Classic French Toast Recipe

Helene Dsouza

Soft on the inside and crispy buttery on the outside, this is a classic french toast recipe.

Total Time: 25

Prep Time: 5

Cook Time: 20

6 slices

5 from 1 vote

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Now you can make fancy french toast at home anytime!

Here is a classic recipe for you with crystal clear instructions to make this deliciously flavored breakfast toast that is soft on the inside and crispy on the outside.

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📕 What is it?
🥣 Ingredients
🔪 How to make it?
🍴 Serving
🍱 Storing
💭 FAQs
📖 Recipe
💬 Comments

📕 What is it?

French Toast is a popular breakfast or dessert prepared with bread, milk, and egg.

The French variation is better known as pain perdu. Literally translated it means "lost bread".

Old stale dry and hard bread is dipped in a sweetened flavored milk and egg blend.

The idea is to reuse old bread in a meaningful way. French toast is a typical and delicious zero waste, sustainable dish.

Stale bread soaks in all those wonderful flavors, and this is something that fresh bread can't measure with.

🥣 Ingredients

You will only need a few handful ingredients to prepare a simple french toast from scratch.

Here is an overview to help you get organized, the detailed US and metric measurements are located in the recipe card.

toast - the more stale and harder the better. That way it can soak in all the flavors better. Use a few days old toast bread, regular size.
egg
milk - whole or skim
sugar - powdered sugar mixes in better than granulated sugar, but you can use any of the two.
vanilla - a few drops extract, or vanilla bean paste or vanilla sugar. If you use vanilla sugar, use it on top of the regular sugar quantity (it's a small pack).
butter - salted is better but unsalted is ok too.

You can choose to add more flavoring too, such as a ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon or a ¼ teaspoon ground green cardamom.

The sugar can be switched with honey. I don't think it will taste as great with stevia if you plan on using that.

You may substitute the butter with vegetable oil or margarine but it won't taste as great. Butter is the way to go in this recipe!

To make this eggless, would be a bit more complicated because the milk would have to be reduced too.

I don't recommend eggless french toast, the eggs give all those wonderful flavors to your dish.

Instead of cow's milk, try to make it with coconut, almond, or oat milk.

🔪 How to make it?

In a nutshell, here is how your french toast will come together. Get the full printable recipe in the recipe card further below.

Step 1

Prepare the batter.

Whisk together the egg, milk, sugar, salt, and vanilla flavoring in a soup plate or tray.

Step 2

Heat up a skillet with butter and wait for it to melt.

Dip bread in batter (not too long or it will break apart) and place into the hot skillet.

dip bread slice into French toast batter

Step 3

Fry it on both sides. Flip it when it turns golden brown.

🍴 Serving

The french toast is a breakfast/brunch or dessert dish.

Place your finished cooked golden brown toast on a plate.

Sprinkle icing sugar (powdered sugar) or granulated sugar over the it. Granulated sugar looks nice too.

You can add some whipped cream too and fruits such as fresh strawberries and raspberries.

A fruit puree or coulis can be served along as well.

If you like chocolate sauce, Maple syrup, or caramel, pour some of that over the french toast.

Some people like to serve it with vanilla ice cream for dessert.

🍱 Storing

Option 1

You can prepare and cook some extra and place it on a plate. Wrap some cling film around it and keep it for a day or two in your fridge.

Reheat it in the oven gradually over a lower heat setting in a baking dish or warm them up again in a skillet.

I don't recommend using a microwave because your flavored toasts will get chewy.

Option 2

Prepare the batter and store it in your fridge for up to 2 days (or freeze it and thaw in your fridge overnight to store for a longer period).

When you're ready to cook your batter-dipped toast, heat up your skillet and process by dipping your bread in the batter and frying it.

💭 FAQs

What bread to use?

I think toast bread is just the easiest bread to turn into french toast. I always have some leftovers and they need to be used up. In France, they tend to use brioche bread. I liked to use similar bread like brioche bread, such as milk bread or challah.

What can go wrong when making french toast for the first time?

The quickest way to mess up your flavored toast is to soak it overly soggy. The bread needs to be dipped for a very brief moment in your batter because it soaks up super quickly! If your bread is soggy, it will fall apart and this is a fail. You can still fry it but it won't look that great. 🙂

Why don't you soak the bread first and then heat up the skillet?

The right way to prep and cook a french toast is to first heat up your skillet and melt the butter (keep over a moderate heat setting). Once the butter has melted, take your bread and dip it quickly in your batter and INSTANTLY place it into your hot skillet. Dipped bread can so easily fall apart, trust me, and you don't want that nor do you want to waste time.

How to tell when it is Cooked?

It is ready when cooked golden on both sides.

How to make French toast that is super crispy on the outside?

Use a cast-iron skillet to fry it hyper crispy. You won't achieve that with a regular skillet but a normal skillet is easier to be used.