Classic French Toast
This Classic French Toast recipe is an easy and delicious option for weekend breakfasts – just don’t forget the berries and the maple syrup!
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French toast is easy. I love all types of breakfast foods, and I don’t mind hopping up a bit early to make homemade biscuits or a coffee cake. But French toast? No need to get up early. Heck, you can sleep in and still have a delicious plate of French toast on the table before the first cup of coffee is empty!
Aside from the taste, one of my favorite things about French toast is that it’s a convenient way to use up old bread. Anything from stale white sandwich bread to challah to Texas toast or cinnamon rolls. Any of these can be used to make French toast.
Seriously, though, who has leftover cinnamon rolls? What kind of silly talk is that? We never have that kind of problem in our house! But if we did, I bet those cinnamon rolls would make fantastic French toast!
French toast is also the perfect way to celebrate nature’s candy – i.e. maple syrup. I do love maple syrup and drizzling it all over French toast is the way to go! Robbie has followed in his Dad’s footsteps here, too, as he often requests French toast for dinner. Ah, breakfast for dinner. One of my favorite things!
Classic French Toast
This recipe for Classic French Toast is spot on. It’s delicious. It’s easy. It should be a staple in your toolkit of weekend breakfast ideas.
At it’s core, French toast is easy. Whip up some eggs. Add some milk. Add some seasonings. Soak that stale bread in the mixture and then fry up the bread in a skillet. But there is a bit of finesse there. You don’t want too many eggs or the French toast might become too ‘eggy.’ You need milk, but too much milk will disrupt the balance. And seasonings? Cinnamon is a requirement, but what about a pinch of nutmeg and cardamom? Trust me here!
Similar to waffles and pancakes, French toast usually needs to be cooked in several rounds. Well, you could pull out multiple skillets, but then that means you have to clean multiple skillets. Instead, just preheat the oven to 250°F and keep the cooked French toast in there on a warm plate until the entire batch is done.
And don’t forget the berries! An assortment of strawberries, blueberries and blackberries is the perfect topping to this Classic French Toast. Heck, you could get creative and use fresh peaches or even diced apples sautéed in a bit of butter. Use whatever fruit and berries happen to be in season. Whatever you do, I promise this French toast recipe will become a tried-and-true staple in your weekend breakfast options. Enjoy!
Did you make a batch of this Classic French Toast at home? Leave a comment, or snap a photo and tag me on Instagram (@Spicedblog) – I’d love to see your version!
Classic French Toast
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 1¼ tsp cinnamon
- {optional} ½ tsp cardamom
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- 3 large eggs
- ⅔ cup milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 8 slices thick bread i.e. Texas toast, brioche or Challah
- {optional} sliced strawberries for serving
- maple syrup for serving
Instructions
- Using a medium bowl, combine sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, eggs, milk and vanilla extract.
- Pour egg mixture into a shallow bowl or container.
- Using a large skillet, add butter and place over medium heat.
- Once butter has melted, dip both sides of bread into the egg mixture until soaked. Place bread into skillet.
- Cook for 2-3 minutes, or until bottom of bread is golden brown. Flip and continue cooking for 2-3 more minutes, or until other side is golden brown.
- Serve hot with sliced strawberries and maple syrup. (Tip: If not serving immediately, place cooked French toast onto an oven-safe plate and keep warm in a 250°F oven.)
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Will be making this soon can i use almond milk and vegan butter can i make this to savory french toast with mushrooms as am not a big fan of sweet stuff i never had classic french toast before perfect for my after office snacks love your recipes as always brightens up my day everyday after work will dm you if i make this and let you know how it goes Thanks Ramya
That’s an interesting idea, Ramya! It wouldn’t really be French Toast anymore, but I bet it would be a tasty recipe. Make sure to leave out the sugar and spices for your savory version…or at least change the spices to savory ones instead!
It likely won’t have the intended taste. I would follow the recipe as it is written.
Agreed! Thanks, Renee! 🙂
Love a good old classic French toast, and make it Texas toast for me! Love the thick slab toast to soak up all that custardy goodness!
