DAD Irish Toast With Whiskey Sauce- A Tribute To The Miss Albany Diner’s MAD Irish Toast

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May 30, 2024.  This recipe for DAD Irish Toast joins the wildly popular Quintessential Chicken Teriyaki  as the second dish to be inducted into the Dad’s Dinner Diary Diner Hall of Fame.

I am an egg person when it comes to breakfast and even if I had to go to the sweet side of the aisle for the first meal of the day it would be pancakes, then waffles- with French Toast coming in a very distant third.

For some reason, however, when I saw the MAD Irish Toast on the menu of the Miss Albany Diner (“MAD”), circa 1990, I decided to give it a go- I suspect it had something to do with the Irish whiskey in the sauce that accompanied the stuffed French Toast.

It was love at first bite after that! The crisp crust of the French Toast giving way to the soft, creamy, sweet, sour and savory pecan cream cheese filling that was all rapturously drenched in a buttery, sweet sauce warmed nicely with hints of whiskey. Sure, it was more dessert- like a cheesecake sandwich- than breakfast, but it was so good who could complain?

I never looked back, ordering nothing else at the Miss Albany for breakfast (technically, it was brunch, but old school diner folk don’t do brunch) and this from someone who likes to hop around a menu for fear of missing out on the next best bite. It was just that good- as attested to by Chicago Sun-Times, who named MAD Irish Toast as one of its”Best Bites of 2002″! Sadly though, Miss Albany is long gone and only the haunting memories of her MAD Irish Toast remain.

Apparently, these memories were so haunting I must have repressed them until just a few weeks ago- when, after decades without thinking about the divine toast I once craved on a weekly basis, the sweet memories all came flooding back in all their glutinous glory! Then, it was off to search for the recipe to satisfy my reawakened cravings. I could not find any such recipe, only general descriptions of the dish that noted thick bread- either challah or Texas Toast- a pecan cream cheese stuffing and a whiskey butterscotch sauce. So, with that, it was into the DDD Test Kitchen to come up with The Dad’s version of MAD Irish Toast.

I have to say, I am happy with the results, especially since I had the good fortune of having one of you kids home to join me in making, shooting and sharing the recipe- declaring it to be the “best French toast ever!” and asking me incredulously, “The diner toast couldn’t have been better than this?!”. In my memory it was, but looking to the archives below, perhaps not?

Diet:  Vegetarian without vegetables

Prep Time: 25  minutes

Cook Time:  20 minutes

Servings: 4

GET YOUR STUFF OUT

Filling

• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 8 oz cream cheese, softened or whipped
• 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Whiskey Sauce

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup Irish Breakfast Tea or or “ze enemmi of flavóur!”
• 2 tablespoons butter, optional
• 1 tablespoons Irish whiskey or your favorite whiskey/whisky
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Toast

• 1/3 cup flour 
• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar 
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 cup milk or half and half
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

COOK AND PLAY

Play “What Do You Do With A Drunken Sailor” by Hair of The Dog and figure out what you’d do with a drunken sailor while you make your toast.  As a footnote, this was a popular song in our house when you kids were younger- embarrassed to say I changed the words, to “What do you do with a drunken baby”- not a proud parenting moment.

1. The First Toast.  Add pecans to large skillet oven medium, low heat and toast, adjusting heat and tossing pecans as needed, to avoid burning and until you see rich, brown coloring on most of the nuts- 5-10 minutes.. Reserve on side plate to cool.

2. Cream Cheese Factory Filling.  Add cream cheese, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla to medium bowl and use a soft spatula or whisk to mix until smooth. Fold in chopped pecans. Evenly spread a thick layer of filling on each of 4 slices of bread, leaving an 1/2 inch border free of filling around the edges of each slice. Top with remaining 4 slices of toast to make the sandwich of your dreams. Feel free to do this the night before- cover and refrigerate until ready to cook.

3. Candy Is Dandy But Whiskey Sauce is The Boss.  Combine brown sugar and tea or water in a large saucepan and simmer to smooth- about 4 minutes. Stir in butter, if using, (being careful it doesn’t foam up to overflow or burn you), whiskey and salt until incorporated. Taste and adjust whiskey and salt as you wish. Set aside.

4. Hey Batter, Batter.  Add flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt to large bowl and whisk to combine.  Make a well in flour mix and add milk, egg, melted butter, vanilla and use whisk or stick or other blender to vigorously and thoroughly combine into a smooth batter.

5. Dip and Cook.  Get a large frying pan going over medium heat with a few tablespoons of butter or cooking oil. While pan is heating up, soak both sides of bread in egg mixture for 15-20 seconds and then add to pan.  Cook in batches* if all toast won’t fit into one pan. Add toasts to pan and cook, adjusting heat as need to avoid burning, until down side is golden brown, then flip to cook other side, adding more butter or oil if needed, until golden brown- about 5-7 minutes a side. I also like to stand the toast on its sides to brown the four sides of the toast- a few minutes a side. Garnish toast as you wish and serve with Whiskey Sauce on the side.

