B2 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
HOME & LIVING
TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 2022
Festive French toast always a favorite with kids
By GRETCHEN McKAY
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
This French toast
recipe is both festive and
extremely easy to pre-
pare. Thanks to a home-
made, honey-kissed straw-
berry syrup that speaks to
the arrival of spring ber-
ries, it’s also sure to be a
crowd-pleaser, especially
with kids.
I used brioche, a light
and butter-rich French
bread that tastes like a cross
between a croissant and
bread. But you could also
use challah or plain-old
white bread. It’s gently
stuff ed with a creamy mix
of mascarpone and diced
fresh strawberries, then
dipped in a frothy batter of
eggs and milk infused with
a touch of cinnamon before
being toasted to a golden
brown in a frying pan.
I paired the toast with
homemade pork sausage
breakfast patties, which can
be made a day ahead if you
want to speed up prep.
If you use pre-sliced
bread that’s too thin for
stuffi ng, no worries: simply
double the amount of bread
and spread the fi lling
between two slices like a
sandwich.
STRAWBERRY
STUFFED
FRENCH
TOAST WITH
HOMEMADE
SAUSAGE
For strawberry topping
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons honey
Gretchen McKay/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
French toast stuff ed with sweet cheese and topped with a jammy strawberry sauce is perfect for a special occasion like a brunch.
1 pound plus 3 large fresh
strawberries, rinsed
and diced, divided
Pinch of salt
Pinch of cinnamon, optional
Butter for pan
For French toast
For sausage patties
8 thick slices brioche,
preferably day-old
8 ounces mascarpone cheese,
softened to room temperature
1/2 cup whole milk plus 1
teaspoon, divided
2 tablespoons sugar, divided
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 pound ground pork
1 teaspoon each minced fresh
thyme, rosemary and sage
1 clove garlic, minced
Large pinch of salt
Pinch red pepper fl akes (optional)
2 teaspoons light brown sugar
Prepare strawberry topping: In
a large pan, melt butter and hon-
ey over medium heat until evenly
melted. Add 1 pound straw-
berries and cook until heated
through, crushing every so often
with a fork, and berries break
down into a sauce, about 10
minutes. Taste; if it doesn’t seem
sweet enough, add a little sugar.
Lower heat, and keep warm until
ready to serve.
Prepare sausage: In large
bowl, combine ground pork
with seasonings with your hands
until well combined. Divide pork
mixture into 8 equal-sized balls.
Using damp hands, gently press
balls into uniform patties. With
your thumb, slightly depress the
center of each patty, pushing the
extra meat toward the edges.
(This will help the patty cook fl at
instead of puffi ng up.) Set aside
in fridge until ready to cook.
Prepare French toast: Cut a
horizontal slit about 2 inches
long into the bottom of each
bread slice to create a pocket,
being careful not to cut all the
way through to the top.
In a medium bowl, whisk
together the softened mascar-
pone with remaining 3 chopped
strawberries, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1
teaspoon vanilla and 1 teaspoon
milk. It should be smooth and
creamy.
Transfer the cheese mixture to
a pastry bag or a zip-top bag with
a corner snipped off . Working one
piece at a time, place the tip of
the bag into the slit in the bread
slice and fi ll the bread with about
1 tablespoon of cream cheese,
then gently smooth it inside the
pocket with your fi ngers. Repeat
with remaining slices, then set
aside while you cook the sausage.
Heat a nonstick skillet over
medium-high heat. Cook the
sausage patties for 2 minutes
on each side, or until brown and
crispy and cooked through. Set
aside and cover with foil to keep
warm while you make the French
toast.
In a second bowl, whisk
together eggs, milk, remaining
sugar, salt and pinch of cinna-
mon, if using.
Coat a non-stick skillet with a
thin layer of butter. Place it over
medium-low heat until the butter
begins to foam and sizzle.
