Anyone? This morning, I was craving French Toast. Inspired by Randy's tweet earlier this week. My creation turned disastrous.

On the plus side, I will use real Vermont (or Maine) maple syrup (no HFCS).

Ideas? Cooking Temps? Styles? Accouterments?

I'm also interested in the etymology of said edible.

The venerable Wikipedia says:

Thx!

I make excellent French toast from a little New Orleans cookbook where it's called Pain Perdu (forgotten bread). The bread has to be slightly stale (dry it out in a standard toaster if it's too fresh). I don't have the recipe here but it's the usual eggs and milk thing, plus (about) a tsp of sugar and (about) a quarter-tsp of salt and a dash of vanilla. And use a half/half mix of cooking oil and butter on the griddle; the butter gives flavor but the oil keeps it from getting too heavy.

Stale bread is good; stale brioche better.

Slice it fairly thick; coat with the eggs, milk and vanilla mixture. Then put it on a greased baking sheet at 350 degrees till it's brown on each side.(8 min or so) Foolproof!

ModSpeak On

Moving to DiningBuzz! More appropriate fit. Heading out to get some French Toast now. Mmmmm.

ModSpeak Off

I always use fold cinnamon into the milk/egg mixture. It makes all the difference.

And real Vermont maple syrup is the way to go!

Stale bread (or as you say, stale brioche) is indeed key. Another thing which helps IMHO is to soak the bread overnight--in the fridge, of course--in the custard mixture. And yes, baking vs. cooking in a pan is a big deal, too.

Seeing this thread inspired me to cook some up from breakfast this morning. We did have about half a loaf of stale bread to dispose of, but I didn't think to do the overnight soak.

just had hotel french toast for breakfast, not to bad, but a bit to much cinnamon.

My recipe for the batter:

3/4 cup milk (2% or whole)
3/4 cup heavy cream
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla (Use Madagascar Vanilla, not the imitation stuff)
Dash of nutmeg
Dash of cinnamon

Depending on the bread being used, you can usually coat around 8 or so pieces well.

Use a cast iron skillet on medium high heat. Put a tablespoon or so of butter on the skillet to melt and coat the skillet throughly. If the bread (once battered) doesn't sizzle when it hits the skillet, the skillet isn't warm enough.

Cook until the bread is lightly browned on both sides. Keep warm in a 170 degree oven until ready to serve.

Serve with your choice of toppings, although I'm partial to, as of late, a mixture of honey, butter, and toasted pecans. Bread choice of late has been croissants, made with butter (not margarine).

It's hard to imagine any French toast being "disastrous." To me, it seems that on a 1-10 scale, French toast starts out as about a 5 and just gets better.

One of the best - as served on the Sante Fe Railroad's "Super Chief" cross country train:

Santa Fe Railroad French Toast

3 slices three-day-old bread, cut � inch thick

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup light cream

� tsp. salt

Confectioners� sugar

Warm syrup


Cut firm homemade-style bread into �-inch slices. Trim crusts from bread and cut each slice into a triangle.

Combine beaten eggs, cream and salt. Dip bread triangles in the mixture, allowing the bread to absorb as much of custard as possible.

Meantime, preheat �-inch oil in an electric skillet to 350 degrees. Also preheat an oven to 400 degrees.

Using tongs, transfer the soaked bread to preheated oil. When first side is brown, turn to second side. Remove browned pieces to a shallow sided pan such as a jelly roll pan.

Bake the browned French toast in a 400-degree oven until puffed, about 3 to 5 minutes.

Drain quickly on paper toweling. Transfer to a warm platter. Sprinkle with confectioners� sugar and serve with warm syrup. Makes 3 servings, two triangles per serving.

Good French toast reduces pancakes and waffles to little better than hardtack.

The origin (at least in the US) seems likely to be New Orleans, in the same venue with bread puddings as a revivifier of stale baked goods. The similar "Monte C(h)risto sandwich" may be of French origin, but certainly from after the middle of the 19th century.

Obviously, brioche are best, but many recipes call for thick sliced stale "French" bread (which absorbs less, resulting in a lighter airy product). A worthy substitute: Last night's hot yeast rolls, split. I even recall one sterling example "done" with yesterday's biscuits (split, real ones, not the elasticized ones from a can), a strange combination.

I'm an adherent of (a) butter just at the bubbling point before browning, (b) hot cast iron skillets, and (c) a little "puffing' in a hot oven is not a bad idea and allows the dish to "stand up' longer. Good vanilla in the batter helps, but for me, the cinnamon should be sprinkled atop along with powdered/confections sugar. Some old cooks like evaporated milk instead of milk/cream.

If you must have syrup, why Maple, the unique flavor of its own wasted? Ribbon cane or sorghum maybe. Then there's the school which maintains that nothing tops FT better than a good grade of apricot preserves/compote. Good French Toast needs no lather at all, but life rarely gets better than topping with a few sliced, sugared strawberries marinated in a drop of Port.

Two triangles per serving? That's not even aperif-sized!

Pain Perdu is what we, New Orleanians, call "Lost Bread". You can call it Pain Perdu, Lost Bread or French Toast and we'll be there with our appetite. Can you deliver some to the NZ lounge next time I MR to SYD?

go to the Breakfast Club in Scottsdale AZ. Best French Toast Ever. Made with challah bread.

+1 ^

Truer words.... ^^^

Inch-thick challah is the secret. I don't know what my exact recipe is: eggs, milk, maple syrup. It's impossible to mess up.