* If cooking in batches, hold cooked toast in 200° oven on a wire rack in sheet pan. You could also use multiple pans to cook the toast.

THE LECTURE

The Miss Albany Diner.  893 Broadway in Albany, New York has been feeding hungry souls in the capital of New York State since 1929- first as a humble lunch cart and then a forgettable, run of the mill diner until 1941 when it took its current and classic form as one of the famous “Silk City Diners”, a retro-style diner manufactured by the Paterson Wagon Company, based in the “Silk City” of Patterson, New Jersey.

It was that diner that received a major upgrade in appearance- its art deco design, with interior of cherry wood and porcelain steel and geometrically tiled floor, being painstakingly restored in 1986, when it also picked up the Miss Albany moniker, thanks to the makers of the movie “Ironweed”. It received another upgrade in 1988, this time with its food, when it was purchased by Cliff and Jane Brown who introduced such popular favorites as the Calamity Jane Omelette, Curried Mad Eggs, Cliff’s Ugly Eggs and Georgian Eggs, but no dish more popular than the MAD Irish Toast. With all that going for it, it was no surprise when it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000, cited as “a distinctive example of mid-20th-century American roadside architecture”. For a peak inside the Miss Albany in its prime and to see an interview with its adorable owner, Jane, click here.

I’d also venture to guess the MAD Irish Toast was the most profitable creations to come from “Ironweed”- a movie, that in spite of boasting a cast with Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson, both whom were nominated for Oscars for their performances, was a box office bomb, making only $7.3 million on a budget of $27 million.

The Miss Albany’s closing on February 10, 2012 was so significant, it was even chronicled in a New York Times article which first line/paragraph reads, “The Mad Irish Toast sold out in 3 hours.”. Still, the structure lives on today in the same location, but you regrettably won’t find any MAD Irish Toast in its new iteration as the Tanpopo Ramen and Sake Bar.

Incidentally, 2012 was the same year Quintessence served it’s last meal- coincidence or conspiracy- we may never know?

Texas Toast  The first time I heard the name “Texas Toast” it conjured the idea of the biggest, baddest, rootin’, tootin’est toast one could imagine, but my excitement soon faded to disappointment after that, having only seen it as some type of unremarkable garlicky and/or cheesy bread relegated to my grocer’s freezer section.

In fact, Texas Toast is simply really thick white bread, not that there’s anything wrong with that- in fact, I’d venture to say, for reasons noted below, it might be the perfect bread for French Toast. In spite of its white bread background, it nevertheless appears to have a colorful 1940s origin story, with several “Pig Stands” fighting to claim it as their own invention depending on who you want to believe. I choose to believe Kirby’s Pig Stand, who claimed not only to have given the world Texas Toast, but onion rings as well!

Sure, you could also use thick slices of brioche (after all, it is called “French” toast) or challah, but my trouble with these choices over Texas Toast, is they’re enriched with a significant amount of butter/oil, milk or eggs as compared to Texas Toast and there’s already a lot of that going on with French Toast to begin with- do you really need more? Plus, what sops up liquid better than white bread? Check out the bread section at your local grocer to see if you can find a loaf- I found one at mine, but would have never know it was there if I hadn’t asked the nice stock person.

 “I’d Like To By A Vowel”- Whiskey vs. Whisky.   Not to get technical, but you know how us Dads like our Fun Facts (and our whisk(e)y too!)- but whether or not our grain based distilled spirit has and “e” or not depends on where it’s made.  Those in favor of the “e” in “whiskey” include the US of A and Ireland and those opposed to the “e” in “whisky” include, Scotland, Canada and Japan.  Click here if you need more!

I imagine there is or was a secret organization of whisk(e)y producing companies (“OWEC”)- who got together a long time ago to decided whether or not and “e” was needed for the marketing of such a spirit, but by the time the meeting was over they were either too drunk to remember or too unimpressed to care, which pretty much sums up how I feel about an “e” being in my whisk(e)y. 

Can’t I Just add Whiskey to Maple Syrup So I Dont Have to Make A Sauce?  Yes.

Can I Omit The Butter In The Sauce, If I Do Make The Sauce? Yes.

Other Fillings. While the cream cheese and pecan filling is a classic, why stop there? I’m sure you can come up with a lot of delicious fillings to try, but here are just a few off the top of my head- ganache or Nutella; fresh ricotta with lemon juice, lemon zest and blueberries, smashed bananas and peanut butter (and some bacon bits for an Elvis touch) or cream cheese mixed with any of the following: raisins soaked in rum, chocolate chips or fruity pebbles.

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