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Local Flavor
Cinnamon Toast begins with fresh market bread RIC'S BREAD CINNAMON TOAST By Stephen Kopfinger, Correspondent
This recipe is technically a breakfast dish, but why just enjoy it in the morning?
Georgie Blymier's take on cinnamon toast, after all, combines just a few simple ingredients to create something that's warming and nourishing no matter what the time of the day may be.
The results taste like a cross between French toast and a sticky bun, melding the flavors of vanilla and real maple syrup. In the latter category, it's worth the extra effort to obtain something that's not on the supermarket shelf.
Plus, this dish celebrates the adage "buy fresh, buy local."
That's not a problem in Lancaster County.
"I'm a huge, huge local market girl," says Blymier, 60, who runs the Olde Square Inn, a bed-and-breakfast housed in a 1920s mansion that was once home to a Mount Joy tobacco king.
Blymier, a Columbia native who operates the inn with her partner, Paul Lefever, is a fan of Ric's Bread, which has a location on North Queen Street and a stand at the venerable Lancaster Central Market.
She admits she's not one to be precise when it comes to cooking.
"I'm what you call a 'dumper,' " she says. "I look at a recipe, but I just do my thing. I'm not a measurer."
Today's dish (which makes use of bread from Ric's Bread) isn't tweaked from a cookbook, but was created "just in my mind," Blymier says.
That reflects Blymier's cooking background -- or lack of it. Nobody really taught her culinary skills.
"I'm a foster kid," she says. "I just read books. I'm an avid reader of books. It's just one of the things God blessed me with."
Another is a talent for painting, which provides an appropriate metaphor for cooking.
"I'm a watercolorist," she said. "Cooking takes all of your senses. ... It all has to come together to make a beautiful canvas."
2 eggs
½ cup cream
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
3 slices cinnamon-swirl bread
Butter, as needed
2 tablespoons real maple syrup
Whipped cream and strawberries, for garnish and flavor
Break eggs and whip with cream and vanilla. Dip bread into mixture. Melt butter in frying pan. Grill bread over medium to medium-high heat until brown. (Blymier likes the bread to have an almost crispy texture.) Place maple syrup in pan. Flip bread on each side in syrup and serve.
Top with whipped cream and strawberries. Serve with scrambled eggs or sausage, Blymier suggests.n
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