How To Make French Toast
My mom taught me how to make French toast out of Roman Meal sandwich bread. That was the only kind of bread she ever bought. I never asked her why. Then I had a boyfriend whose dad would make French toast out of stale challah bread or a brioche loaf. He would mix orange juice in with the eggs and his daughter used to request “orange juice French toast” for breakfast whenever she had a slumber party.
The funny thing about French toast is the name. All it is is bread, dipped in a custard mix, and cooked in a little butter or oil. Nothing about it is terribly French and almost every other country that eats bread at all has some classic recipe for making use of stale bread: Eggy bread (UK), torrijas (Spain), rabanada (Brazil), arme ritter (Germany). There are other places with other variations and names for it but I don’t have those keys on my computer.
French toast cleans up real nice.
Anyway, you get the idea. French toast was probably not invented in France is all I’m saying. Nonetheless, it’s super fast and economical and makes a great breakfast. (Or lunch if you use the same technique to batter a ham and cheese sandwich. Then you’re looking at a Monte Cristo Sandwich.)
How to Make French toast
Video and Recipe!
How To Make French Toast
- Yield: 2 1x
Ingredients
- Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup of milk
- zest of one orange
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
- 1 Tablespoon sugar (optional)
- 6 slices of bread (stale is best, about an inch thick if you can slice it yourself)
- Butter for cooking and serving (a few tablespoons)
- maple syrup, jam, cinnamon-sugar, or powdered sugar for serving
Instructions
- Whisk the eggs, milk and flavorings together. There should be no identifiable egg white or yolk. Should be uniform color.
- Heat a griddle over medium heat.
- Add a tablespoon of butter and swoosh it around to coat.
- Dip one piece of bread in the egg, about 5 seconds on each side. Hold it over the bowl so any excess drips off.
- Put it in your pan.
- Do another piece of bread like that.
- Let them cook about 3 minutes on each side, or until toasty brown looking. Serve immediately with butter and whatever on top.
- Bone appeteet!
French toast is a blank slate!
Of course, French toast is great with maple syrup or molasses or honey or powdered sugar or jam or any number of sweet sauces you would use on pancakes. (click here for how to make pancakes!) Try a savory version of French toast by mixing in a couple tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese in with the egg, omitting the other seasonings, plus some extra salt and black pepper. Fry as directed, then top with sauteed cherry tomatoes or zucchini and herbs like thyme, basil, or oregano.
18 Comments
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French toast is a family favorite. I love your use of orange!
Thanks Kristi! I hope your family likes it!
Amazing, go cooking show! I just started my own online cooking show also, it’s so much fun. Keep up the good work!
It is a lot of fun! Thanks.
Another great one! Thanks.
That was great. I love french bread but never can make one. But this recipe is sure to rock as I can just follow your video. Thank you.
Very lovely! Love the addition of the orange zest. i bet that adds lots of fresh flavor
Would love if you’d do a “stuffed” french toast – pretty please?? (fruit/cream cheese or nutella or maybe some different types?)
I’ve been meaning to do that! Would be good for a holiday special breakfast. Thanks for the push!
hello i am a young fan (16) of your youtube videos i have watched several of em and have been benefited from them a lot in my kitchen … p.s. can you do a tutorial of how to one hand crack a egg simply ?
Hi Mykah!
Thanks for writing! That is a fun idea for a video. I’ll try to do that one for you. 🙂 I’m glad you like cooking!
made these today pretty awesome didn’t have an orange but still tasted amazing added cinnamon tasted like those cinnamon pretzels i crave from the mall my family wants to thank you even when theres nothing to eat according to them i still find an amazing recipe from you.
In the Netherlands it is called ” wentelteefje”. It is a great way to turn old bread into something really delicious. Great idea to use orange zest to make it even better.
Thank you, Cisca! I’ve never heard that word. 🙂
Hi,
in France, we actually call this “pain perdu”, literally “lost bread”.
Nothing particularly french about it indeed, just like I don’t see what’s specifically french about french doors, french drains, french kisses… :-p
Heehee! Your comment made me giggle, Sophie. Thank you! 🙂
Made this tonight. I used clementine zest since I didn’t have any oranges. My wife, who doesn’t usually like french toast, said it was the best I’ve ever made. I’m tellin’ you, this is such a great place to come for some good cooking ideas. Thank you so much.
Yum! Clementine sounds great, Darin! So glad your wife enjoyed it. Thanks for the feedback!