Smaug’s Treasure French Toast

Here’s another of my recreations from the now discontinued Denny’s Hobbit menu… They called it Lonely Mountain Treasure. We call it Smaug’s Treasure French Toast. Just like the gold of the dragon’s hoard under the Lonely Mountain.

This French toast is simply lemon poppyseed Friendship Bread sliced, dipped in egg batter, and cooked to a golden brown on the griddle. Then topped off with a drizzle of lemon glaze. This is a treasure that makes any morning extra special!

1 cup Amish Friendship Bread starter (here’s a recipe for the starter if you don’t have one)

1 cup oil

1 cup sugar

1 Tablespoon grated lemon zest

2 cups flour

1/2 cup milk

3 eggs

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 Tablespoons poppy seeds

2 small boxes or 1 large box of lemon instant pudding

Preheat oven to 325.

Add each ingredient in order, stirring after each, to make sure batter is smooth. Use a wooden or plastic spoon only.

Grease 2 bread pans (metal pans are fine). Sprinkle the pans with sugar. Pour in batter. Bake for about one hour (or until golden brown and tester comes out clean).

Cool completely on wire rack.

This is better if the bread is a few days old and has sat out sliced for a few hours first.

Make a batter of 4 eggs, 1 cup milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat well and pour into shallow pan for dipping.

 

Dip both sides of a slice of bread into the batter. Place on a greased griddle preheated to 350.

Cook until both sides are golden brown.

Make a glaze with 1/2 cup powdered sugar and enough lemon juice to make it a drizzling consistency.

Serve hot with glaze drizzled on it.

“ Bilbo had heard tell and sing of dragon-hoards before, but the splendor, the lust, the glory of such treasure had never yet come home to him. His heart was filled and pierced with enchantment and with the desire of dwarves; and he gazed motionless, almost forgetting the frightful guardian, at the gold beyond price and count.” The Hobbit

Bag End Breakfast

Denny’s is no longer offering their Hobbit menu… So now it’s up to me to recreate some of our favs from it and relive the fond memories of opening night of The Hobbit!

First up on the list… The Hobbit Hole Breakfast. Eggs cooked in the middle of a cheddar cheese bun, bacon, sausage and hash browns covered with cheddar cheese and bacon crumbles.

Here’s my version… The Bag End Breakfast. I’ve always wanted to live at Bag End, and if I did, I’m sure I would eat this all the time!!! Two eggs grilled into the center of a Dutch Crunch roll, tater tots tossed with sausage crumbles (our homemade savory breakfast sausage, no less), and sautéed mushrooms, onions and peppers. I forgot the cheese, but I was going to sprinkle cheese over the tater tots, too! It’s just one of those comfort food kind of meals. Mmmm!!!

While your tater tots are baking in the oven, cook up some sausage in a skillet.

When the sausage is nearly done, toss in some chopped mushrooms, onions and peppers.

  Mix the cooked sausage and veggie medley with the tater tots. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese. Put them back in the oven (turned off) to keep warm and let the cheese melt.

The trickiest part is cutting the centers out of the rolls with a biscuit cutter. Oh, but first you should cut them in half…

Cook them on a griddle covered in butter. Crack eggs into the centers of the rolls. Flip eggs often so they cook evenly and completely. They are best if the yolks are still a bit runny!

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, not yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.” Chapter 1 of The Hobbit