Did someone say French toast?

Egg & Bacon French Toast Panini – Attempt #1

• Bread: Sliced sourdough French toast
• Meat: Bacon, two-egg omelet
• Cheese: None
• Condiments: None
• “Goodies”: None

THE INSPIRATION: My fridge and pantry. Believe it or not, it’s a rather rare occasion when I have bread, eggs and milk in the kitchen at the same time. Staple items they may be, but I’m usually out of at least one. Anyway, once I realized I had the ingredients and saw that my panini press had not yet been stored away, I began to contemplate a grilled French toast. But I wasn’t really in a “sweet” mood – I wanted something savory. So while the French toast was grilling, I brought out two more eggs and made an omelet. Then while I was at it, I nuked a few pieces of quick serve bacon! Fortunately, I then finally stopped myself. Whew!

THE PREPARATION: For my French toast egg mixture, I started with the usual beaten egg and a little milk. Then I decided to add in a little maple syrup – I love it when French toast has its own hint of sweetness. And since I wasn’t going to be pouring maple syrup over the top this was my chance to sneak some in. I took a large slice of sourdough bread, cut it in half, dipped the halves in the egg mixture and set them onto the grill to press at 375 degrees.

While the bread was grilling, I whipped up a quick two-egg omelet: eggs, a little milk, salt and pepper. Really straightforward, nothing fancy. I wasn’t exactly sure how long the French toast was going to take on the grill, so it was a bit of a timing challenge to finish the eggs just when I was ready to serve. Fortunately, assembly on this one was going to be super-quick.

THE CONSTRUCTION: Ten seconds in the microwave was all my two slices of quick serve bacon needed to heat up. I lay the bacon on one piece of the French toast, added the omelet and topped it with the other toast. That was it!

THE RESULTS: So good! Simple is often best and that was definitely the case here – this was one excellent breakfast sandwich. The crispy French toast with its hint of maple syrup gave a nice caramelized crunch as I bit into the sandwich. The saltiness from the eggs and bacon and slight heat from the black pepper made the whole thing a bit of a taste festival. I didn’t add any cheese or condiments and I didn’t miss them at all. The eggs, bacon and French toast were enough on their own to create a most satisfying breakfast treat.

Get the final recipe!

NOTE: Admittedly, this one pushed the limits of what would qualify as a panino. But, strictly speaking, panino just means “sandwich”, and I did grill a major component, so there we are!