Blueberry Pain Perdu
Per sandwich:
- 2 slices sandwich loaf (e.g Pain D’Avignon White French Pullman)
- 1 ½ tsp. or so butter
- 2 Tbs. blueberries, well-dried, plus a few for garnish
- 1 tsp. sugar
- 1 Tbs. light or heavy cream
- ½ tsp. maple syrup
- drop of vanilla essence
- pinch of salt
- beaten egg (use whole egg if making several sandwiches or just the yolk if making one.)
- butter, or a mixture of butter and oil, for cooking
- Confectioner’s sugar, for sifting
For each sandwich: Slice bread just shy of ½ an inch thick. Remove crust. Lay the 2 pieces side by side on a flat dish or plastic board. Butter each slice, making sure butter goes to the edges. Arrange a layer of blueberries in the middle of one slice, leaving at least a half-inch bread margin around the berries. (Don’t be tempted to overfill.) Sprinkle berries with sugar. Cover blueberries with second bread slice. Press lightly, especially at the edges, to encourage berries to stay put and enclosed in the bread.
Mix cream, maple syrup, vanilla and salt in a little dish or cup. Brush top of sandwich with half the cream, letting it sink in. (Bread should be thoroughly moistened but not so soggy it will fall apart.) Then lightly paint with beaten egg. Carefully hold sandwich together and turn it over. Brush the other side of sandwich with remaining cream, followed by another quick once-over with egg.
Over moderate heat, melt butter in a frying pan, swirling to coat the bottom (a non-stick pan works well.) As butter starts sizzling, slide in sandwich on a spatula. Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side till golden-brown. Use the spatula tip to gently press the sandwich edges so they make contact with the pan and sandwich browns evenly. Slide each sandwich onto a plate, leaving it whole, or cutting it neatly into two triangles. Sift over confectioner’s sugar; add a few nice fresh berries and, if you must, a final trickle of maple syrup. For breakfast, brunch, as a snack, for dessert….just a triangle might suffice at the end of a rich meal.
