No, we're not coming to your house with a tray of coffee and pastries. But this morning Belle and and Lois are prepared to serve a different kind of "Breakfast in Bed"
What we're talking about is our interpretation of the wildest signature drink from this year's Mid-Atlantic Regional Barista Competition and the one we enjoyed the most - Jay Caragay's "Breakfast in Bed".
Jay, who previously earned notoriety for 2006's "Coffee and a Cigar" drink, has been on the forefront of marrying coffee with culinary concepts. His "Breakfast in Bed" signature drink was even served on the menu of Baltimore's Artifact restaurant later the same evening he first presented it at the MARBC.
Our version is different as we don't have access to the same dairy ingredients Jay used and we modified it to something we can readily assemble behind bar during busy times. But as Rich had the opportunity to be one of the sensory judges during Jay's performance, he's confident the final taste is pretty close to the real thing in spirit, without the toffee but with a bit more maple syrup for a more classic Pamela's diner-type flavor.
That said, there is at this time no published recipe. Our version comes primarily from a backstage conversation with Jay. We simply made a few slices of french toast using Mediterra's Sesame Semolina bread (crusts trimmed) and an egg batter. We buttered these, poured on some real maple syrup and a sprinkle of cinnamon and 10x sugar instead of vanilla bean like Jay used After the french toast cooled, we soaked it in a mixture of half and half and heavy cream to infuse the milks overnight.
Now, here's where we made a few major changes to the original. Where Jay had steamed the french toast milk infusion to make foam which was poured over the espresso, then topped with a toffee chantilly foam, we 've skipped the toffee part (they don't use toffee at Pamela's) and in fact, haven't added any milkfoam to our version so that you can taste more of the espresso.
Instead of Jay's toffee chantilly, we've made our whipped cream directly from the french toast infused cream - using bread and all. We felt we wanted the foam part of the drink to be as chewy as possible and get more of the flavors embedded in the bread. Once blended we stirred in another tablespoon of maple syrup before adding the lot to the cream dispenser. The end result is more chewy than the original. We're pretty sure you could simply use the infused milk without the bread if you wanted and you'd get something a bit fluffier.
Finally, we used some pancetta from Parma Sausage instead of the glazed organic applewood bacon that Jay used for the bacon sprinkles. As the fat content is a bit less, we first baked the pancetta, drained the fat from the pan, then chopped the pancetta into small bits and slowly sauteed it in a pat of butter until the pieces were uniformly coated.
To assemble, pull a shot in a demitasse. Add french toast foam almost to the top. Sprinkle on a little bacon. Try a small spoonful of the bacon/foam first. Then stir it all together and enjoy!
You can have Breakfast in Bed this morning for $3.00. If we get good feedback we may serve this more often. It's a fun recipe to play with. We may tweak this to do a maple butter latte, or even go the IHOP route and use some of that beautiful purple boysenberry syrup we grew up loving.
Please note, unlike Jay's competition presentation, we are not including a chaser of fresh orange juice.
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