When Emirati breakfast meets French toast

You know a dessert is good when it not only makes you happy, but leaves you begging for more; and that is exactly how I felt after trying the balaleet brioche delight.

The Ramadan special was created by The Coffee Club, revamping something as simple as French toast with an Emirati flavour.

Balaleet is a traditional, sweet Emirati breakfast dish of egg and vermicelli. The balaleet brioche delight is a hot, delicious concoction of honey, cinnamon, vermicelli and butter-rubbed brioche French toast with Kiri cheese, topped with walnuts and raspberries.

Shaikha Al Ali created the dessert in collaboration with the Australian chain of coffee shops, but the inspiration, however, comes from Asia.

“I visited Korea and Singapore and I found that they incorporate a lot of bread in their dishes,” Al Ali told tabloid!. “Emirati food is very basic so I thought ‘why don’t we change this?’”

She added, “This dish is unique because of the balance in flavours. Hardly anyone experiments with Emirati food. It’s almost always saffron. Cinnamon is such a warm flavour so I thought, why not?”

True enough, the dish is a perfect fusion between cultures and flavours. It’s a blast of sweetness but the melted raspberries add a tangy flavour that cuts through the cinnamon; the Kiri cheese adds a slight bitterness to the dish that dissolves the initial sweetness. The French toast is at once soft and crusty.

Evan Basco, the culinary training manager at The Coffee Club said, “When Shaikha told me about the dish I was a little sceptical, but after making the product, I was I was amazed at how something so simple could turn out to be this rich and flavourful.”

Even though the dish looks small in its advertising, don’t let that fool you: Another plus point for this Dh45 dessert is the fact that it is filling and can be shared by more than two people.