Fried Bread

 

Let me begin by apologizing for the photos today. They were taken in artificial light. It was early in the morning and I wanted to eat my breakfast while it was hot. 

If you have come here looking for "Fry Bread" you will be disappointed. This is not Navaho Fry Bread.  You can find that recipe here as a part of my Navaho Tacos recipe.

This fried bread is not the same thing at all.

 

 

Fried bread was not something I had ever heard of before I moved to the UK in the year 2000.  There used to be a shop in downtown Chester called BHS (British Home Stores, now closed down). It had a café in it, which offered many things, but what people loved most about it was that it offered a full English Breakfast 7 days a week.

It was good and it was affordable. You paid according to how many items you wanted included in your breakfast.  Eggs, bacon, sausage, hashbrowns, tomatoes, beans, mushrooms, toast or fried bread.  Drinks were extra.

 

I always had bacon, scrambled eggs, baked beans, fried bread and hashbrowns.  I fell in love with fried bread the first time I tasted it. It was lovely and as breakfast out was a rare treat, I always had that with my breakfast instead of toast.

And it was lovely. Crisp and golden brown, not soaked in grease as one would suppose.  Perfectly lovely.  I strongly suspect they deep-fried theirs.  Not for the faint hearted for sure and an absolute treat.

 

I am not sure if it was a Northern thing or not, but I never saw it offered when we were living down South. Just up North.  

Any bread can be used for frying.  Standard thin, medium or thick sliced bread. You can use flavored and textured soft or crusty loaves.  

 

Bread that is stale or at least 48 hours old will fry best.  The fresher the bread the more fat you will need to cook it in. And, I don't know about you, but I am not looking to ingest more fat.

Because of its soft and absorbent texture fresh bread tends to soak up far too much fat and, when eaten, is far too greasy. You definitely do not want to have fried bread that is greasy.

 

Done properly, there will be just enough fat in your pan to cover the base, but only just. If your fat is the right temperature, the bread should not soak it up. 

You should be able to pan fry it until it is golden brown, before turning it over and frying it on the other side.  If you do happen to run out of fat, it is a simple matter of adding just a little bit more.

 

Ideally it should take only two to three minutes per side. If your fat is too hot, your bread will cook too fast and end up with burnt edges and patchy spots.  What you want is slices of bread that are evenly golden brown and crisp on the outsides, not grease sodden, being soft and spongy inside.

If you are feeling really indulgent, a knob of butter can be added at the end, once you have turned your slice of bread, giving it a nutty and incredibly tasty finish.

 

Ultimately bacon drippings are the most delicious kind of fat to cook your fried bread in.  Shallow-fry your bacon in a non-stick pan. Not too quickly. You want just enough heat to draw any excess fat from the bacon.

What you should end up with is very crisp bacon with a nice pool of fat to fry your bread in. The flavor is beautiful.  But I really shouldn't nave to tell you that! 😋

 

Crisp bacon flavored fried bread. Pure pleasure on a plate. It can't be beaten.  On this day I had crisp bacon, some scrambled egg, oven fried potatoes and of course the fried bread.

A cold glass of orange juice completed the picture.  Because I had used the bacon fat, I had no need to add any seasoning and the bread I used was a slice of several days old homemade white milk bread.

This was a fantastic taste memory.  I dare not think about the calories I ingested. 😳 Best to not think about that at all.  This was meant to be a once in a blue moon treat.

Just look a how nice and crisp that bread is.  Not soggy. Not grease laden.  Simply delicious. It melted in the mouth. Yes my eggs were over done. lol  They still tasted good.

The British really know how to do a great breakfast.  You can find my recipe for a Traditional British Fry-Up (as it is lovingly called) here. This is the breakfast you will be offered at B&B's all over the country. Consisting of eggs, sausage and or bacon, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, baked beans and often blood pudding.  Myself, I don't go for blood pudding, but many people adore it.

For some reason toast is always considered to be an added extra and not a given.

Yield: 1

Author: Marie Rayner

Fried Bread

Cook time: 1 MinTotal time: 1 Min

This is lovely and an indulgence. Usually offered as part of a British Fry up. It takes the place of toast. Multiply as per the servings you need.

Ingredients

• 1 slice of bread
• 1 TBS cooking oil, butter, lard, or bacon drippings
• salt and pepper to taste (optional)

Instructions

1. Add the fat to a skillet and heat over medium high heat. You want the fat to be nice and hot or else the bread will soak it all up rather than fry in it. You should be able to feel the heat then you hold your hand an inch or so above it.
2. Add the bread. Cook until golden brown on the bottom side, flip over and cook until golden brown on the other side.. (About two to three minutes per side.) 
3. Season to taste with salt and pepper if desired.
4. Remove, cut in half diagonally and serve immediately.

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