French Toast

Classic French Toast made easy and in just 20 minutes with a slightly sweetened vanilla custard with cinnamon and nutmeg.

We love great Breakfast Recipes that can serve a crowd as we head into the holidays including Easy Cinnamon Rolls (in 1 Hour!) and Easy French Toast Bake.

French Toast on serving plate

 French Toast Recipe

This classic French Toast recipe is the perfect breakfast for a family weekend. Many families love to get their kids involved in baking breakfast and this is the perfect recipe to bring them in to help out.

French Toast dredging mixture in bowl with sliced bread

Milk and Eggs

There’s two schools of thought when it comes to French Toast recipes. The first is how much milk you use (this recipe uses a full cup when many people use half that amount) and the second is how many eggs you’re using. 

The custard in the recipe is the most essential part. This recipe has a very slightly sweetened mixture of milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, and lots of vanilla. The combination of the strong flavors of vanilla and cinnamon are what gives French Toast most of the classic flavor people have loved for decades.

The milk adds moisture to the french toast and helps to effectively flavor the insides of the bread.

  • You can use any kind of milk you’d like, but we tested the recipe with whole milk. When testing with half and half or heavy cream, there was a slight increase in richness, but nothing substantial enough to warrant the extra fat content. 
  • When testing with low-fat milk options the flavor of the egg was more prominent and the custard was thinner and less flavorful.
  • Evaporated milk could also be a shelf-stable option to consider, we have tested the recipe well with evaporated milk.
  • Sweetened Condensed milk should not be used as a milk substitute in this recipe, but you could use it for creating a syrup to serve with it.

Some people use up to an egg per slice of bread. The egg is meant to be a part of the mixture that just aids the setting of the custard, it isn’t meant to take the place of most of the mixture as the custard becomes too thick. Using more eggs also creates a tougher exterior to the French Toast that isn’t necessary, the eggs solidify making a more rubbery exterior.

French Toast in frying pan

Butter

Butter not only adds a fat component for cooking for the recipe, it also adds flavor. If you want to make a swap to the fat you’re using be aware that the mixture of vanilla and sugar and butter are meant to create a delicious, rich, flavor in the bread.

When cooking the recipe you’ll have to decide how much butter you feel comfortable using. We use a moderate amount (shown above) to make a golden brown exterior, crispy edges and with 8 slices of French Toast in the directions, it’s less than 25 calories of butter per slice.

If you prefer to use less, or none in favor of a spray, just know it will change the texture of your recipe.

 

MORE BREAKFAST RECIPES

French Toast Tips and Tricks:

  • Use bread that’s thicker than most sliced bread.
  • Use a slightly sweeter bread like challah, brioche, cinnamon raisin bread or Texas toast instead of more savory breads like wheat bread.
  • In place of whole milk you can also use half and half or heavy cream. If you use fat free milk or 1% milk the custard will not be as flavorful and the egg will be a much more pronounced flavor.
  • When dunking the bread make sure to not let the bread soak indefinitely in the milk. If you were going to soak it all the way through it should be baked as part of a French toast casserole instead of on the griddle.

How to Make French Toast:

  • We make the custard the night before since it’s the only part of the recipe that requires preparation.
  • Once the custard is well mixed add the bread slices to the mixture and allow the milk to soak in before adding it to a buttered skillet or griddle.
  • Add the bread to the skillet and let it cook until the custard has completely set and the bread is crisp before flipping.
  • Quick and easy garnish people love, use a bit of powdered sugar sifted over the slices of bread and add a couple of pats of butter to the top of the slices before serving.

French Toast on plate with strawberries and blueberries

French Toast Sticks:

To make French Toast sticks slice the bread into 1 ½ inch thick batons. With the extra surface area of the bread make about 1 ½ times the milk mixture.  Dip and cook the pieces of bread as you would the slices but use extra butter as you’ll want the batons to be a bit sturdier for dunking.

How to make crispy French Toast:

  • Use much more butter in the pan and soak the bread about half as long as normal so the milk doesn’t soak all the way through the bread.
  • Cook the bread on medium heat allowing the butter to fry the exterior of the bread making it extra crispy.
  • The butter will soak into the bread edges more creating a firmer piece of french toast that will have a crispy texture instead of a softer texture.

MORE BREAKFAST BAKES

Troubleshooting French Toast:

  • Soggy French Toast: If you’ve let the bread soak in milk for too long and there is too much custard in the bread it will have a hard time setting up. The bread will be too soft even when cooked through.
  • Egg Showing on Bread: Whisk the custard fully until it is one mixture without streaks of egg throughout. If you don’t the streaks will cook as any regular eggs would.
  • Center is still liquid-y/Outside Overcooked: The heat is on too high so the bread isn’t able to cook all the way through before the exterior is browned and crispy. If your pan is cooking them too fast remove it from the heat, wipe out the butter and let it cool. Re-heat the pan on medium heat instead of medium-high heat and add more butter to the pan before cooking the next piece of bread.
  • Dry French Toast: The egg and milk mixture just wasn’t enough. You need more and you need the milk to soak almost all the way through the bread (don’t soak it all the way through). A good rule of thumb is to dip on one side and soak for 2-3 seconds then flip and soak for 1-2 more seconds. Let the milk drip off before adding to the pan.

How To Serve and Store French Toast:

  • Serve: Don’t leave at room temperature for more than 2 hours.
  • Store: Store in an airtight container to keep in the fridge for up to 1 week.
  • Freeze: You can also freeze for up to 3 months. Re-heat in toaster oven or in a skillet with a bit of butter.

French Toast on plate with strawberries and blueberries

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Classic French Toast

Classic French Toast made easy and in just 20 minutes with a slightly sweetened vanilla custard with cinnamon and nutmeg.
Yield 4 servings
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Course Breakfast
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients
 

  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 8 slices bread , thick sliced bread, texas toast bread or french bread
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Instructions

  • Whisk together the egg, milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and sugar in a large bowl.
  • Dip the bread in the custard, both sides and let milk soak for 15 seconds then remove and let drip for 5 seconds before adding to pan.
  • Add the butter to a heavy bottomed skillet over medium-high heat before adding the bread in and cooking until browned on both sides, about 2-4 minutes per side.

Nutrition

Calories: 292kcal | Carbohydrates: 34g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 114mg | Sodium: 353mg | Potassium: 216mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 410IU | Calcium: 160mg | Iron: 2.4mg
Keyword: classic french toast, french toast
French Toast collage
Photos from a previous version of this post.

French Toast on baking sheetFrench Toast on baking sheetEasy French Toast on baking sheet with maple syrup

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the upcoming cookbook: Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients which is being published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. These came out really good. I used the Artesano white bread. Next time will try it with Brioche bread. Thank you for this delicious recipe.