French toast is a classic breakfast or brunch dish that’s easy to make at home. You just need a few staple ingredients and a recipe.
First, it’s crucial to choose the right bread for French toast. It has to be sturdy and dry enough that it can absorb & hold onto liquids both during soaking & frying without falling apart.
Here are the ingredients we need
The best French toast recipe is made with a few simple ingredients that work well together. These include bread, eggs, milk, butter, and vanilla extract.
First and foremost, the bread is important for getting the right texture. You want something that won’t absorb too much of the egg mixture and turn out tough. This is why you should go for a brioche, challah, or very soft white bread that will soak up the mixture and hold its shape when it’s cooked.
Second, you’ll need to add salt to the egg mixture. This will help break down the eggs, make them more incorporated into the batter, and prevent chunks from forming in your finished French toast.
Finally, you’ll want to add some sweetener and spice. This includes cinnamon, nutmeg, and Tahitian vanilla extract.
If you’re looking for a great breakfast to enjoy on your special day, try our classic French toast recipe. It’s easy to make and comes together in no time!
The best French toast is crisp on the outside and custardy on the inside, making it an ideal breakfast or brunch dish. It’s also a perfect vehicle for topping with fruits and syrup. This makes it a popular choice for holidays and birthday brunches.
Let’s choose the bread
French toast is a classic breakfast dish. It is made by soaking bread in a mixture of eggs and milk, then pan-frying it until it is golden brown. It is often served with syrup and powdered sugar, accompanied by fruit or other toppings.
The best French toast is made from good quality bread like brioche or challah, which makes it extra pillowy and full of flavor. You can also use store-bought sandwich bread with a soft texture or sourdough.
To make the batter, combine flour with eggs and a little bit of milk or cream. Then add the remaining ingredients and mix well.
When preparing French toast, the key is to ensure that each slice of bread is thoroughly soaked in the egg mixture before you cook it. If you don’t soak the bread enough, it won’t absorb as much of the mixture and will end up undercooked and a bit dry on the outside.
This recipe makes a lot of French toast, so you might want to prepare it in batches. You can store leftovers in the fridge for a day or two.
The best way to cook French toast is over medium heat, so the outside is crisp and the inside is cooked through. The outside should be golden brown and the inside should be still soft, a bit custardy, and not hard or dry.
Eggs are essential
Whether you prefer it sweet or savory, french toast is one of the most indulgent breakfast dishes there is. Thick slices of bread are soaked in an egg-milk mixture and then pan-fried until golden brown, usually served with butter and syrup or a topping of choice (like berries or bananas).
The secret to the best french toast is working with thick slices of dense, slightly stale bread that have had some time to firm up. Fresh bread tends to break apart when dipped in an egg-milk mix and isn’t sturdy enough to handle total saturation.
Stale bread is slightly drier as a whole, but it absorbs the milk better because its starch has been retrograded, making it more firm. Thin slices of fresh bread, on the other hand, tend to get soggy and fall apart.
You can also use a vegan type of milk like oat, almond, or coconut. Or make an eggless version using custard powder.
A pinch of cinnamon is standard, but a little sugar and vanilla is always a good idea. You can also add a dash of cinnamon-spiced liqueur for a special twist.
To make the quickest french toast possible, dunk the bread in the egg mixture only for a few seconds and quickly transfer it to the griddle or skillet. This will prevent the eggs from soaking in the bread too long and making them soggy when you cook them.
Don’t forget the milk
Milk (dairy or non-dairy) helps French toast absorb the egg mixture and hold up during cooking. It also prevents the bread from turning out rubbery, Food & Wine says. Adding just the right amount of milk is important so that your french toast is soft and fluffy with just enough egg to firm up.
The best French toast recipe uses thick slices of bread that have been soaked in a mixture of eggs and milk. You can use thick-cut sandwich bread, brioche, or challah for this, but make sure it’s a few days old.
If you’re making French toast with a dairy-free alternative, you can use heavy cream, almond milk, soy milk, or powdered milk instead. This will give you a thick, creamy texture and flavor that your family will love!
You can also soak the bread in a mixture of milk and vanilla extract. This will add a sweet, rich flavor to the French toast.
Another option is to soak the bread in a combination of eggs, milk, and cinnamon. You can even use orange zest or triple sec if you want citrus-spiced French toast.
When it comes to choosing the best French toast bread, you’ll need to choose a slightly stale white bread that will hold up well to the custard. Stale bread will take longer to soak up the egg mixture, but it’s worth it for a crispier texture.
We all love butter
Butter is a common ingredient in many of the most decadent breakfast dishes. It helps the bread absorb the batter, resulting in a delicious texture and flavor.
You can use any type of bread for french toast, though whole-wheat is ideal. You can also try brioche, challah, sourdough, and cinnamon-raisin bread.
The secret to making the best french toast is soaking the bread in an egg mixture that’s saturated with milk and butter. This helps the bread soak up all of the liquid and results in a creamy interior that’s topped with a golden-brown crispy crust on the outside.
Soak the bread for about 30 seconds on each side, then place it on a greased skillet or griddle over medium-high heat. Cook until lightly browned, about 3 to 5 minutes per side.
Top the french toast with a generous helping of butter, warm maple syrup, powdered sugar, or fresh fruit. It’s hard to go wrong with this dish!
Vanilla for the extra kick
Vanilla is one of the most commonly used flavorings in the world. It’s a natural sweetener that adds a distinctive, rich flavor to food and drinks. It’s available in a variety of forms, including extract, whole beans, and ground vanilla powder.
Vanilla extract is made by soaking and percolating the vanilla bean pods in a solution of ethanol (alcohol). The extract is usually sold as an essential oil and can be used for ice cream, soft drinks, eggnogs, chocolate confectionery, candy, tobacco, baked goods, puddings, cakes, cookies, and liqueurs.
However, it’s important to note that imitation vanilla extract is often a more economical choice for recipes that call for large amounts of vanilla flavor. It’s also an excellent way to add flavor to a variety of desserts without spending a lot of money, says Sandra Palmer, chef-instructor of pastry and baking arts at the Institute of Culinary Education.
A vanilla bean pod, also called a flower pod or seed pod, is produced by the flowers of a vanilla orchid (Vanilla planifolia). It can only be grown 10-20 degrees North or South of the equator.
The vanilla pod is a small fruit, about a third of an inch (8 mm) long by six inches (15 cm) wide. It ripens into a waxy, dark brown pod that contains thousands of tiny black specks filled with a distinctively flavored compound.
A vanilla flower can be pollinated by insects, but all commercial vanilla production is now done using hand pollination by humans. It’s a painstaking process, but it’s vital to maintaining the quality of the vanilla that has become so popular.