Jun Tanaka's pain perdu with crème anglaise

This recipe from The Ninth's Jun Tanaka involves making brioche from scratch. It's fried and served with either or both of home-made crème anglaise and ice cream

Jun Tanaka's pain perdu with crème anglaise

Serves 8

Preparation time 30 mins

Cooking time 30 mins

There's something indefinably brilliant about cooking proper food from scratch. A rooting in French technique is what makes Jun Tanaka's food so technically flawless, even when the recipes themselves are simple.

That's definitely the case with this recipe. Everything – the brioche bread, the crème anglaise and ice cream – is homemade. Stick to Tanaka's recipe, though, and you'll end up with a beautiful pudding at the end of it.

Ingredients

The brioche

  • 500g strong flour
  • 3 eggs
  • 90g sugar
  • 10g salt
  • 100ml milk
  • 15g dried yeast
  • 175g butter (soft)

The crème anglaise

  • 500ml milk
  • 500ml double cream
  • 180g eggs
  • 100g sugar
  • 10g vanilla essence

The vanilla ice cream

  • 6 egg yolks
  • 175g sugar
  • 500ml milk
  • 500ml double cream
  • 2 vanilla pods

To cook

  • 50g butter
  • 50g caster sugar

Method

  1. To make the brioche, add the flour and sugar into a stand mixer with a hook attachment. Add the yeast to the milk. Turn on the mixer and add the milk. Slowly add the eggs followed by the soft butter. Finally add the salt and mix for 3 minutes. Place in a bowl, cling film and prove overnight.
  2. Knock back in the morning and place in a non-stick loaf tin. Prove for one hour, brush the top with eggs then cook in a pre-heated oven at 180°C for 25 minutes.
  3. To make the anglaise, mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Cut 2-inch-thick slices of brioche and cut each slice in half. Soak the brioche in the anglaise for 12 hours.
  4. To make the ice cream, whisk the eggs and sugar until creamy. Boil the milk and cream with the vanilla seeds and then pour over the eggs and sugar, whisking constantly. Pour into a saucepan, place on the heat and gradually heat stirring continually with a spatula. Once it starts to thicken, take off the heat, pass through a sieve into a clean bowl. Clingfilm and chill. Place in an ice cream machine and churn. Once it is ready, scoop out into a container and keep in the freezer.
  5. Carefully remove the soaked pain perdu and drain on a wire rack for 5 minutes. To cook the pain perdu, add some butter to a non-stick pan and fry the brioche until golden brown on all sides. Place on a baking tray and cook in the oven at 170°C for 10 minutes. Sprinkle the pain perdu with the caster sugar on all sides and caramelize using a blowtorch. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

theninthlondon.com

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