Heavenly French Toast

I don't normally put recipes on my blog...but these are HEAVEN and so so GOOD!  I wish I would have taken a picture...but they got devoured!  You will have to try them!  We topped them with this buttermilk syrup...so so delicious!  I have to thank my old visiting teacher.  She made these for me once when Chris was away in Vegas...sad that I am just now getting around to making them.  Enjoy!

PS my one suggestion would be to 1 1/2 the batter recipe because I definitely was scraping the bottom of the dish to try and get some batter for my last 2 pieces of toast.

French Toast

The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, Revised Edition

Serves: 4

Prep time: 5 minutes

Total time: 45 minutes

Many types of bread can be substituted for white sandwich bread, including cinnamon-raisin bread and challah.  The recipe can be doubled and the cooking time sped up by preparing batches simultaneously in two skillets or by using an electric griddle.

8 slices of high quality white sandwich bread

6 tablespoons of unsalted butter

1 cup milk

1 large egg

2 tablespoons of sugar

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1.   Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 200 degrees.  Arrange the bread on a wire rack set over a baking sheet and bake until slightly dry, about 15 minutes.

2.   While the bread is in the oven, melt 2 tablespoons of butter and whisk it together with the milk, egg, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl.  Slowly whisk in the flour until smooth.  Pour the batter into a large shallow dish. 

3.   Transfer 2 pieces of the bread from the oven into the batter and soak both sides, about 30 seconds per side.  Meanwhile, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat until beginning to brown, swirling to coat the pan.  Remove the bread from the batter, allowing excess batter to drip back into the dish, and lay in the hot skillet.  Cook until golden brown on both sides, about 2 1/2 minutes per side.  Transfer the French toast to the wire rack to keep warm in the oven.  Repeat with the remaining butter, bread and batter.

Test Kitchen Tip: Flour does the trick

            All too often, French toast is as soggy on the outside as it is on the inside.  To remedy this, we experimented with a number of techniques.  In the end, we found that adding flour to the batter, although a bit odd, was a highly successful solution.  It lends crispness to the French toast that milk and egg alone cannot provide.

Jen’s variations:

            I use my multigrain bread and skip the drying in the oven.  I also use my electric griddle to cook 4 at a time. I use a shallow baking dish that can accommodate 4 pieces of bread soaking at the same time.