Breakfast Makes a Sweet Dessert

Start with French toast, waffles or pancakes; top with butter and maple syrup. It’s a satisfying traditional breakfast. But if you’re like a lot of people, a rich, sugar-laden meal is too much first thing in the morning.

That’s why some restaurants are serving breakfast dishes as desserts. It makes sense; the foods are familiar, yet lighter and more sophisticated than what you’d eat in the morning. For example, some serve petite pancakes layered with ice cream and hot fudge sauce or waffles with tropical fruit and ginger sauce.

What’s more, everything is easy to do. You might not have the time to make a three-layer chocolate-fudge cake for two, but you can flip a short stack, add sauce or a scoop of ice cream or both and have a luscious dessert in minutes.

And the fact that you don’t want that hazy carbohydrate afterglow at 8 a.m. doesn’t mean you wouldn’t welcome it at 9 p.m.

French toast with maple-pecan ice cream and maple syrup is simply too delicious to serve for breakfast. You’d be distracted for the rest of the day.

MAPLE-PECAN ICE CREAM

1/4 cup maple sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1 cup whipping cream

1 cup half and half

2 egg yolks, beaten

1/3 cup coarsely chopped salted, roasted pecans

Prepare ice cream several hours before dinner and let it set in the freezer. Maple sugar is a granulated form of maple syrup and is available in natural food stores, gourmet stores and some supermarkets.

Stir together maple sugar, brown sugar, cream and half and half in small heavy-bottomed pan. Cook over low heat until simmering.

Pour 1/2 cup hot liquid into egg yolks and mix well. Pour egg mixture back into pan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until thickness of thin pancake batter, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Pour into bowl and refrigerate until cold, about 2 hours.

Pour cold ice cream mixture into ice cream machine and follow manufacturer’s directions for processing. Just as ice cream is firming up, stir in nuts.

Makes 2 1/2 cups, 5 servings. Each serving:

346 calories; 89 mg sodium; 192 mg cholesterol; 29 grams fat; 19 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams protein; 0.09 gram fiber.

FRENCH TOAST A LA MODE

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup milk

Dash salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, optional

4 slices egg bread, each about 4 inches long

1 tablespoon butter

1 cup Maple-Pecan Ice Cream

1/4 cup maple syrup, heated until warm

Beat together egg, milk, salt and cinnamon in shallow bowl. Dip bread slices in egg batter, turning to coat both sides well.

Melt butter in medium skillet and add bread slices in 1 layer. Cook over medium heat until golden on bottom side, about 5 minutes. Gently turn over and cook top side until golden, 3 to 5 more minutes.

To serve, arrange 2 slices French toast on each of 2 plates. Top each with 1 (1/2-cup) scoop of Maple-Pecan ice cream and ladle on 2 tablespoons maple syrup. Serve immediately.

2 servings. Each serving with syrup and 1/2 cup ice cream:

743 calories; 589 mg sodium; 340 mg cholesterol; 44 grams fat; 77 grams carbohydrates; 15 grams protein; 1.03 grams fiber.