French toast is one of my favorite weekend breakfasts. It’s quite easy to make, requires few ingredients, and is infinitely customizable. Following is a basic technique for making your french toast, which is quite good with just some maple syrup or powdered sugar. But once you have the basics down, you can start making it something really special with toppings or by using interesting breads. What’s your favorite way to do up French Toast?
Basic French Toast:
First, pick your bread. Most any kind of bread will work (pictured here is a multi-grain from the bakery) but avoid very dense breads because they don’t soak up the mixture well, and avoid a very soft bread because they will fall apart. If you have some that is going stale, this is the perfect application for it. If the bread is fresh, leaving it out on the counter the night before, so it dries out a bit, is a good idea too.
For this example, I made about 8 pieces of french toast, enough for 2 people. Scale up if you have a larger crowd to feed. This is not an exact science, so just estimate the amounts of spices.
- Bread: 8 (smallish) pieces
- 3 Eggs
- 1/2 c Milk
- 1/4 teas salt
- 1/4 teas cinnamon sugar (I mix approx 1 part ground cinnamon with 2 parts white sugar, and keep in an old spice shaker, ready for use…and the shaker goes to the table for those who want to add an extra dose of cinnamon )
- 1/4 teas fresh grated nutmeg (buy the whole nutmegs, they last forever, and just grate some into the mix with your microplane grater)
- Several Tbls butter for pan.
- optional: 1 Teas sugar
Heat a skillet on medium, and melt 1-2 Tbls of butter. (I like an iron skillet for this)
In a bowl a little larger than the size of a bread slice, beat eggs together. Add milk and other ingredients, stir well to combine.
Have a plate ready to hold the toast.
Dip your first piece of bread into the egg mixture, let sit for 1 minute. Then flip over. The amount of time required to soak will depend on the density and hardness of your bread, but you want it thoroughly ‘wet’ all the way through, but not falling apart.
Remove your slice to the holding plate, and repeat.
When you have as many as your pan will easily accommodate (3 slices in this example) move them all to the waiting hot pan. Cook 2-3 minutes on each side. Again, this is about technique… the exact times will depend on your bread. Watch the first batch. When one side is nicely browned, flip over. Note the time it takes, and use this as a guide.
Soak your next set of bread while the first set is cooking. You should be able get 3 new slices prepared in the time it takes for the first set to cook.
Continue until all are cooked.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar, serve with maple syrup.
Or go be creative!
