Sluttishly Sweet: Hangover-tastic French Toast with Berry Compote

Up until my recent  trip to The Gallivant Hotel, French toast had never really been on my radar, that was until I discovered it to be possibly the best hangover cure ever! They served their beautifully fluffy dipped toast topped with a gorgeous berry compote that seemed to have magical soothing powers (which were definitely needed).

Eggs are an established grade "A" hangover cure and fruit is always a good start to your day, bung in some much needed restorative sugar and I went from a blurry "eww...can't face food" to "bring it on! Let's go for a walk on the beach!" in just 20 minutes. Now in the true nature of scientific research I decided to repeat this experiment back at home, and you know what? Not only did it do it's wondrous work once again but it has now become my new favourite lazy weekend breakfast.

 If you can head to The Gallivant to have theirs then I highly recommend it as you might also get to play with their dog "Camber" (another excellent hangover cure), but if you wake up at home feeling all sorry for yourself then this should get you well on the road to feeling much better. If you have a pan big enough to cook both slices at the same time that's great but it only takes a few minutes to cook so it's fine to cook them separately.

French toast with berry compote (serves 2 big portions)
You will need:

• 250g frozen berries (I used Blackforest mix)
• 100g caster sugar
• 2 tblsp water
• 2 large eggs (room temperature)
• 50ml milk
• 1/2 vanilla pod (just the seeds, pop the pod in a jar of caster sugar for lovely vanilla sugar)
• 2 thick slices of white bread (use a whole fresh loaf and slice yourself rather than pre-sliced)
• knob of butter for frying

Make it!

1. Put the berries, sugar and water in a saucepan and heat gently, stirring every now and again for about 5 minutes or until all the sugar has dissolved and the fruit softened. Taste and add a bit more sugar if you like it sweeter.
2. Beat together the eggs, milk and vanilla seeds in a big bowl that will allow the slices of bread to lie down flat. Put one slice of bread in the mixture and turn to make sure its coated well, leave for about 30 seconds to allow it to absorb all the vanilla eggy mixture.
3. Heat the butter in a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat then carefully place your egg soaked slice in. Leave to cook for about 2 minutes then turn over. Whilst it's cooking soak your other slice of bread ready to cook. The toast is ready when it goes from feeling soft to being more firm. Pop it on a plate and spoon over your warm berry compote.

If you're not a fan of fruit then give our sweet, sticky cinnamon french toast a go, and if you can then cuddle a big friendly dog then you're definitely winning (cats also work wonders).