Cream Cheese French Toast with Smoked Salmon

This is my second recipe from my friend Kathy's in law's recipe book, the Raimo cookbook. For those of you that didn't read the story on the cookbook, it's a wonderful collection of Post War recipes, still relevant today, that a Mother collected and gave to her new daughter in law in order for her to keep her son well fed. To me, there were certain recipes that jumped out to me immediately and this was one of them being a French Toast fanatic. I had never heard of combining French Toast with cream cheese but the idea somehow seemed so logical.

The recipe below gives measures but it depends of course on the size and type of bread you are using. I had a round 23cms/9inch diameter roll so the 2 eggs covered 1.5 sandwiches which gave 1.5 servings but of course if you use a smaller loaf you may be able to get 3 or 4 sandwiches out of it. I served it to hubby for a lazy weekend brunch and he loved it. Adored it. In fact he asked for it for dinner too.

As for me, there was one clear partner to this- Smoked Salmon. It's a natural partner for cream cheese. I've given Margaret Raimo's original recipe as well as written it out, with a couple of hints. Just make sure that you have enough ingredients for the inevitable dinner requests later that day.

Cream Cheese French Toast with Smoked Salmon

• Slices of bread (whatever bread takes your fancy)

• 2 eggs and 1/2 cup milk per person

• pinch of salt

• 75g of cream cheese per person

• Butter and oil for frying

• 3 slices of smoked salmon per person

Step 1 - Whisk eggs until beaten and then whisk milk and salt in and set aside. Heat frypan on medium.

Step 2 - Microwave cream cheese briefly to soften (about 20 seconds on medium depending on your microwave).

Step 3 - Spread cream cheese on one piece of bread and sandwich another piece of bread. Cut in half diagonally.

Step 4 - Heat a knob of butter and an equal amount of oil in the frypan so that it sizzles. Dip sandwich half in the egg mixture and fry. Turn over once it's golden on one side and fry the other side.

Step 5 - Serve with smoked salmon on the side.