Panettone and Blood Orange French Toast.

It’s that weird time of year when people start lots of talk about extra special oranges being ‘in season’. Now I’m not sure about you but I have never ever seen a nice round orange tree bursting to life in January’s dankness; boughs heavy with fruit. And I haven’t always lived north of the border, where the snow is currently falling...this didn’t even happen in the balmy climes of Somerset when I lived there.

Ok yes....I knooooow that’s not what these chatty orange folk mean. They mean somewhere beautiful and Spanish, where it isn’t dark for 19 hour stretches and summer holidays are never soggy, those lovely fruit are ripe and ready. It is just kind of a bit odd. We don’t go ‘hey...I hear the asparagus is ready for picking in Chile, quick we must get it over here immediately’. People who eat asparagus in January are frowned upon by foodie folk, plus are disappointed by skinny, tasteless spears.

I guess Spain is a tad closer than Chile though, and we’ve been doing the marmalade thing for gazzillions of years...the tradition and oranges even made it all the way up to Dundee! I guess we need all the vitamins we can get our hands on up here. 

So who am I to argue with the citrus based excitement, especially considering how well it suits being paired with by ‘big as a dog’ leftover panettone. This really is a lovely breakfast...not heavy at all, and sweet and sour like fizzy sweets. Now I'm off to make marmalade. With Love and Cake. 

Panettone and Blood Orange French Toast.

A few notes:

• Of course you could absolutely use a normal orange for this, in which case leave out the sugar from the syrup, but maybe replace with a spoonful of marmalade.
• Equally, you could happily use normal bread...a few days stale.
• If you were feeling extra Italian, you could use mascarpone in the place of the double cream...I would have but didn't have any. It will just need a good and proper whisk to be fully incorporated into the egg, but don't stress too much.

Serves 2

You will need

1 eggs

zest and juice of 1 blood orange

2 tbsp double cream

2 slices panettone

1 tbsp caster sugar

1 tbsp butter

• Whisk together the egg, orange zest and cream in a shallow dish.
• Dunk the panettone slices in the mixture, leaving each slice to soak up the eggyness for around 1 minute a side.
• Pop a frying pan on the heat and mix together the orange juice and sugar in a small saucepan.
• Heat the juice and sugar and let it bubble to a syrup; let it reduce by about half.
• Melt the butter in the frying pan and fry the panettone slices for a few minutes a side, until dabbled bronze.
• Serve drizzled with the orange syrup and a dusting of icing sugar.