Viva la French Toast

I love ALL holidays…even the so-called Hallmark made up ones, and most of that love comes from how much I enjoy making food for special occasions. Well, for this past Father’s Day I decided not only would I make my husband the dinner of his choice (the Neapolitan style meatball lasagna you’ll see soon in another post) but start off the morning with a special breakfast. Since one of his favorite foods is French Toast, I set out to make the most delicious one I could.

I think most everyone has made French Toast once or at least knows the basic components: egg, milk, bread and optional flavors like cinnamon and/or nutmeg or other flavors. What I have found with French Toast is that while leftover, stale bread is the basic requirement, a QUALITY stale bread makes the best. This time around I had sliced sourdough in the house from the bakery in our local grocery store. We keep out bread in the refrigerator (I know, I think that is minus 1 million culinary cool points) so the first step was to make the bread French Toast ready.

I put out the slices on a baking rack and put them into a 375 degree oven. This dries out the bread and gives it the consistency of a stale bread. Naturally you can use this same method with whatever bread you choose to use. It only takes about 10 minutes and while the bread cools you can prepare your dipping mixture.

I will reveal my secret to delicious French toast: half and half. I have yet to make a French toast mixture that turns out better than one with half and half. For every ¼ cup of liquid I use, I also use 1 egg, and the rule of thumb is usually 1 egg per person and per 4 slices of bread. I add about 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of nutmeg and 1 tablespoon of vanilla and whisk it all together.

At this point, there are varying opinions of how long you soak the bread. My method is to dredge the bread through the liquid on both sides and then submerge the bread in the liquid, allowing to soak for about a 1 minute. Frankly, I think the time soaked is a personal preference….the longer you soak, the more liquid seeps into the bread and makes it soft in the middle. It also depends on the bread you are using too. I have seen recipes that use challah bread or French bread so make a determination based on the texture of the bread and your desire for the consistency of the finished product.

Another tip, use unsalted butter to cook the battered bread in. I have tried non-stick cooking spray and the flavor and color is not the same. On my griddle pan I used about ½ a stick and it was enough to do my entire batch. 

Also, keep your oven on 250 degrees and keep the finished French toast warm until you are done cooking all of the bread. Remember you are looking for a good brown color on both sides, so be patient in letting the bread cook and try only to flip once.

For the finish, I dust with powdered sugar and serve with warmed syrup on the side.

According to my step-daughter, I should make these EVERY morning. Nice try kid, how about once a month?