The homemade French toast is a dish made with slices of bread soaked in a mixture of eggs and milk, then toasted in a pan or baked in the oven. The original recipe, with cinnamon, has spread around the world and now you can find endless variations, with sweet and savoury ingredients. The French toast is adapted everywhere in the world with the local culinary culture and ingredients and made with maple syrup, jam, cheese, meat, vegetables … This is a classic breakfast or “brunch” in the English speaking countries, especially in the United States.
It has become a universal traditional dish, which is simple and everyone can prepare their own way.
It amuses me greatly that this dish is known as “French” toast, but in France nobody calls it that, and I haven’t found any explanation for this name. French people call that dish Pain Perdu (“lost bread”) because it is usually made with remains of bread, even hard bread, to avoid waste.
Here in Spain it is also known as torrija, a sweet honey and cinnamon toast, typical of the Holy Week celebrations.
How to make homemade French toast? This simple recipe is a template that you can easily adapt to suit your taste. Stuffed French toast is very good too: personally I like to make small sandwiches with ham or smoked salmon along with my French toast.
I like it because:
- It is a good way to avoid wasting the bread, as well as being fun to make.
- I love savoury breakfast with scrambled eggs, ham, cheese, smoked salmon, bacon … and French toast mixes perfectly with all of them.
Tricks:
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- Customize the mixture of eggs and milk with herbs or spices such as ground coriander seeds for a salty version, or sweet ingredients to make cinnamon French toast or vanilla French toast. I have found a recipe called blueberry french toast casserole which looks delicious, and I will try it very soon for sure.
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- Freshly grounded nutmeg is a seasoning that never fails me with eggs or a dairy product based dish, it brings a sweet and delicate aroma that really makes the difference.
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- You can use any type of bread you want: white bread, brown bread, sandwich bread, cornbread, fruit bread, ciabatta, arepa, soda bread, brioche, or even unusual breads such as banana bread or zucchini bread for a more elaborated version.
- If you make a lot of toast, heat the oven to 80 ° and reserve the fried ones there while you prepare the rest of them.
The toast is to be eaten very hot, accommodated to your taste. Personally I like to make small sandwiches with ham or smoked salmon with my French toast.
Bon appétit!
Homemade French toast
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 1/4 US cup (60 ml) milk
- Seasoning: grounded nutmeg, grounded coriander seeds, salt and black pepper.
- 2 tbsp sugar in case you prefer a sweet version
- Butter for the pan, enough to toast all the bread
- 6 slices of bread of your choice
Instructions
- Mix the eggs, the milk, the seasoning and the sugar if necessary in a bowl, large enough to dip in the pieces of bread later.
- Melt a little bit of butter in the pan over medium heat.
- In the meantime, cut the bread in a practical way for you to eat once it is toasted. With sandwich bread, I usually cut the slices in diagonal.
- Dip some pieces of bread in the egg mixture on each side, then fry them into the pan, one side after the other, until both sides are golden brown. Repeat the process several times until the bread or the egg mixture is over.
Homemade French toast
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 1/4 US cup (60 ml) milk
- Seasoning: grounded nutmeg, grounded coriander seeds, salt and black pepper.
- 2 tbsp sugar in case you prefer a sweet version
- Butter for the pan, enough to toast all the bread
- 6 slices of bread of your choice
Instructions
- Mix the eggs, the milk, the seasoning and the sugar if necessary in a bowl, large enough to dip in the pieces of bread later.
- Melt a little bit of butter in the pan over medium heat.
- In the meantime, cut the bread in a practical way for you to eat once it is toasted. With sandwich bread, I usually cut the slices in diagonal.
- Dip some pieces of bread in the egg mixture on each side, then fry them into the pan, one side after the other, until both sides are golden brown. Repeat the process several times until the bread or the egg mixture is over.
