Hamburger bun French toast 🍔
Plus Baonanas is bad, actually and other hard truths about life.
Hello and welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week, we make french toast, and other cozy treats. Check out past posts here, and please follow my Instagram @fivethingsiate.
Hamburger bun french toast at home
Make it at your home, too!
The other day I bought a pack of hamburger buns because I had a craving for cheeseburgers and decided to make my own. That was a mistake. I think it’s deceptively difficult to make a good burger at home and I should have just spent $6 at Shake Shack instead. But that’s alright, because I really love hamburger buns. I think they’re an underrated form of bread, especially if you like soft and fluffy loaves (aka have Asian taste buds for milk bread). In fact, I rarely buy loaves of bread because I’m 100% a rice-based person, but I will often buy hamburger buns. Hamburger buns also make the best french toast. This is not a newsletter for snobbery or ultra-refined tastes. This is a newsletter for comfort foods and cravings, and I love how soft and super fluffy french toast is when you make them with hamburger buns. It practically dissolves in your mouth. To make a single serving, beat a large egg with half a cup of whole milk, a splash of maple syrup, a pinch of salt, and a dash each of almond and vanilla extract. The almond extract is very important as it will make it taste fancy. Then, soak your hamburger bun (in halves) in the egg mixture and go do something else like start the laundry. You need to let them soak up the mixture for a while because hamburger buns are deceptively dense. When ready, melt a generous amount of salted butter in a skillet over medium heat, and gently add the hamburger bun halves. Cook until browned on both sides, flipping once. Serve with hot milky coffee, maple syrup, or my favorite: A thick coat of white sugar.
Pain aux raisins at Bourke Street Bakery
313 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY 10023
Bourke Street Bakery on the Upper West Side has the friendliest staff. I really, really appreciate that. Thankfully, they also have pretty great pain aux raisins so I can write about them in my newsletter. Pain aux raisins is the underdog of the breakfast pastry world. You may be tempted to skip it over for seemingly richer things like almond croissants or pain au chocolat. But like the oatmeal raisin cookie, its charm lies in its subtlety. Think cinnamon raisin toast with butter, but better. I’m not sure how pain aux raisins dough is made (but after this I shall go down a YouTube rabbithole to learn), but it manages to taste both chewy and buttery-flaky at the same time. Plus, the cute spiral shape reminds me of a snail. It’s now officially my new favorite breakfast treat. (If you buy pain aux raisins and don’t eat it right away, definitely reheat it in the toaster oven so it gets crispy again.)
Ube (and original) banana pudding at Baonanas
93 E 7th St, New York, NY 10009
Baonanas is bad, actually. I am very sad to report this because I am very much the target market for this cute, fluffy banana pudding that comes in Filipino-esque flavors like ube. My friend picked up a half pint for me with both original and ube flavors (one control and one test) and I am sorry to report that they were Both Bad. Now, I’m not sure if it’s due to the fact that she stopped by right before closing (I don’t think bananas keep particularly well), or I just much, much prefer a richer Magnolia-style banana pudding, but it was a completely unsatisfying experience for me. Ube is a more subtle flavor compared to banana, but this ube banana pudding was so subtly flavored that if I closed my eyes and did not see the bright purple food coloring I would have guessed it was just a plain ole’ pudding. Next time I’m craving banana pudding (aka always) I’ll stop by Magnolia or simply make my own.
Finca et Juntal beans at Solid State Coffee
104 W 71st St, New York, NY 10023 (you can order online)
If you’ve been following my new coffee Instagram, which you are absolutely under 0.00 obligation to follow as it’s pure coffee nerdery, you will notice that I’ve mostly been posting about this one coffee shop. That’s because I bought a bag of really great beans from them and as I’m a single person household I really can’t buy more than two bags at once, so until I finish off this bag of Finca et Juntal I’m gonna keep posting about them. Solid State Coffee is a really cute tiny little neighborhood speciality coffee shop that recently opened, and now it’s my neighborhood spot. The Finca et Juntal beans are really nice and floral and, at first, I thought, too mild. But, then I switched up my brew method from inverse Aeropress to a simple french press using James Hoffman’s 5 + 5 minute method, and realized I could extract a lot more flavor and body from it.
Raspberry choux at Solid State Coffee
104 W 71st St, New York, NY 10023 (you can order online)
If you’re not a coffee person, do not fear, because visiting cafes is also an opportunity for me to try out new baked goods. (If you’re neither a coffee nor baked goods person, then I probably can’t help you.) I got very excited to see a bright pink craquelin-top choux pastry in the case at Solid State Coffee. I love cream puffs and am still mourning the loss of the uptown Beard Papa, although Barachou is equally great nearby. I am not positive where Solid State sources their baked goods (they probably don’t make them in-house, but I could be wrong), but I’ll have to ask them next time. This was an excellent cream puff, almost flaky, perfectly soft-dome in shape, with both fresh pastry cream and raspberry puree inside. 10/10.
Stay warm!
Soph
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