Spring Brunch

Hey y'all, I'm Paula Deen and today we're preparing some of my favorite brunch recipes filled with seasonal flavors that will make this morning meal the highlight of your day

But before we get started, I'm going up to Mountain Dew Maple where I'm going to get to tap a tree for the freshest, sweetest maple syrup to top my indescribably delicious French toast casserole

And then back in the kitchen, I'll be busy slicing and dredging my tomatoes for my southern brunch specialty

the lady and son's favorite fried green tomato topped with eggs benedict

And finally, there's always room for my strawberry gelatin fruit mold. So y'all put on a pot of coffee and invite the family

It's brunch time, southern style. Good morning, y'all

Today I'm doing a spring brunch show, and you're in for a special treat

We're going straight to the woods to get our very own pure maple syrup

I'm readier, y'all. I was so excited when my friend Jay invited me over to see how maple syrup gets its start

I was so amazed at how quiet the forest was. You could actually hear the sap dripping right into the bucket

And then I had so much fun when he took me back to the sugar house to see how all this comes together

Wow, Jay. A lot of steam in here. Yes, that's... It looks like the place is on fire

We're boiling off the excess water to concentrate the sugars that makes our maple syrup

The whole process is truly amazing. I swear to Peter I could spend all day

but I've got to get home and start cooking me up something with my fresh maple syrup

Wasn't that great? Why don't we go into the kitchen and get it started

I've got a terrible big sweet tube. Okay. We're going to start today, y'all

with a very, very traditional southern food, a fried green tomato. They're in a light buttermilk batter

Some people cook theirs in cornmeal. In fact, my grandmother Paul did. She would cook hers in cornmeal

and my mother would cook hers in flour. and I actually liked my mother's better

So that's the way I do them today. We're going to take a green tomato

and we're going to cut them about this thickness. And we're going to throw these into a colander

and we're going to toss them with salt. And this is a very important step

because that salt is going to pull out the moisture in your green tomatoes

so they won't get mushy on you after they're fried. And we're just going to toss them around in that salt

so that they're good and coated. All right, now we're going to put these in a bowl and cover them in buttermilk

So we're going to let those soak for a minute. I've got our pan nice and hot, and you can see I'm cooking in a black cast-iron skillet

And I'm going to just pour the peanut oil into that hot skillet

Let that get hot. So we're just going to toss them in our self-rising flour and push them to the side

All right, I'm going to wash my hands, and then we're going to give our grease a water test real quick

see if it's ready for us. And I know y'all have seen me do the water test

on my grease and that's what we're fixing to do now. We're killing two birds with one stone

We're gonna wash my hands and we're gonna get some water over here to our pot

And you can hear it sizzling. So that lets me know it's ready

I've just gotten to share with y'all a cute story. One night I was just blown away by a guest

that walked into the restaurant, Ms. B. Arthur. And I was so excited

I said, I go to bed with you every night. I crawl in the bed and watch the Golden Girls

and I said, well, now, what do you think you want to eat tonight? And she said, well, I love fried green tomatoes

She said, actually, I cook those at home. And I said, well, how do you cook them

She was so cute. She said, I serve them with a dollop of whipping cream

and a few minutes later, I went back out to the table. She said, no, no, honey, I told you wrong

It's not whipping cream. It's sour cream. And I told you when I came into the kitchen a little while ago

that we've got two traditional foods that we're giving a twist to

So I guess you're wondering what in the world we're going to do with these fried green tomatoes

We're actually going to use them in eggs benedict. Instead of using the muffin

we're going to have a fried green tomato as our base. And think how many calories we're going to save doing away with that bread

That grease and flour ain got no calories in it While these are browning off I going to go ahead and start on the hollandaise

This is a great little recipe. It's no stress, no strain. We're going to start with two fresh egg yolks

I'm going to just pour four tablespoons of cream. I'm going to put a pinch of sugar and the juice of a half a lemon

and we're just going to stir this over boiling water until it's thick, and that's it

And this should take about three minutes. And if it gets too thick

I've got a little chicken stock over here that we'll thin it with because as soon as it's ready

I'm going to take it off the heat and just let it sit on the side. We've got all of our liquid in there now

so we're going to add my favorite ingredient, y'all. Just a little pat of butter

Now the only thing about using double boilers, you always want to make sure that the water

does not touch the top part of your double boiler. All right, let's check our tomatoes

