Epiphany

It is common in many areas of the world, and in many cultures, to celebrate Epiphany with nearly as much enthusiasm as Christmas.

One manner of celebration is the baking and sharing of Three Kings Cakes. Often, these cakes are quite rich.

In our case, we did a variation on the theme.

We had Three Kings French toast:

We started with a brioche, a delightfully light bread made with lots of eggs and butter. A properly made brioche will kill a cardiologist at 40 paces.

Brioche is usually braided, or otherwise fancified. Brioche rolls usually have little topknots, making them quite distinctive.

But since we were making French toast, we forewent the decorative twists (in a manner of speaking) and just made a loaf in the machine.

We used this recipe from King Arthur Flour. We used Members' Mark bread flour rather than all-purpose.

The batter was a couple of cups of whole milk, three eggs, nutmeg and cinnamon to taste, and a quarter cup of honey. Let the brioche slices soak in the hand-whipped mixture for a minute or so on each side. We then grilled the slices in a cast iron skillet, on low temp. If you use too high a temp, you'll tend to burn the outside while the innards remain rawly eggy.

We had this with some real maple syrup.

It's first rate.

Donuts

So there we were ... contemplating a Saturday, with no firm plans.

Me: "Hey, would you like a donut for breakfast?"

The Accomplice: "Sure!"

Me: "OK!"

A couple of hours later, we were atop Pikes Peak, snuffling world-famous Pikes Peak donuts. You gotta adapt, improvise, and overcome.

Ceremony of the Holey Donut. If you stand just so, so the sunlight through the donut hole strikes The Sepulcher of the Blessed Yellow Rock Marmot, then spring will come early. Sadly, the Blessed Yellow Rock Marmot, deeply disturbed by the lack of snow and excessively warm temps, had decamped for the Yukon.