Apple Strudel French Toast with Butter Crumb Crunch

Method

1. Melt the butter for the crumbs in a 18 cm frying pan over medium heat, add the breadcrumbs and sugar and stir for 3 min until golden and crunchy. Tip them onto a plate straight away: they keep browning in the hot pan and can burn in seconds.

   Add in this stepButter (for the crumbs) 10 gFine dry breadcrumbs 20 gSugar (for the crumbs) 2 tsp

   medium heat

2. Peel and core the apples and cut them into 1 cm pieces. In a 20 cm pan over medium heat, melt the butter for the apples, add the apples, brown sugar, most of the cinnamon and the raisins and cook for 6 min, stirring now and then, until the apples are tender and coated in a glossy syrup. Stir in the lemon juice and keep warm on the lowest heat.

   Add in this stepButter (for the apples) 15 gTart, firm apples (about 180 g each) 1½Brown sugar 20 gGround cinnamon ½ tspRaisins 15 gLemon juice 1½ tsp

   medium heat

3. In a shallow dish, whisk the eggs, milk, vanilla, the rest of the cinnamon and the salt until no streaks of egg white remain.

   Add in this stepEggs 2Milk 120 mlVanilla extract ½ tspGround cinnamon ¼ tspSalt 1 pinch

4. Lay the bread slices in the custard for 30 sec per side, so they soak it up but don't fall apart. Day-old bread absorbs more custard without turning mushy.

   Add in this stepThick slices of brioche or milk bread (about 2.5 cm, a day old) 4

5. Melt a share of the frying butter in a non-stick pan (28 cm) over medium-low heat and fry the slices for 3 min until deep golden, then turn and fry 3 min more; press the centre: it should feel springy, not wet. Fry in batches if needed, with fresh butter for each batch. Medium-low heat cooks the custard inside before the outside burns.

   Add in this stepButter (for frying) 15 g

   medium-low heat

6. Put the toast on warm plates, add a spoonful of yogurt, pile on the apples and their syrup, scatter over the butter crumbs and dust with icing sugar. Serve at once, while the crumbs are still crunchy.

   Add in this stepThick Greek yogurt 80 gIcing sugar 1 tsp