Yellow Yaks: Oat-Fudge Bars

Stuffed Egg-Battered Toast

“There’s nothing more comforting to a comfort-obsessed halfling than the warm intermingling scents of vanilla, maple, and walnuts filling their home.” - Heroes’ Feast, p. 120

French toast is a staple of Sunday Brunches everywhere, and it’s easy to see why. This fried breakfast bread is easily customized with whatever you want. Syrup? Eggs? Fruit? It’s all fair game to this tasty toast!

Taking a swing at its own version, Heroes’ Feast’s Stuffed Egg-Battered Toast looks to change it up by putting its toppings inside, rather than on top.

With each slice stuffed with mascarpone, walnuts, and a truly questionable amount of vanilla extract, your kitchen and taste buds are surely going to be treated to that homely vanilla smell that halflings crave so much.

Check out below for my notes on the results and for tips and tricks when making this yourself! Get Heroes’ Feast here: https://dnd.wizards.com/heroes-feast

Prep: 5 mins    Cook: 25 mins    Total: 30 mins

Ingredients:

4 ounces (½ cup, 120 g) mascarpone, at room temperature

¼ cup (25 g) walnuts, finely chopped

2 tsp. (10 ml) pure vanilla extract*

4 (1-inch-thick) slices of brioche or challah

2 eggs

½ cup (120 ml) whole milk

¼ tsp. (2 g) kosher salt

2 tbsp. (30 g) unsalted butter

½ cup (120 ml) maple syrup

Confectioners’ sugar for dusting**

* That uh… sure is an amount of vanilla for a ½ cup of mascarpone.

** I used chopped strawberries instead.

In a small bowl, stir together the mascarpone, walnuts and vanilla. (I forgot to take a picture of this each time I made it. L.)

Use a thin knife to cut a 2-inch-long slit through the side of each slice of brioche, creating a pocket.

Gently open the pocket and spoon 1 tbsp. of the mascarpone mixture into each slice.

TIP: As mentioned in the “cook’s notes” section, the bread is very delicate and tears easily- so take extra caution when opening and stuffing the pockets.

Alternatively, the notes mention that you could use ½-inch slices and spread the mixture between them like a sandwich. However, I worry about its structural integrity while dipping it in the egg mixture or flipping it in the frying pan.

But, since stuffing each slice is a pain, it might be worth going with the sandwich method.

NOTE: Only stuff the slices if they’re cut 1-inch-thick. ½-inch and even ¾-inch slices are way too thin and will tear.

In a pie dish or shallow bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, and salt.

BEFORE DIPPING the slices, melt 1 tbsp. butter in a large skillet over medium heat.

Dip two stuffed slices into the egg mixture, turning to soak both sides and letting any excess batter drip back into the bowl.

TIP: You only need to let each side soak for a few seconds. Any longer than 5 makes the bread mushy.

Place the sides in a skillet and cook for 2-3 minutes per side, until golden brown. Use a spatula to transfer the toasts to a warm plate.

Repeat to cook the remaining two stuffed slices.

Meanwhile, warm the maple syrup in a small saucepan over low heat for a few minutes.

TIP: The “cook’s notes” section mentions that warmed marmalade can be used to replace the maple syrup.

NOTE: I misread the instructions for this step and cooked all four slices at once. To fix the uneven browning, I flipped the lighter parts to the middle of the pan for about 20 seconds after cooking each side.

NOTE: To save on dishes, I chose to not warm my syrup.

Top the toast with strawberries (and/or confectioners’ sugar), drizzle with the maple syrup, and serve.

Overall, this recipe has one thing really working against it: the vanilla extract.

Personally, I found the filling to be inedible with 2 tsp. of vanilla extract in the mascarpone mixture. The alcohol in the extract doesn’t have enough time to cook out and leaves everything with a distinctly alcoholic taste. 

This would be fine if other flavours used in the recipe complimented the taste of the alcohol or if the taste was expected (like an alcoholic french toast). Unfortunately, nothing here works with it and, being a breakfast food, it isn’t expected. So, it ends up overwhelming the toast and making it unappetizing.

My solution to this was to cut back the vanilla extract to ½ tsp. The taste was still a little strong, but there was an improvement. If you’re planning to make this at home, consider cutting the vanilla back even further, or try using vanilla bean instead to skip the alcohol entirely.

It’s also worth mentioning that the mascarpone makes these very rich. Interestingly, I found that the syrup and strawberries really helped cut the richness. You’re still only going to eat one though.

