES. Supermarket-bought brands don’t cut it. They don’t melt right and are too small. You can’t get American cheese, period. Tesco sell blocks of Kraft, but it’s the wrong type (the weird, anaemic “white” cheddar that doesn’t really melt).

Then Si found these:

They have the right thickness, actually taste of something, and melt to look JUST like nacho cheese. You can buy them from a random selection of Turkish supermarkets in London. We get ours from Akdeniz on Well Street in Hackney.

Bacon

Supermarket bought. Should have got it from the butcher. My bad. Smoked. Streaky. Grilled ‘til crisp. Bliss.

Lettuce/Onion

Standard: shredded and diced. Bought in my local market. No tomato you say? Don’t really like them in burgers that much, especially store bought ones, they ooze too much liquid. Personal choice, deal with it.

Pickles

Store bought. Personal faves.

Condiments

Classics. Heinz Ketchup /French’s Mustard.

• Beef | 150g @ £5.65/Kg | 84p
• Bun | 85p for 6 | 14p |
• Cheese | £1.50 for 8 slices | 19p |
• Bacon | £1.50 for 12 slices | 26p |
• Onion | 12p | 3p |
• Gherkin | 65p per jar | 2p |
• Lettuce | 78p for 473g | 1p |
• Sauces | £1 per 400g / £1.79 per 397g | 3p |

And the grand total is…

£1.52

And this is what I made:

No. I didn’t manage to make a burger for a pound. Gutted.

BUT, if you take away the bacon and the cheese, and make it a standard burger, it only comes to £1.07, which is pretty darn close. And, not to blow my own trumpet, it was pretty good as well.

Remember, you have to buy in quantity sometimes. Don’t be a dipshit and go into a butchers asking for 150 grams of chuck steak to be minced in an industrial butcher’s mincer. They will laugh at you.

When you can do this, it’s puts the price you pay out and about in perspective. Yeah, i didn’t use a hand-crafted sourdough bun, or aged cheddar. And i didn’t have to pay for premises rent or staff - but does that justify in excess of a fiver extra? Honestly, I’m not sure.

I’d be more than happy to cook this for anyone who wants it.

Requests through Twitter please.

It’ll cost you £6.50.

• Rob.