How to Make Christmas Pain Perdu: Italian Fruit Cake French Toast

A popular breakfast in New Orleans, pain perdu literally means lost or wasted bread. Traditionally it's made with thick slices from a crusty French loaf that's gone stale, which tells you where the name originated. If not used this way, the bread would be wasted, lost to crumbs or bird feed.

There are two reasons I chose this recipe for Christmas day. The first is a gift to my readers, many of whom just finished Holiday Buzz. In the book, my amateur sleuth (Clare Cosi) talks about her special plan to cook up this dish on Christmas morning. Although I mentioned the recipe, I didn't publish directions for it.

The second reason I'm sharing this with you today is much more practical. Fruit cake is a customary gift for this Season, so many of you may have it on hand, and pain perdu is a very tasty use for those leftover pieces that might be going stale.

The Italian version of fruit cake is a rich, sweet bread lightly laced with dried fruit called panettone. If you've never had panettone, look for it in boxes like the one in my photo below. Boxed panettone can keep for months but once it's out of its wrappings, this delicious bread goes stale fairly quickly. When that happens, simply follow these directions for a festive French toast.

Merry Christmas, everyone...

Eat with joy to the world!

~ Cleo

For the recipe, scroll down or click here...

How to Turn Candy Canes into Peppermint Syrup by Cleo Coyle

Got candy canes? Then you can make this excellent pink peppermint syrup. It's delicious stirred into hot cocoa, coffee, and tea; drizzled over ice cream, cookies, and cupcakes; and splashed into holiday cocktails.

Cleo Coyle has a partner in

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Learn about their books

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Whether you're new to the Coffeehouse Mystery series or have been reading them since the first book was published (circa 2003), my husband and I extend our sincerest thanks for supporting our work. 

Enjoy the recipe, everyone, and have
a very Merry Christmas and a joyous New Year!

~ Cleo 

You can download this recipe
as a Free PDF by clicking here.

Or see the recipe as a full blog
post by scrolling down 

or clicking here...

Pumpkin Cake with Surprise Cream Cheese Swirl from Cleo Coyle's Holiday Buzz

Blue Velvet Cupcakes and a Cupcake Menorah for Hanukkah Week from Cleo Coyle

Click here for free recipe PDF.

Like red velvet cake, blue velvet carries a wonderful hint of cocoa. This is a beautiful cupcake for birthday parties and baby or wedding showers. Because blue is also the color for Hanukkah, I use this recipe to make a cupcake menorah--and, no, unlike the oil, they do not last eight days! 

To get the recipe right now in a PDF document click here, or scroll down to see my full recipe post. Whether you are celebrating Hanukkah (Chanukah), Christmas, Kwanzaa, or Yule, I send you the warmest wishes for these cold, dark months... 

May your own holidays be bright!

~ Cleo Coyle 

A Kinder, Gentler Pfeffernusse (Gingerbread Snowball Cookies) by Cleo Coyle

Like any recipe that's been around for several hundred years, there are countless variations of the German cookie pfeffernüsse (aka "pepper nuts"), and I've made several. Some bakers, for example, put finely chopped nuts into their "pepper nuts." Some don't. 



Cleo Coyle writes two
bestselling mystery

 series with her husband.
To learn more, click here.

Some bakers like to add a potent amount of black or white pepper into the cookie, giving them very peppery bite. Some add ground cloves. 

The version I'm sharing with you today is my favorite way to make it: soft on the inside but with a light crispness on the outside shell. No nuts to take away from the contrast of spicy, delicious gingerbread flavor with the sweet dusting of powdered sugar.

My version also takes a kinder, gentler approach to the spice aspect, using only a pinch of pepper and leaning more heavily on the ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice. (Allspice, I find, delivers that ground clove flavor at a much lower price.) 

Click here for the
Free Recipe PDF.

BTW: Allspice is not a spice mix (like pumpkin pie spice). Allspice is actually a pea-sized berry that mimics the flavors of cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon. The berry comes from the evergreen pimiento tree, grown in South America and the West Indies, including Jamaica.

Eggnog Shortbread by Cleo Coyle

This blog post was chosen among thousands
of food blogs to be a "Top 9" post at Foodbuzz

Eggnog is a holiday taste that my husband and I look forward to enjoying every year. While Marc drinks it straight from the fridge, I prefer mine in a comfortingly warm latte. So, I thought, why not put the flavor in a cookie?

