Christmas Morning French Toast With Raspberry and Pomegranate Preserve

Method

1. Whisk the eggs, milk, cream, sugar, vanilla, orange zest, cinnamon and salt in a large jug until no streak of white is left. Stir in the orange blossom water now if you are using it.
2. Lay the bread across two shallow dishes in a single layer, overlapping as little as the dishes allow.
3. Pour the custard over the slices, then tilt each dish and press the bread down so every piece is wet on both sides.
4. Cover the dishes and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight. Turn the slices once before bed if you are still up.
5. Heat the oven to 120°C, or 100°C fan, and sit a wire rack over an oven tray on the middle shelf. This is where the cooked slices wait, and the rack is what stops their undersides sweating.
6. Melt a knob of the butter in a large frying pan over medium-low heat until it foams. Do not let it brown before the bread goes in.
7. Lift out 4 slices, letting the loose custard run back into the dish, and lay them in the pan without crowding them.
8. Cook for about 3 minutes, until the underside is deep gold, then turn once and give the second side 2 to 3 minutes.
9. Move the finished slices onto the rack in the oven, in a single layer and uncovered. Foil traps steam, and steam undoes the crust you just built.
10. Wipe the pan out with kitchen paper, add fresh butter and cook the next batch. Burnt milk solids left in the pan will make the following four taste bitter.
11. Warm the preserve while the last batch is in the pan: three quarters of the jar and a tablespoon of water in a small pan over low heat, stirred until it runs off the spoon.
12. Stack two slices on each plate, pour the warm preserve over the top, and add the cold berries and a spoon of yoghurt.
13. Crumble a few rose petals over the plates, dust with icing sugar, and serve within half an hour of the first batch.

If you would rather not stand at a pan

The soaked slices bake instead. Butter two oven trays well, heat the oven to 200°C or 180°C fan, lay the slices out in a single layer and bake for 20 minutes, turning them once at the halfway mark. They come out drier and more even, without the buttery edge, and all sixteen are ready at once. Either way the night before is the trick: custard mixed, bread soaking, rack and tray on the bench. Our guide to make ahead Christmas food covers what else moves off the morning.

Questions we get asked

Can you soak french toast overnight?

Yes, provided the bread is firm enough to take it. Brioche, challah and day-old sourdough hold up to about 12 hours in the fridge, covered, and come out better for it, because the custard reaches the middle instead of sitting near the crust. Past 12 hours the bread breaks down and the centre sets like bread pudding. Soft sandwich loaves cannot do it, so soak those for 20 minutes and cook them straight away.

What bread is best for french toast?

An enriched loaf with a tight crumb, cut thick. Brioche is the standard answer because the butter and egg already in the dough survive the pan, and challah does the same job. Day-old sourdough is the better choice if the table is not after something sweet, since the sour note holds its own against a sharp preserve.

How do you keep french toast warm for a crowd?

On a wire rack, in a 120°C oven, uncovered, for up to half an hour. The rack lets air move underneath so the base stays crisp, and leaving it uncovered lets the steam escape. A stacked plate under foil is what turns good french toast into a soft pile, because every slice steams the one below it. Serve the plates as soon as the last batch joins the others.

Why is my french toast soggy in the middle?

Nearly always heat, not soaking. A pan that is too hot colours the outside in a minute and leaves raw custard behind it, so medium-low and about 3 minutes a side is the target. The other causes are slices cut thinner than 2cm, and a pan holding more than four pieces.

The jar is the part of this you can order in advance. The raspberry and pomegranate preserve and the rest of the Ottolenghi range keep in the cupboard until the morning they are wanted, and if the breakfast is happening at somebody else's house, the Christmas hampers do the arriving for you. Orders placed before 12pm on a weekday are dispatched the same day from our Corio, VIC warehouse, and shipping is free Australia-wide on orders over $100.