Dip the bread slices, one at a
time, into the egg mixture, allow-
ing each side to soak up some of
the mixture. Place the coated slic-
es directly into the hot pan. Cook
until the bottom is golden brown,
about 3 to 4 minutes, then fl ip
and cook another 2-3 minutes
on the other side. Be careful not
to crowd the pan or the toast will
stick together.
Transfer to plate and keep
warm while you repeat with
remaining bread, adding more
butter to the pan as needed.
Serve with strawberry topping
and breakfast sausage patties.
Serves 4.
— Gretchen McKay
Beer with Girl Scout cookies? Some gimmicks actually work.
By JOSH NOEL
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — The idea
of pairing beer with Girl
Scout cookies has been
around a few years, and
it always struck me as
largely ridiculous. And not
the good ridiculous — the
gimmicky ridiculous. The
only thing gimmickier, it
seemed, was pairing beer
with Halloween candy
(which is also a thing).
I didn’t doubt the merit
of beer coexisting with
Girl Scout cookies; beer is
remarkably versatile along-
side food, whether sweet or
savory, haute or street.
The idea is just so ...
gimmicky.
But, hey, some gimmicks
work. And plenty of brew-
eries and beer writers have
embraced the intersection
of Girl Scout cookies and
beer. Even craft beer trade
group the Brewers Associ-
ation has weighed in with
a thorough guide to such
pairings. (A gooey Samoa
alongside a malty doppel-
bock does sound delicious.)
With Girl Scout cookie
season upon us once
again, at least three Chi-
cago breweries have devel-
oped pairing events this
year: Sketchbook Brewing
and Ravinia Brewing ear-
lier this month, and Logan
Square’s Pilot Project
Brewing on Thursday. I put
my fuddy-duddiness aside
and gave it a try, for the
sake of journalism.
Girl Scout cookies are
good. Beer is good. So
why not?
On a warm spring
Sunday afternoon, I headed
to Sketchbook’s Skokie
taproom, which off ered its
pairings for $14 — four
5-ounce pours with a small
plastic bag stuff ed with four
diff erent Girl Scout cookies.
The bartender handed me a
wooden tray with four short
E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune-TNS
Girl Scout cookie and beer pairings.
round glasses and the bag of
cookies that I carried to the
beer garden.
It didn’t take long to
be won over, and that’s
because the fi rst pairing
was fl awless: the Girl
Scouts’ Lemon-Ups cookie
with Sketchbook’s wit-
bier. It was a combination
Sketchbook co-owner Cesar
Marron told me the brewery
was excited to feature as
soon as it began planning
the event. I could see why.
The cookie, introduced
in 2020, is a gem unto itself,
boasting bright lemon min-
gling with dueling tex-
tures: the crunch of the
cookie along with a silky
lemon glaze. The beer, a
tweaked version of the Bel-
gian classic, is similarly
well built: a spry wheat
beer brewed with coriander
and orange, lemon and
lime peels.
I sipped the bright, zesty
beer, let the fl avors sit for a
moment in my mouth, then
bit into the sweet lemon
crunch of the Lemon-Ups.
The combination daz-
zled brightly. Then back to
the beer, which seemed to
take on diff erent character;
after the cookie, the corian-
der’s herbal nature popped.
They were wonderful
complements.
Next up was Insuffi cient
Clearance, a 5% IPA, with
the Girl Scout’s Trefoils, a
no-frills shortbread cookie.
Like many IPAs, the beer
has an expressively bright
citrus-forward note with a
muscular showing of bal-
ancing bitterness. Short-
bread, as virtually everyone
knows from childhood,
is not the most expressive
cookie — its appeal lies in
its simplicity, crunch and
buttery sweetness.
I was confused by the
pairing before tasting it,
but it soon became clear;
some pairings, such as
the Lemon-Ups and wit-
bier, work as complements.