Finally, as mentioned in a previous step, although the structural integrity might be questionable with the sandwich method, it might be worth it just to skip spooning the mixture into the pockets. The mess it creates really makes you wonder if it’s worth it.

All in all, the unaltered recipe gets a 2.5/5, going up to 4/5 when the amount of vanilla extract is reduced. Still losing points for the remaining alcoholic taste and messy and needlessly difficult construction.

Another post about Technoblade.

I'm up at 1am crying and rewatching "so long nerds" as well as the vod of Wilbur and Philza talking about Technoblade.

Technoblade had obviously come to terms with his death. He told Wilbur, Phil, and Tommy not to visit him after Vidcon cause he knew he wouldn't be sticking around. He wrote his last video. He made merch. He knew death was near. Yet he spent some of his final moments writing a goodbye to his fans. He loved his fans. He made sure we got to finally see his face and know his name. He loved his fans and he made it clear even when he was dying. He would chose to be Technoblade again if he had 100 more lives. He would choose to make content for us

Watching Technoblades dad talk about his final moments breaks my heart. Technoblade was fighting for so long. Stage four cancer is rough, and he still fought. Hearing his dad say "Alex, you don't have to do anything else. You've done so much for so many people. Millions of people. And if you want to now, you can rest" hurts so much. He was fighting and waiting for things to get better so that he could make a video for us, his fans. He wrote his final video 8 hours before passing. In his final moments, he wrote a video for us. No parent should have to make their sons final video. Hearing his father say "I miss Technoblade" shatters my soul. I know it must have hurt him so badly to have to tell 12 million people that the person that made content for them passed away. That his son has passed away. My heart goes out to Technoblade family and I hope that they are coping well in this very difficult time.

Wilbur and Philza talking about Technoblade is both happy and heart shattering. Technoblade was funny and brought joy to his friends and fans. Wilbur saying that he felt so wierd because his world had stopped turning while everyone else was living normally hit me hard. He put what I'm feeling into words. My world has stopped because one of my inspirations has died, but everyone around me is living their normal lives. Hearing that Tommy never got to meet Technoblade hurts. Tommy looked up to him and he never will get the chance to meet him. My heart goes out to SBI and all of Technoblades friends. I hope they are doing well and are learning to cope well in this difficult time.

I know that from the afterlife, Technoblade is probably laughing about how hard we are all crying. He's probably memeing on all of us right now. I hope he's finally at rest in the afterlife. That he's no longer fighting and struggling. That he's watching all of us in the mortal realm and knowing how much good he did. How many people he impacted.

Rest In Peace Technoblade, Alexander, The Blood God, Flowergirl29, or anything we have known him as. Rest in Peace, you deserve it.

you guys wanna see my impression of a grocery bag?

I was making spaghetti and I woke up mid-cooking and set an alarm for when the pasta was done.

I made this callout meme for me and me specifically

my final letter to the king himself~

i think what really hurt the most after watching the 'so long nerds' video.. was the realisation that techno's diagnosis was terminal this whole time. his dad said they had been discussing a final video 'for months' and his mom said he was always focused on beating what he knew were almost impossible odds.. even as he told us his doctors are amazing and that he's getting some of the finest healthcare around.. the entire time he knew. and i think that speaks extraordinary volumes about the kind of person that techno was.

his announcement video was essentially a goodbye video. and i think he just didn't want us to know that because it would have meant everyone would have spent this past year in a state of grief and sadness, rather than coming together and focusing on pure positivity, focusing on motivating him, sending him all of our wishes and strength and love. technoblade never dies - and i honestly did not have a single doubt about his recovery even for a second, because that's the kind of strength and courage he has put in me from the very beginning.

i cannot imagine how hard that must have been. i cannot even fathom how tough this past year has been for him and all of his loved ones. but what i do know, is that i will be eternally grateful to you technoblade. because you have always loved and cared, and you had the strength within you to put hope in people's hearts while knowing the universe was not kind enough to return the favour. i am in awe of the person that you were, and it has been a BLESSING to be able to support you these past few years. you have played the game well. now it's time for you to rest.

technoblade never dies 🐷👑

please do not forget to give whatever you can to the sarcoma foundation, in honour of technoblade

btw don't go to 5e.tools for free access to basically every official DND 5e resource including books, spells, races, stat generators and homebrew guides, because that's illegal and such a widespread and creative game should not be open access for everyone because that would be bad. just letting you know not to go to that website and do that