– A Modern Recipe
Published in Windlesora 03 (1984)
© WLHG
- 8 slices of French bread cut about a quarter of an inch thick
- 2 whole eggs, or 4 egg yolks
- 2 fluid ounces of sweet sherry
- 4 fluid ounces of milk
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- Butter or vegetable oil for frying
- For the cinnamon sugar:
- 2 tablespoons of sugar
- 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
Remove the crusts from the bread and lay in a shallow dish. Beat together the eggs, sherry, milk and sugar.
Clarify the butter by heating it in a saucepan until it stops bubbling. Remove from heat, allow it to settle and strain it slowly through a fine sieve into the frying pan, leaving behind the sediment. Vegetable oil does not need clarifying.
Reheat the fat until a piece of bread crisps quickly.
Pour the egg mixture over the bread, leave for a moment and turn over.
Fry until golden underneath, turn and fry the other side. Drain on soft paper.
Mix together the sugar and cinnamon, sprinkle thickly on each fritter and serve at once.
No one seems to know how these bread fritters got their curious name. The original French recipe which came to England in the days of Agincourt was called Pain Perdue, or Lost Bread.
Windsor Local History Group 