Memories are made of this: eggy bread was one of my childhood treats. We didn’t get to eat it often, as it was considered too rich, but it was one of the things I loved to cook as a child. This is my gastronomic version, using brioche instead of the usual white sliced bread.

The food specialist Forman & Field (www.formanandfield.com) sells walnut liqueur, but if you don’t want to go to the bother of tracking it down, use any other sweet liqueur that you fancy — amaretto would work just as well.

EGGY BREAD

Serves 4

80g unsalted butter
3 eggs
50ml whole milk
30ml walnut liqueur (or other sweet liqueur)
1 vanilla pod, split
30g soft light-brown sugar
4 slices brioche (or bread)



Melt the butter over a medium heat for about 1 minute until foaming. Remove from the heat, allow to sit for 5 minutes, then carefully skim off the white foam on the surface and pour through a fine sieve, leaving behind the small solid particles that have sunk to the bottom. This is called clarified butter, and it can be heated to a higher temperature than normal butter without burning.

Mix together the eggs, milk and liqueur, the seeds from the vanilla pod and the sugar. Place the bread in the eggy mixture, turn once, then remove. Heat the clarified butter in a frying pan over a medium heat and add the bread. Cook quickly — in batches if you need to — for roughly 1 minute each side until golden brown. Serve immediately.