- One long 2-day-stale bread loaf (baguette will do)
- Milk (at least 1/2 liter)
- Lemon zest
- Cinnamon stick
- 1/2 vanilla bean
- 1/2 glass of anís dulce (this is hard to find in Berlin, but spotted at Mite Meer)
- 3 eggs
- Water
- Sugar (at least 10 soup spoons)
- Vegetable oil to fry
Let the bread stale (easy!). Remove the endings and cut it in slices (diagonal cut works better for thin loaves). Put the milk in a pot and warm it till is about to boil. Remove it from the heat, add the zest, the cinnamon stick and the vanilla bean without the seeds (otherwise vanilla flavour will kill everything else), and let it rest covered for around 10 minutes. Remove everything and let the milk cool.
Prepare 4 bowls:
- With the anís and a glass of water
- With the previous milk
- Empty with a drainer on top
- Beaten eggs
Prepare a pot with the oil (or a fryer if you have it) and make it real hot. Let's the industrial process begin! For each slice of bread:
- Slightly soak it in the anís bowl
- Completely soak it in the milk bowl
- Gently squeeze the excess of milk in the third bowl and let it rest in the drainer for a bit
- Batter the slice with the eggs
- Fry it in the very hot oil, both sides (you'll have to turn it over at some point) till it stops leaking milk and it's dark brown
- Put it in a plate with kitchen paper to absorb the excess of oil
Once you have fried all the bread, it's time to prepare the syrup. Put the sugar in a pan and let it melt. Once it's melted very carefully add two glasses of water to it (you may burn yourself as the water will start boiling almost inmediately). Let the melted caramel dissolve in the water and syrup is ready.
Place the bread slices in a deep container (two levels of slices is ideal) and soak them with the syrup. The upper ones will remain a bit dry for those who are not very fond of syrup and the lower ones will get completely soaked for the ones who love themselves a wet piece of bread.
Tip: better when they are not too warm, but not too cold!
Enjoy!