Of Knights and castles - recipe

I took this recipe for the Farmhouse Cookery book which used to be my moms. It is a great book because before each recipe there is some history or interesting facts about the recipe. The recipes are all British but at the end of each chapter they have a handful of recipes from around the world. And so, onto the recipe...

Poor Knights Of Windsor

Bread slices flavoured with sugar and sherry, dipped in egg yolk and fried in butter make up the Poor Knights Of Windsor pudding. Introduced into England by the Normans, it was a favourite in medieval times under the name 'payn pur-dew' - derived from the French pain perdu - lost bread, the bread being lost in the batter.

The Poor Knights was an order of military pensioners founded by Edward III in 1349. They were given small apartments in Windsor, why the dish is named after them is uncertain.

Ingredients for 4

8 slices of day old bread, cut in half and crusts removed

8 tbsp milk

25g sugar

1 tbsp sherry (or apple juice)

2 egg yolks

clarified butter for frying

cinnamon sugar and or honey for serving

Bowl one, mix together 6 tbsp of the milk, sugar and sherry.

Bowl two, mix together egg yolks and the rest of the milk.

Soak the slices of bread in bowl one until soaked right through, drain then dip into bowl two. Heat the butter in a frying pan and cook the bread quickly until golden brown on both sides.

Serve with any of these toppings: cinnamon sugar, warmed jam, sherry, butter.

We actually had this for breakfast at the weekend so I wasn't organised enough to be taking photo's of the making process but little ones can easily help with the measuring and mixing. They are delicious and Ebi-kun has been asking for them for breakie every morning since!