The Spice Bobby Flay Uses To Balance French Toast

When it comes to making tasty French toast and taking it to a whole new level, Bobby Flay knows how to bring the flavor. French toast is a go-to for breakfast, brunch, or even dinner, yet its name is a bit of a misnomer. It can make you feel like you are a part of the beloved Coffee Talk skit on "Saturday Night Live" because this dish is neither French nor toast – - at least not in the traditional sense. Talk amongst yourselves. French toast is actually Roman in origin. The recipe for this fried masterpiece came about as a way to use up bread that had or was about to go stale.

French toast at its most basic consists of bread dipped into a mixture of milk and egg that is then fried in a fat of your choice. It's crunchy and golden delicious on the outside and soft on the inside. Slather on some butter, drizzle a little bit of maple syrup on it, and your French toast is ready to be devoured in a few short bites.

Because French toast is so simple, it's easy to amp up the flavor using sweeteners, spices, and even flavored extracts. Flay does just that to make his version of this meal, and it's worth taking note.

When Bobby Flay makes French toast, the "Iron Chef" standout really plays with our sense of smell. Flay revealed to Food Network that he likes to use challah bread for his French toast and gets a little fancy by topping it with caramelized gala apples in a date molasses he makes himself, along with a spoonful of vanilla bean yogurt. Sounds delish, but what really makes Flay's French toast stand out is the spice he adds to make your olfactory and taste buds go into overdrive. To balance out all the flavors he has going on, he adds cardamom — not a lot because a little goes a long way with this spice.

Known as the "Queen of the Spices," cardamom is often described as "complex." A member of the ginger family, its taste is a blend of warm spice meets sweet, a perfect addition to a French toast recipe with a lot of sweet elements. When Flay initially shared his riff on French toast, he waxed poetically about all the components of his take on this classic. Flay wrote on Facebook, "I am loving cardamom right now ... Just love it. And this date syrup is crazy good ... You know I am all about the honey and molasses ... this is just as great ... and a bit milder in flavor than regular molasses."