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Babz Bites: Sorghum Baked French Toast

Sorghum is made from sorghum grain, a cousin to barley. Sorghum syrup has a very labor intensive process but it is still practiced in some parts of Appalachia, using a horse-drawn extractor to pull out the juice inside the grain. Don’t worry, today’s dish is much easier to make than sorghum.

It seems that every year Thanksgiving seems to get here faster and faster. The long fall season certainly didn’t manage to slow anything down. With the holidays having extra meaning this year, many of us are even busier than a typical turkey week.

My husband, Alex and I, have been busier than ever with catering events this autumn. One theme of all the events has been resoundingly different, the events we have catered have been large families gathering together. Families that couldn’t be together last year but are traveling across the country to come “home” to Maysville and break bread with each other before another year has passed.

One event, this past weekend, filled our hearts with so much joy. We opened the door and were greeted by smiles, laughter and hugs. The guests were so happy to be together they treated us like family when we walked in. Of course, it helped that our arms were filled with food!

I have always found comfort in large family gatherings. Perhaps it’s because it was how I grew up. My mother was one of seven sisters and my grandfather one of six boys, our kitchen was always a sounding board for touching base around the holidays. To be honest, I prefer Thanksgiving to most holidays. Certain things are just simplified.

My mother would usually have a parade playing on the tv in the background while whoever was helping in the kitchen began to wander in. Coffee was always continually having to be remade. The food was never ready on time, but there was always some sort of starch for everyone to eat on whenever they got up out of bed.

When my Great-Aunt Auntie was still living and up to cooking, she would always have the most incredible yeast rolls with a caramel glaze and nuts on them. After Auntie’s cooking slowed down, my mother would get a pan of a different yummy Amish bread for us to enjoy. Smothered in butter, the toaster was always there to help if you wandered in at the end of the morning, or beginning of the afternoon. We usually eat sometime between lunch and dinner. Having a little something hearty but not overly filling would get us through the day cooking and laughing and happy. With the smells of festive foods cooking there was nowhere to hide. If you didn’t have a full tummy this could make functioning a bit of a struggle.

Today, I have included my recipe for sorghum-baked french toast. Most ingredients may be already on hand in your kitchen. Don’t worry about being fancy, leftover bread or rolls work best. Don’t mix up sorghum and molasses though. Although molasses is also a good ingredient if you don’t have sorghum. These two delicious ingredients can be a little confusing. One of the reasons for this is that sorghum is often called “sorghum molasses.” Completely different, molasses is a product of sugarcane. Sorghum is made from sorghum grain, a cousin to barley. Sorghum syrup has a very labor-intensive process but it is still practiced in some parts of Appalachia, using a horse-drawn extractor to pull out the juice inside the grain.

Don’t worry, today’s dish is much easier to make than sorghum. One of my favorite key details, in having a starch ready for the family in the morning, is to make it ahead of time. Mix eggs, milk, cream, sorghum, maple syrup, vanilla, coles, nutmeg and cinnamon in an airtight container and place in the refrigerator overnight. The next morning, when you are ready to bake, simply shake the mix and pour it over the bread you have arranged in the skillet. It’s as easy as it sounds. Happy Thanksgiving.

Good luck and enjoy!

Sorghum Baked French Toast

Serves 6

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

One loaf of soft french bread, around 12-ounces), any baguette or leftover bread will work though.

8 large eggs

1 cup whole milk

1 ⅓ cups heavy whipping cream

⅓ cup sorghum, be sure and have some extra for drizzling after the bake.

1 tsp maple syrup, be sure and have some extra if you would like any served with the dish.

¼ tsp pure vanilla extract

⅛ tsp ground nutmeg

1 Tbsp ground cinnamon

2 Tbsp powdered sugar, for garnish

Any fruit or nuts are delicious cooked into the bake, or served as a garnish after.

Thinly slice bread into one-inch slices. If using bread that is easier to tare, break chunks off. Place bread slices or chunks in a cast-iron skillet or in the bottom of a baking dish. Be sure the bread is only slightly overlapping each other, in the bottom of the pan.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, cream, and sorghum. Add maple syrup, vanilla, cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon. Stir until all ingredients are combined.

Pour ingredients over the bread mix in dish or skillet. If baking with any additional ingredients, such as fresh fruit or nuts, place on top of bread prior to pouring mix over it.

Bake pan in the middle rack of the oven for around 45 minutes. The bake will be golden brown and the egg mix will have thickened. Serve with powdered sugar. Castiron skillet will keep the bake hot and continue to cook even after you have pulled it from the oven. This makes it my preferred baking dish when feeding a crowd staggering into the kitchen at different times. Additional fruit, nuts, or whipped cream may be added when serving.

The recipes and photos used in today’s article are from the kitchen of Chef Babz (babzbites@gmail.com). The beautiful “Artisan Old World Baguette” used in today’s photo is from the incredible bakers at HIllsong Farms in Augusta.