Macadamia French Toast — The Saturday Breakfast from Hawaii Macadamias

Aunt Linda came down from Tulsa Friday night driving the silver Camry with the dent in the passenger door she’s been meaning to fix for two years, and she walked in carrying a brown paper grocery bag from the IGA up there full of Hawaiian things her co-worker had brought back from a Maui wedding the week before. A jar of pale-pink guava jelly with a hand-tied raffia ribbon at the neck. A vacuum-sealed bag of whole macadamia nuts that had cost her co-worker more than the wedding gift, Linda said. A small black-and-gold tin of Kona coffee with three brown beans embossed on the lid. The co-worker had gone to the wedding alone and come back with eight of these little gift bags for the office because that’s the kind of person she is, Linda said, and Linda had picked the macadamia bag for me because “you’re the only person I know who’ll actually do something with them instead of just snacking the bag empty in front of the TV.”

She and I sat on the back porch Friday night after Mama went to bed, and she drank decaf out of the green mug and told me about the promotion — team lead, the two-dollar raise, the glass office near the break room with a window that overlooks the parking lot — and then she told me, in a quieter voice, about a guy named Roy from the dispatch side of the building she’d been on three dates with. Divorced, two years out, dispatcher for a regional trucking company that hauls dry goods to the Walmart distribution center, twin fourteen-year-old boys at his ex-wife’s house weeknights and his every other weekend. She said all of that staring out at the yard the way Mama tells me something she’s not sure about telling. I asked if she liked him. She said she liked that he was steady. Then she said she’d let me know when I should worry about meeting him, and I knew that meant it was already real enough she was thinking about that question.

Saturday morning I made macadamia French toast for the three of us. Crushed about a cup of the nuts in a zip-top bag with the rolling pin — not to powder, just to coarse rubble — and pressed the rubble into both sides of the egg-soaked bread before the slices ever hit the pan. The nuts toast in the butter while the egg sets, and the texture comes out crisp on the outside and custardy in the center the way good French toast should be, except now there’s a cracking layer of sweet roasted macadamia between the bread and your tongue. I made a quick syrup of butter and brown sugar and the guava jelly thinned with a splash of water, which is exactly the move my brain made the second Linda set the jelly on the counter and I have no idea where it came from except a year of paying attention to other people’s pantries.

Linda came into the kitchen still in her pajamas, which she only does at our house, and said the smell was exactly the wedding her co-worker had described — sugar and butter and something tropical underneath. We ate at the kitchen table all three of us, Mama already in her uniform because she had the eight-to-four shift, and Mama said it was a Saturday she wanted to remember. Linda left at noon for the drive back, hugged Mama at the door, hugged me, and as she was getting in the Camry she pressed a folded fifty-dollar bill into my palm and said “for the campus visit fund.” I tried to give it back. She said, “You don’t turn down college money. Ever. Not from family. Especially not from me.” I put the fifty in the green envelope under the silverware drawer when I got back inside, and the envelope is now thick enough to feel substantial when I lift it out, which is a feeling I’ve never had before in my entire life.

Wednesday at the writing program, Marcus had us draw another participant’s piece out of a hat and write a one-page close-reading response. I drew Iris’s eleven-page piece about her grandmother dying over a single Tuesday afternoon in New Orleans, and I sat at the kitchen table for an hour Tuesday night just looking at it before I could write a single word. When I finally wrote, I wrote about how Iris had used the smell of medicated lotion as a clock — each section opened with the same lotion smell at a different intensity, faint at first, then sharper, then fading at the end — and how that one repeating detail did more time-keeping work than any actual clock could have. Marcus read mine aloud at the front of the room without naming me first, then asked who’d written it. I raised my hand. He said it was “the kind of close reading that makes the writer trust you,” and Iris hugged me before she left.

Press the nuts into the bread before the pan, not after. Here’s the order of operations.

Macadamia French Toast

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 20 min | Total Time: 30 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 8 thick slices brioche or Texas toast bread
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup macadamia nuts, roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
• Pinch of salt
• Maple syrup and powdered sugar, for serving

Instructions

1. Make the custard. In a shallow bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla extract, cinnamon, sugar, and a pinch of salt until fully combined and slightly frothy.
2. Toast the nuts. In a dry skillet over medium heat, toast the chopped macadamia nuts for 2–3 minutes, stirring frequently, until lightly golden and fragrant. Transfer to a small bowl and set aside.
3. Soak the bread. Working in batches, dip each bread slice into the custard mixture, letting it soak for about 20–30 seconds per side so the egg mixture is fully absorbed without the bread falling apart.
4. Cook the french toast. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a large skillet or griddle over medium heat. Add the soaked bread slices in a single layer and cook for 3–4 minutes per side, until deep golden brown. Add the remaining tablespoon of butter between batches as needed.
5. Add the nuts. In the last minute of cooking, press a generous pinch of toasted macadamia nuts onto the top surface of each slice so they adhere slightly as the bread finishes.
6. Serve. Transfer to plates, dust with powdered sugar, scatter any remaining macadamia nuts over the top, and serve immediately with warm maple syrup on the side.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 420 | Protein: 11g | Fat: 22g | Carbs: 45g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 310mg