Portuguese Christmas Rabanadas with Port wine syrupe made in the oven

 

Deep-fried food doesn't have a reputation for being healthy. This cooking method promotes a healthy lifestyle and helps in managing weight compared to frying!

A baguette (french word) or "cacete" is usually 500g.

(Don't cut it all at once in slices as it may be a lot for this list of ingredients. I used a 250g Baguette)

Cut a loaf of bread (250 gr.) into oblique slices as thick as your index finger, more or less, discard the ends. Place them on a board. These slices will be watered with milk. 

Choose another tray to place the slices in the oven and line it with buttered paper. Place 500 ml of milk, 50 g of sugar, 2 cinnamon sticks, and 2 lemon peels in a saucepan. Mix it up. Stir occasionally. When it boils, turn off the heat and set it aside. 

You can prepare the syrup while the milk cools down a bit. In another pan put 200 ml of water, 100 ml of port wine, 100 g of sugar, 2 lemon peels, and 1 cinnamon stick. Mix everything and bring it to a boil. Wait for it to boil, keep stirring, then lower the heat and let it simmer for five minutes. Turn off the heat and it's ready. 

In a bowl beat 4 eggs. The slices will be passed through these eggs. 

Remove the peels and the cinnamon stick from the milk and pour half of it over the slices with the help of a spoon. Turn the slices over and pour the other half of the milk over them. Now, carefully, grab a slice, drain it and pass it through the egg so that it turns yellow on both sides. Drain the excess egg and place it on the baking tray. The oven must be between 180º-200º. 

After 20 minutes, remove the tray, turn each toast over and return the tray to the oven for another 10 minutes. You can turn on the heating element of your oven to brown them a little more. That's what I did because I used a small electric oven and I found them a little pale! 

Remove the tray from the oven. In a soup plate put 3 tablespoons of sugar and a teaspoon of cinnamon and mix. Pass each of the toasts through this mixture and then place them on a serving plate. If you notice that the mixture does not stick, you can sprinkle some more on the slices. 

After they are arranged on the plate, you can water them with the Port wine syrup and put the rest of the syrup in a small bowl, in the center, as I did. Or you can serve them without watering as there are those who do not appreciate the syrup. 

Note: as there was some milk left in the tray and there was still an egg, I added a small bread (we call it a papo-seco) cut in two halves to avoid waste.

Bom apetite!

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