A Monday Brunch

...with chocolate French toast!

One thing I love about summer vacation is that even if it's the middle of the week, you can still relax outside, drink some fresh-squeezed orange juice, and enjoy a leisurely brunch with friends.  And if you're friends with my friends, go ahead and add "indulge in some delicious chocolate French toast" to that list.  Since I already consider normal French toast to be a synonym for perfection, I was curious to see what would happen when my friend, Emma, said she was making it with chocolate, one of the world's greatest inventions.  What would happen when you add two perfect things together?  Would it result in some insanely perfect creation that only a god could eat, or would the blending of these two majesties clash horribly and cause some sort of disaster that would destroy the universe?  I didn't have long to wait.

When I arrived at Emma's house, one of Vacaville's gorgeous historic homes, homemade bread and freshly picked oranges were already resting on the counter.  As we chatted, Emma sliced the loaf into triangles, dipped the slices into an egg batter swirled with spices, and started cooking the French toast in a frying pan over the oven.

Then, after heating the slices for a while, she springled semisweet chocolate chips on the bread and folded one slice on top of the other, creating a sort of chocolate french toast sandwich.

When they were done cooking, we took the food outside, passed around the syrup and some cinnamon sugar, and eagerly cut into the slices.  Chocolate oozed out of mine and mixed into the warm, maple syrup.  The chocolate flavor was at first subtle amongst the taste of cinnamon, nutmeg, and egg in the bread, but grew stronger as I made my way to the ooey gooey chocolatey center.  I thought it was fantastic, and definitely a great French toast variation.  Better yet, the French toast and chocolate went together wonderfully, leaving the world intact. 

Emma was inspired to make this chocolate French toast after trying some from Joan's on Third in Los Angeles.  Now I must visit this place.