I totally agree with you, Michelle – Texas toast is perfect for French toast! Although I am intrigued by the idea of leftover cinnamon rolls…but the problem is I have to have leftover cinnamon rolls to begin with. Haha!
What a delicious classic David! I always loved French Toast growing up, but I’ve actually never made it myself. (Should I admit to that?? 😄). Your recipe will be the one to change that! I love that this is a quick recipe that doesn’t require waking up extra early, but delivers such a delicious and special breakfast. My family would love waking up to this Classic French Toast tomorrow. 😋
Haha – French toast is SO easy to make, Shannon! It feels so fancy and special, but in reality you can whip it up in just a few minutes. Cheers, my friend!
David, I haven’t had french toast for ages and I don’t know why except we don’t get Texas toast here. It’s funny how you move through life eating something yummy and you move or what not and you stop eating that yummy thing for no reason. I’m going to have to remedy this french toast neglect very soon. We used to love to use leftover panettone to make French toast, if you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend it.
And, savory French toast isn’t Fench toast in my book. Take care and I hope you don’t have too much snow chaos over your way…
You’ve mentioned the lack of Texas toast over there. Perhaps you can find a loaf of challah? That would do the trick nicely. I haven’t tried panettone yet – that needs to go on my list for sure! French toast is such a classic comfort food!! 🙂 Oh, and we got lucky with the snow…it stayed out closer to the coast so we only got ~1″. But I’m seeing a forecast for later this week that looks like 8″. That means snowblower time…ugh!
I love French toast.
Yet another reason why we are friends, Jeff.
We love our weekend breakfasts and this french toast looks like the perfect addition! Nothing like cooking up something special and enjoying with lots of coffee on Saturday or Sunday morning. Love all those berries on top too! Been enjoying so many lately! We had blackberries this weekend and they were SO good. Crazy sweet! I think french toast with berries is in my future real soon!! Have a lovely week!!
Weekend breakfasts are the best! Lots of coffee, yummy food and the anticipation of a whole day ahead with no work. Can’t get much better than that! 🙂 Sweet blackberries in the middle of the winter, though? I need to come visit you!! Ours are so sour here…I just stopped buying them until summer. Either way, have a great week ahead, Dawn!
Ah you’ve got a favourite of Lynne’s here David. She does so love her french toast and regularly asks for it. Indeed I only had to show her your photographs and she was like “right I want these for Valentines day”. Well I guess that’s breakfast for that day sorted out. Only lunch and dinner to be decided for now……! Lol.
Haha – well that was easy! You’ve got Valentine’s Day covered with a recipe that doesn’t take too long to make at all. 🙂 Lucky guy! Tell Lynne Happy Valentine’s Day for me!
Oh my – I LURVE me some French toast! And you are so right – it’s a fantastic way to use up old stale bread – so long as it doesn’t have any blue spots on it! BTW – challah French toast is epic – have y’all tried French toast made with panettone? Oh my! Talk about bliss!
Hoping y’all are staying warm up there, my upstate NYC friend!
Haha – I hate those blue spots on bread! They taste a little funny to me. 🙂 j/k!! So I haven’t tried French toast with panettone, but Ron mentioned the same thing – clearly that’s the universe sending me a sign. Putting it on the list! We’re staying warm up here – well at least as best as possible. Hope you’re staying warm down there, too!
You just reminded me that I havent had french toast for ages, I think I will make one for breakfast tomorrow with lots of fruits like your one
French toast is one of those breakfast ideas that we forget about often, too, Raymund – but it’s so easy and so tasty!! Enjoy!
sounds fabulous david. i have to say i didn’t actually know that french toast was meant to be sweet till i left home. we only ever had it as savoury! dare i admit that our mum used to put tomato sauce on it!! i think it was dinner.
Interesting – savory French toast? It certainly is very different, but I like that idea of tomato sauce – maybe add a bit of garlic and Italian spices instead of sugar? Could be fun!