French toast with berries

French toast cooked in oil not butter. I kid you not, and guess what? It's not just any old oil it's rapeseed oil. That said, rapeseed oil is 'any old oil' when compared to the cost, accessibility, and pinned against the grand richness of the finest olive oils, but that's what makes it work so well here. It does the job without becoming star of the show. Gently cooking the egg-y bread and not smothering it in a distinct flavour or a film of grease as would olive oil or butter.

Sweet, I think you would agree, is the only way to do French toast. Mixing eggs with milk and dousing it over the bread nurtures that buttermilk edge within white bread; giving a nod towards bread and butter pudding. One piece each will suffice as a Sunday morning lively-up-yourself.

The fresh fruit also makes it feel healthier than the stewed kind that often resides over French toast. If you get the freshest baked bread each slice takes on that wonderful, almost creme caramel, texture on the inner, with a firm crunch on the outer. Each piece is much more than toast and a meal in itself. Try it as a sweet brunch alternative to your usual poached, boiled or scrambled. It's also a good excuse for what to do with all that fresh fruit on offer lying around in the supermarket at the weekend.

Ingredients:
Thick white tin loaf
Fresh berries, (blackberries and red-berries)
2 eggs
100ml milk
2 tbsps of golden syrup
1 tbsp of caster sugar
rapeseed oil
icing sugar for dusting

Beat the eggs milk, sugar and syrup together in a bowl. Cut two thick even slices of the white bread.

Heat 2 tbsps of rapeseed oil in a large frying pan. Whilst this is heating sit the bread in the egg mixture, flip so both pieces are coated top and bottom. Sit it in there whilst your oil heats up.

When the oil gets very hot place the bread carefully on to the hot oiled surface.

Turn after a minute or so; once it has started to brown. Then do the reverse side, and then balance the pieces on their thin sides to get an all-round crunchy outer coating.

Remove and sit the toast on kitchen paper. Dust by sifting the icing sugar over the eggy bread. Sit on a plate with tumbles of your favourite fruit of choice.