Others work as counter-
points; that’s what this one
was, the beer’s fruity bit-
terness cleared by the cook-
ie’s crunchy sweetness. It
wasn’t a fl avor journey like
the previous pairing. But it
worked all the same.
Next was a pairing
featured on the Brewers
Association website:
Sketchbook’s Illustrator
doppelbock with a Samoa.
As everyone knows — and
surely this will not be a
controversial sentiment —
Samoas are the kings of
Girl Scout cookies. It just
so happens that doppelbock
is one of the great unher-
alded beer styles, at least in
mainstream American cir-
cles; its malty backbone is
accented with notes of dark
fruit and tobacco, often fol-
lowed by a dry fi nish that
keeps the beer light on
the palate.
No surprise: The com-
bination was aces. Along-
side the Samoa’s creamy
caramel-chocolate-coconut
delectability, Illustrator
performed a neat trick of
both complementing the
cookie with its sweetness,
while contrasting with that
tobacco wrinkle and the
dry fi nish.
Last was the most
obvious pairing: Sketch-
book’s dry Irish stout with
a Thin Mint.
I love dry Irish stout and
I love Thin Mints, but this
was the least interesting, the
roast of the beer becoming
lost in the mint of the
cookie. But it still worked
fi ne: it was, after all, a Thin
Mint and 5 ounces of dry
Irish stout.
At best, the pairings
were towering; at worst,
they were still tasty. I was
won over.
Perhaps most fun about
such pairing events is that
no two breweries will do it
the same.
Ravinia Brewing paired
peanut butter sandwich
cookie Do-Si-Do with a
chocolate-cherry-vanilla
stout; Samoa with a hazy
IPA; Lemon-Ups with
an imperial IPA; and, in
what sounds particularly
inspired, a barrel-aged bar-
leywine with Tagalongs,
a crispy vanilla cookie
topped with peanut butter
and coated in chocolate.
Pilot Project will employ its
own vision, too, including
two big, fl avored stouts
and a lager in its event
Thursday.
It’s also easy enough
to do at home, whether
pairing a few beers with
one cookie — say, Allagash
White, Revolution Brew-
ing’s Freedom Lemonade
and Odell Brewing’s Drum-
roll Hazy Pale Ale with
Lemon-Ups — or several
cookies with one versatile
and dessert-ready beer, such
as Left Hand Brewing’s
Milk Stout. That Brewer’s
Association article is also a
good resource.
Mary Swabel, Pilot Proj-
ect’s director of hospitality,
said she had never heard
of pairing beer with Girl
Scout cookies until a tap-
room manager said another
brewery where he worked
did it and sold out the room.
She didn’t hesitate to sit
down with Pilot Project’s
head brewer, Glenn Allen,
to fi gure out pairings.
They landed on pairing
Hip-Hops and R&Brew, a
pale ale from Funkytown
Brewery, with Lemon-Ups;
Tolo Noche dark Mexi-
can-style lager with Thin
Mints; Cosimo tiramisu
stout — made with vanilla,
cacao, cinnamon and coff ee
— with Samoas; and Kadak
chai stout, made by Pilot
Project for Azadi Brewing,
paired with Tagalongs.
“The cinnamon and the
peanut butter really hit the
spot for us,” Swabel said of
the fi nal pairing.
Swabel said social
media response and sales,
via online ticketing ($20)
have been strong enough to
begin thinking about future
versions of the event, which
could include tailoring
beers to specifi c cookies.
I am offi cially con-
verted. Pairing Girl Scout
cookies with beer is still
ridiculous, but it’s the good
kind — the “that’s fun
and silly, but it has some
merit” version. I will, how-
ever, steadfastly hold out
against Halloween candy.
When your computer is in despair
OUTSTANDING
COMPUTER REPAIR
Fast and Reliable
MOBILE COMPUTER SUPPORT
DALE BOGARDUS 541-297-5831
215 Elm Street La Grande • (541) 963-5440
northwestfurnitureandmattress.com