French Toast

You've already seen that, thanks to my fabulous mother-in-law, I'm a bit of a fan of the french toast bake.  I mean, what a great way to have all that yummy french toast flavor with hardly any of the mess and fuss, right?

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm......

But.

Sometimes I just want to go old-school.  And if I'm going to go through the hassle of soaking and frying individual slices of bread, why not really amp this up and make sure I've had a hand in each level of this recipe to ensure fabulous-ness?  Let's start with the bread...

I've discovered that, like sandwiches, the key to a rock star french toast is awesome bread.  Not just the flavor and staleness of it but the thickness of each slice as well.  Think about it...have you ever ordered french toast in a restaurant and gotten skinny, wimpy slices?  Uh-huh, that's right.  You get these big monster slabs of it!  So, put your sandwich bread back in the pantry.  Yes, go on, put it back.  If you're not a baker, make sure to grab a loaf of Texas Toast when you're next at the store.  Or, take 10 minutes and put the following in your bread machine

White Bread
[This recipe makes a 1.5 lb loaf]

1 cup milk
1/4 cup water
4 tsp margarine, butter, or olive oil
3 cups bread flour
4 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp active dry yeast or bread machine yeast

1.  Add ingredients to bread maker according to manufacturer's directions.  Bake at white bread setting.

2.  Pull out and let sit on counter, uncovered, for AT LEAST a day before using.  Two days would be even better.

I love making simple, classic breads

So now we've got the bread for our most fabulous french toast.  How do we turn these lovely slabs into fried pieces loveliness?  Oh, patience my friends.  Patience.  Well, and butter.

French Toast
Recipe from Food Network Magazine

1 loaf of stale white bread, sliced into 1" to slices
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp sugar
Pinch of salt
Butter

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Preheat a griddle or large skillet over medium-high heat.

French toast is not the time to cut corners with skinny slices

2.  In a wide, shallow bowl or pie plate, whisk together eggs, milk, nutmeg, vanilla, sugar, and salt.

3.  Melt about a 1/2 tbsp butter on the griddle.  Working in batches, dip the thick slices bread in the egg mixture and cook on the griddle until golden, 2 to 3 minutes per side, adding more butter as needed.

Oh yeah, that's the color you want

4.  Transfer the fried slices to a baking sheet and bake until puffed, 8 to 10 minutes.

 
This french toast is yummy on it's own.  Most of the time I like to be traditional and drown it in syrup.  Other days I might feel a little more creative.  Coincidentally the creativity usually hits when I happen to be out of syrup.  This toast is good with a little extra butter and spiced sugar sprinkled on top.  It's good slathered in Nutella.  It's good with some simple Hershey syrup and sliced fresh strawberries.  Or, and I haven't tried this myself, brown some slices of banana in butter and brown sugar and pour that on top (with whipped cream of course).  The possibilities are endless!