Cleo Coyle’s Oatmeal Cookie Brittle (No Flour, No Butter, No Kidding!)

My recipe was featured 

by New Jersey Family Magazine 

for their 12 Days of Cookies.

The holidays in my big, Italian family were always gastronomically glorious. Several of my relatives were (and still are!) in the food or restaurant business and my aunts, great aunts, and cousins were all excellent cooks, most of whom took pride in giving trays of homemade Italian cookies as holiday gifts.

Cleo Coyle writes two
bestselling mystery

 series with her husband.
To learn more, click here.

I learned much growing up at the knees of these folks, and (no surprise) I was a chunky monkey through much of my girlhood. Over the years, the bathroom scale has gone up and down, but I’ve never let it kill my joy of cooking and eating. The older I become, the more I channel my foodie passion into experimenting with recipes, challenging myself to make them lighter and healthier—without giving up the pleasure of flavor...

Of course, I still enjoy baking up decadent treats (as those who read my culinary mysteries know)! But today I'm sharing a somewhat healthier cookie option for your holiday trays: Overnight Oatmeal Cookie Brittle. There is no flour in my recipe yet the cookie is delightfully crispy and chewy. There is no butter yet the caramelization in the baking makes the cookie taste buttery. It’s also packed with the fiber-rich whole grain of oatmeal, the wonderful Omega-3 nutrition of walnuts and the antioxidants of raisins.

(I know, I know!) So the cookies have a great personality. How do they taste? My husband, Marc, who often cooks with me, declared this one of the best oatmeal treats he’s ever eaten. Certainly, if you prefer your oatmeal cookies thick and soft, you won't agree—and might be happier using the “drop cookie” instructions I provide instead. But if you’re game for a thin, crisp yet chewy cookie that’s full of flavor, the brittle may work for you.

This recipe is also pretty versatile. You can keep it healthy and simple or you can tart it up for holiday or dessert trays, adding toffee bits, Craisins, butterscotch and/or white chocolate chips. 

AN OAT BY ANY OTHER NAME 

Finally, this recipe calls for “quick cooking oats,” and in case any of you are wondering…

QUESTION: What’s the difference between Quick Cooking Oats, Rolled Oats, and Steel Cut Oats? Is one “healthier” than the other? Can I substitute one for another in a recipe? 

ANSWER: (1) Steel cut oats (left) are whole oats that have been chopped up a bit. (2) Rolled oats (center) are whole oats that have been steamed and rolled flat. (3) Quick cooking oats (which is what this recipe calls for) are rolled oats that have been chopped up even further so they'll cook faster. 

All three of these oats carry nearly the same amount of fiber and nutrition. The primary difference among them is in how they’re cut. Read more here. As for recipes, do not substitute. Any recipe the specifies a certain kind of oats is attempting to create a specific texture in the end product, so substituting one type for another will produce less than optimum results. 

Cleo Coyle's

Oatmeal Cookie Brittle

Whole grained oats and I are old friends. For today’s recipe, I’m employing the same technique I used in my Oatmeal Cookie Muffins (click here for that recipe). 

Oatmeal Cookie Muffins:
delicious and nutritious.
For the recipe, click here.

The technique is simply this: I soak the oats overnight. This hydrates the oats, allowing the mixture to develop great flavor and the proper texture for the recipe. The next day, I simply stir in a few more ingredients and then bake the whole thing as a large, flat pan cookie. It hardens as it cools. Then I’ll either break it up like brittle or cut it into shapes with a pizza cutter. You can also create drop cookies from this recipe, just be sure to flatten them out with the crisscross of fork tongs before cooking. 

☕

To download a PDF 

copy of this recipe that

you can print, save

or share, click here. 

Click for Free Recipe PDF.

My highly sophisticated method for finely
chopping nuts: Seal whole walnuts in a
plastic bag and bang away. Whole
walnuts are less expensive than
pre-chopped and can't we all use a
little primal pounding therapy?

