Cook Cast-Iron Skillet French Toast with Bobby Flay | Brunch @ Bobby’s | Food Network

We're going to get started by making date molasses. We're going to take the pit out to make our molasses for the French toast. Make a slit in the date, and then take the seed out. All right, I'm going to put the dates with about four cups of water. So we're going to let this cook. We're going to let the dates get nice and soft. And then we'll strain them, and we'll make, you know, we're going to get a beautiful molasses out of this. Let's move on to our apples. For the French toast, we have some gala apples here. Good to cook with, also, because they're very firm. So we're going to start with our butter and sugar in the pan. Four tablespoons, so that's half of a stick of sugar. Let the butter and the sugar caramelize a little bit. So on the apples, I want them to start getting some good sort of caramelization, especially on the edges. You want the apples to cook so they're nice and soft. I don't want crunchy apples on top of my French toast. Just don't want it. That looks so good. So we're going to add some Middle Eastern spices. Cardamom has sort of like, it's almost like a lemony kind of flavor. But it's, there's nothing that you can substitute for cardamom. I mean, it really has its own personality. Just going to put a few of these seeds in there. And then a couple of sticks of cinnamon. It smells so good. I'm going to also put one more thing on top of this French toast, because these apples aren't enough. In the Middle East, they refer to their sort of thick yogurt as labneh. And a lot of times, they'll mix it with, like, fresh mint and fresh herbs. Also fantastic. So I'm going to add just a little bit of heavy cream in here, just because I just want to thin it out a tiny bit. Not so much. The thing I love about the yogurt is the tanginess. This is a fresh vanilla bean, where you get all the seeds. And so you cut it in half, and you cut it down the middle, lengthwise, to expose it. And then you take the back of your knife and just force the beans out of the pod onto your knife, OK? That's what it looks like. I'm going to do it both sides. But then watch this. So we take all the insides from the vanilla, put it on your whisk, and then you start to stir it. You get those beautiful vanilla bean seeds running through your yogurt. Here we go. So you want to cook the dates for about 20 minutes to a half an hour, just so they're nice and soft. And then you can really kind of crush them. That molasses is about to happen. Let's go to our apples. Oh, see, that's what I'm talking about. Look at those apples. Are you kidding me? Beautiful. Nice caramelization on the outside. Gorgeous. All right, so now we can add the apple cider. Let's say a half a cup. And just a squeeze of lemon kind of wakes it up. Just a tiny bit of salt. Now we're going to take our dates that have been cooking, and we're going to strain them out. So I'm just going to whisk up our eggs and our egg yolk. A little bit of vanilla bean extract. I never measure the vanilla bean, because I always put more than the recipe says, because I just like the flavor of it so much. Some half and half, a couple of cups. And then some cardamom, ground cardamom. The main key to a good French toast is making sure that you soak the bread long enough. You want to soak it for maybe 30 or 45 seconds on both sides. We're going to start with some canola oil and some butter. Now don't crowd the pan. I'm going to put a little bit of the yogurt right in the middle. Look at this. It's ridiculous.