They're great over here. So our tomatoes appear to be ready. I'm going to take them out and I'm going to put them on a paper towel to drain all the

peanut oil out of them. All right, that's starting to thicken a little bit around the edges

So we're just going to put that to the side and we're almost ready to assemble our dish

But before we can put it together, we've got to have the eggs. I've got a pot of water boiling right here and we're going to crack our egg

And always remember, just in case something's wrong with your egg, to crack it first and

drop it in another bowl. Before we drop our egg into our water, this is your secret ingredient for poaching eggs

If you'll put about a tablespoon of vinegar in your boiling water, it will cause the egg

to shrink and it won't go all over your pot. So we're going to drop it in there and see how it's already curling up around itself

I'm just going to move those around a little bit just to make sure they don't stick to

the pot. While they're cooking, I'm going to start assembling our plate

I've really worked up an appetite out there in those woods today

we're going to start with two fried green tomatoes. And instead of the typical meat for this

which is Canadian bacon, we're going to use regular good old country bacon

I'm going to put it just like that. Isn't that a pretty poached egg

We're just going to put it right on top of our tomato slice. And look at our hollandaise sauce

Just perfect. A little dollop on each egg. Look how pretty this dish is

And it's time to dig in. Look at that. Fried green tomato poached egg and bacon

Great Gertie, what a gash. That is out of this world. If you think this will blow them away, French toast, gassel roll

That's coming up next. At last, for the star of the show, pure maple syrup

This is going to be one of those recipes that I really think that y'all are just going to love

I think you'll want to make sure it never leaves your files. You'll use it time and time again

Now, we're starting with a good French bread. You can actually use any kind of bread you like

And we're going to slice it about an inch thick on the bias. The great thing about this recipe is get the work out of the way before your family and friends get there

And with this dish, you'll always want to start with a generously buttered dish

So we're going to start by just layering our French bread kind of at an angle

and we're going to kind of tuck it in together. It'll probably take about a 13 to 16 ounce loaf of French bread

This bread is so good and fresh, but the wonderful thing about this recipe

is the bread doesn't even have to be fresh because by the time we get through with it

it's going to be soaked in milk and cream and butter, and that looks just about perfect

And the rest of this bread that you have left over, it'll make great bread crumbs or even croutons

Now we're going to make the custard to go over this, and this is so very simple

So we're going to use eight eggs. I really don't think that you can mess this dish up at all

It's so simple to make. Now you could actually do this with a handheld mixer, but I'm just going to use a whisk today

To the eggs, we're going to add about a cup of milk, two cups of cream

Are you catching on? You know what I'm talking about? Why are you going to love this recipe

Just a pinch of salt. Can't have it too sweet, can we? About two tablespoons of sugar to offset that salt

Let's see, we're going to use about a fourth of a teaspoon of cinnamon, a fourth a teaspoon

of nutmeg This little machine is just the handiest thing And about a teaspoon of pure vanilla extract We just going to whisk that all together and if you do decide to whip this with an

electric mixer just make sure you don't get it too bubbly. Now we're just going to pour this on top of our bread just like that and we're going to

want to make sure that it goes in between those slices and just to make sure we're going

to go back in there and just help it along a little bit just like that. I don't think

you're ever gonna want French toast any other way after you try this. Now all we're gonna

do now is cover this with foil, put it in the refrigerator overnight and pull it out

and bake it tomorrow morning. All right, it's very obvious that I can't wait until tomorrow

So I have another one here that's been soaking up all that good cream

Look at that. And all we have to do now is make our praline sauce

And we're going to use about one cup of light brown sugar. about two tablespoons of white corn syrup

half a teaspoon of cinnamon, another half a teaspoon of nutmeg, and we're going to take

don't be surprised, half a pound of butter, mix in there with it

And you'll want to make sure that your butter is nice and soft. This is our praline sauce

It's gonna cover our French toast and give it a nice, crunchy topping

And just to make sure it's good and crunchy, we're gonna add a cup of pecans to it

All right, we've got that all smoothed out now. We're gonna just put this on top of our French toast

Gonna drop it, and then I'll come back and spread it. You know, this is maybe not one of those dishes that you'd want to eat every morning

We're just gonna smear that on just like we were frosting a cake

This is really too good to be true. Pralines and bread in one dish

I can't hardly stand it. It's ready to go into the oven. We're gonna put it in a 350 degree oven and we're gonna let this cook for 35 to 45 minutes

