My Take on French Toast

Brunch will never be the same again.

I love Chopped, but it seems like lately all the chefs can make is French Toast.  The past several episodes that we've seen have had a dessert round where one of the chefs makes French Toast.  (Usually the other chef makes a Neapolitan.)  So to all chefs who consider going on Chopped, this is for you.

French Toast is not a dessert.  It is a breakfast or brunch food.  In fact, it's a rather delicious way to start the day.

So here's my take on French Toast.

1. Beat together eggs, milk, cinnamon, vanilla and powdered sugar with a whisk. 

The better your ingredients are, the better your French Toast will be.  For luxurious French Toast, use fresh, free-range, organic, local eggs (room temperature).  Use organic and/or filtered milk (I've used vanilla soy milk before).  You can really splurge with real vanilla that you scrape from the pods, or just make sure to get vanilla extract and not vanilla flavouring. 

Using powdered (confectioner's) sugar means that you won't have any graininess from the sugar and can get a great melt-in-your-mouth consistency on the inside of your French Toast.  Just sieve in a little to the batter.

2. Soak your bread in the wet mixture. 

Slightly stale breads often work well in French Toast because they can suck up the moisture.  I used a apple, walnut, and rye loaf that we had bought at the market from a local artisan baker.

3.  Cook in a frying pan on medium heat.  If you want extra yumminess, cook with some butter in the pan.

4.  Serve with butter and syrup.  We served by stacking two slices with cream cheese in the middle and topping with vanilla cream, strawberries and dark chocolate shavings.

5. Share and enjoy.  We made it and then all piled back into bed for breakfast.  Delicious, even if the kids got syrup on our bed ;)