Let me start by staying, this is not a typical breakfast in my house. This is a rich and decadent holiday breakfast, suitable for Christmas morning, or a pre-soccer game brunch for 11 year olds. 🙂
Panettone is a traditional Milanese sweet bread that is enjoyed around Christmas and New Years throughout Europe. It is an egg bread with a light and fluffy texture, and usually contains raisins, currents, candied orange, or other dried fruits. It is widely available in the US around the holidays. I have seen it at Whole Foods and Trader Joes.
I had some panettone left over from a holiday snack mix that I was making, so I decided to use the remaining pannetone to make a holiday french toast. The results were delicious. Enjoy!
I used sauteed apples, pomegranate molasses, pomegranate seeds, and greek yogurt flavored with honey, vanilla, and cardamom for toppings on this french toast. Pomegranate molasses is a common ingredient in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cooking. It is essentially a reduction of pomegranate juice with sugar and a bit of lemon. It is a perfect condiment for this french toast. I buy it at my local Mediterranean grocery. You can also find it online.
Panettone French Toast with Apples and Pomegranate
Ingredients
For the Apple Topping
- 1 large granny smith apple peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
- 1 TBSP brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp cardamom
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 lemon wedge squeezed
- 1 TBSP margarine or butter
For the French Toast
- 3 slices panettone approximate 3/4 inch thick
- 3 eggs beaten
- 1/2 cup milk I used almond milk
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 TBSP brown sugar
- 3 TBSP margarine or butter
Toppings
- 3 TBSP pomegranate molasses
- 1/2 cup pomegranate seeds
- 1/2 cup greek yogurt combined with 1 tsp vanilla 1 TBSP honey, and 1 pinch cardamom
Instructions
- Heat 1 TBSP of margarine or butter in a non-stick or cast iron pan.
- Add apples and saute for ~3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, cardamom and salt and cook until apples are softned and beginning to brown, ~ another 3 minutes.
- Remove apples from pan, add lemon juice, and set aside.
- In a shallow dish or pie plate, combine eggs, milk, vanilla and brown sugar.
- Heat 1 TBSP of margarine or butter in pan on medium heat.
- Dip one slice of pannetone in egg mixture, coating both sides of the bread with egg mixture.
- Place pannetone slice in pan, and cook for ~3 minutes on each side until browned.
- Remove slice from pan, place on plate and top with 1/3 apple slices, a drizzle of pomegranate molasses, a dollop of honey-cardamom yogurt and a sprinkle of pomegranate seeds.
- Repeat process with remaining slices of bread.
- Serve immediately.