But guess what? I'm one step ahead. I have one ready. In with the new

And out with the old. Look. Oh, my goodness

Ain't life good? I'm so excited I can't hardly think of what I'm doing

Look. Here we come. Spectacular French toast

What can I say? There's only one thing that this French toast needs

Pure maple syrup. Oh, I really hate to eat without y'all. It's tearing me apart

I'm sorry, but I have no words. You're just going to have to make it

Strawberry mold is up next. On today's show, we've really had some belly gratifying foods

So to finish up today, I want something a little bit lighter. And we're going to do a nice strawberry mold

And it's so simple, so easy, but yet so tasty. We're starting here with frozen strawberries

So you don't have to worry, you can make this year-round. And right now you see that I'm just trying to mash some of the excess liquid out of them

And you can see it draining down into the bowl. And I just bet we can find another use for that strawberry juice

And you can swap around your flavors. I'm using a strawberry gelatin today

We're going to use two three-ounce packs. Ooh, that smells so good

It smells like cotton candy coming up my nose. And we're going to add about a cup of boiling water

We're just going to whisk that together until it's kind of dissolved

And while that's doing its thing, we're going to come over here, and we're going to take three bananas, and we're just going to mash them up

Now, you can do this several ways. You can actually use a mixer to do it You can use your hands or you can use the fork Or you can actually break your banana up while it in the peel which is a pretty good way to

do it too. So there's several different ways you can do this. But I'm going to continue

on with my fork, and we're going to leave some chunky little pieces of banana in it

That looks just right. And we're going to do a little bit more pressing. All right

We've got most of it out, so we're gonna just pour that in. And we've got a cup of canned crushed pineapple

and you're gonna wanna make sure that you get all the juice out of it, too. Because like I said, you don't want too much liquid

going in this dish. Oh, pretty, pretty, pretty colors. I have made this for my family for years

They just love it. In fact, this will almost serve as a dessert

by the time we get through with it. We're just going to fold that all together

And the last thing we're going to add to it is about a cup of pecans

That looks like about a cup, doesn't it? See how good that looks

Now we're going to lightly spray our dish. And we're just going to ladle

Doesn't that look yummy? We're just going to ladle about half of this into our pan

That looks about it. You know, this is another one of those little recipes that you can switch about any way you like to

You can swap different flavors. You could even add little miniature marshmallows to this

It would be delicious. All right, so all we're going to do at this point

is put it into the refridge and let it set. And as always, I'm on the ball, y'all

We got one ready. and to finish this dish is so simple

The secret ingredient to this dish is the sour cream. It gives it such a nice little twang that you're not expecting

and we're going to put about a cup on our first layer and smear it out

That looks heavenly already, doesn't it? All that's left to do now is to put the reserve topping on top, and it's ready

My little children just loved this dish when they were little boys

All we have to do is put it in the refrigerator, let this continue to set real good

and then pull it out, and it's ready. And guess what

It's ready. What a nice finish to such a rich brunch. Let's see what it tastes like

Oh, it looks delicious. This really doesn't need much garnish, but I'm gonna put just a pretty fresh strawberry

there with it and maybe a little sprig of mint. Let me see if I can scrape me out just a little dollop of sour cream

How nice is that? Let's see what this sweet baby's gonna taste like

It's just tongue titillating

Y'all stick around because when we come back, I'm going to show you a few things that will make your sweet life even sweeter

I really think that this is probably my favorite time that I spend with y'all

I love sharing tips. There's something about us girls that just like to share what we know

One of my favorite things is to make vanilla sugar. You put two vanilla beans to approximately one pound of sugar

Just bury them down into your sugar. It will hold for about six months

and naturally the longer it sits in there, the stronger it's going to get

You can actually bake with this, use it just like you would any other sugar

but it's especially good in coffee. And our praline topping that we made earlier for that decadent French toast

is great on top of ice cream. And the jello mold, there's so many ways that you can do those

You can do them in the square pan like you saw me do them, or you can make them in the beautiful individual molds

or you can even make them in little ramekins. In other words, you can make your life just as sweet as you want it to be

I had such a great time being with y'all today. I love my family and friends so much

and the springtime of the year is like a rebirth for us all. And I hope that when you prepare these dishes for your family

that they'll love them as much as mine. The French toast casserole is over the top

the fried green tomato benedict and the strawberry mole they're all so so yummy and i hope your

family will love them so until next time america i wish you best dishes from my kitchen to yours