Cleo Coyle's
Oatmeal Cookie Brittle

Makes about 24 pieces of brittle or 2 dozen drop cookies 

INGREDIENTS

For the overnight mix:

2 cups "quick cooking" oats (not instant, not rolled)
1 cup light brown sugar 
1/3 cup apple sauce (natural, 
no-sugar added) 
1/3 cup vegetable, canola, or coconut oil
1-1/2 teaspoons apple pie spice (I use Penzeys; you can also mix your own, see how below**) 

For the next day additions: 

1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts (chop first, and then measure) 
1/4 cup raisins

Tasty variations: Replace raisins with Craisins or dried cranberries; replace walnuts with finely chopped pecans or hazelnuts.

Holiday add-ins: 1/4 cup toffee bits (such as Heath brand Bits ’O Brickle). In addition, try adding 1/2 cup butterscotch chips; OR 1/2 cup white chocolate chips; OR split the amount, adding 1/4 cup of butterscotch and 1/4 cup of white chocolate chips.

**Make Your own Apple Pie Spice: For every 1 teaspoon mix the following spices: 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice, 1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom (some cooks replace cardamom with ginger)

DIRECTIONS

Step 1 – Overnight soak: Into a plastic container, stir together the quick-cooking oats, light brown sugar, apple sauce, oil, and apple pie spice. Mix until well combined. Seal the plastic container and place in the refrigerator for 6 hours or overnight. Do not skip this step. You must allow the oats to hydrate and the flavors to develop. (Do not soak longer than 48 hours.) 

Step 2 – Create the dough: Add in the egg, salt, vanilla, finely chopped walnuts, and raisins. Mix well. (If you are adding any other optional extras, fold them in at this time.) 

Step 3 – Line your pan: Preheat oven to 350º F. Very important: You must line a baking sheet or half-sheet pan with parchment paper. If you do not line the pan, you will not be able to lift the brittle off the hot pan and cool it properly. 

Step 4 – Flatten the dough: The secret to this cookie is spreading it very thin. So dump the dough onto the lined pan and use a fork (yes a fork, it works best) to flatten the dough into an extremely thin layer (around 1/8 inch). 

Step 5 – Bake and cool: Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. The cookie is done when it turns a light brown, feels fairly firm to the touch in the center, and is crisp around its edges. (See my photos.) Remove pan from oven and see below for options on cutting. 

Option A - Break like brittle: Slide the parchment paper off the hot pan and onto a cooling rack. Allow to cool for at least 30 minutes. You can speed up this process by sliding the rack into the refrigerator. Once the cookie is hard, break it into pieces with your hands, as you would peanut brittle. To keep the brittle from become too dry or stale, store it sealed in a plastic container. 

Option B - Slice into shapes: For this option, you'll want to under-bake the brittle slightly, leaning more toward 25 minutes rather than 30. When the pan cookie is finished baking, slide it, parchment paper and all, onto a cutting board. Quickly, while the pan cookie is still warm, use a pizza cutter to slice off the rough ends off the cookie, creating a straight edge on all four sides. Now slice up the warm cookie. Cut first into large squares. Then slice the squares into diagonals to create triangles. Once it's completely cool, store it sealed in a plastic container. 

(Option B - Sliced into Triangles)

Option C - Drop Cookies: Instead of making one big pan cookie, you can simply drop heaping teaspoons of dough onto a lined baking sheet. With the prongs of a fork, crisscross each mound to flatten, much as you would a traditional peanut butter cookie. Bake for about 15 minutes. 

The drop cookies in my photos are all dressed up for the holidays and include my optional add-ins: butterscotch chips, white chocolate chips, and toffee bits. 

Tip: I used Penzeys Apple Pie Spice in this recipe. Penzeys makes theirs from a mix of China and Korintje cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, and cloves. Frankly, I didn’t know the difference between China and Korintje cinnamon, but Penzeys catalog educated me. China Cinnamon (Tung Hing) is extra sweet, spicy and strong. Indonesia Cinnamon (Korintje) is as strong as China cinnamon but smoother, more mellow, and not as nippy. I love the two cinnamons working together to give the best flavor possible to my cookies.

(For more info, click here. Last I checked, their chatty, informative catalog was free.)

Click here for the 
free Recipe PDF.

May your holidays be bright! 

~ Cleo Coyle

New York Times bestselling author

of The Coffeehouse Mysteries and

Haunted Bookshop Mysteries

Cleo (Alice) with her husband Marc

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