Fancy making your own bread for French toast? Give my Sourdough Recipe for Beginners a try! For an equally celebratory, but less eggy breakfast treat, try these Belgian waffles. It’s another topping free-for-all! I constantly find myself persevering to finish a sourdough loaf. I will eat sourdough toast until my teeth shatter. I will crumb stale slices until the freezer is full. I will cast croutons into soup well beyond soup weather. Until now. Sourdough French toast is a revelation that has changed my life. OK, a bit of an overstatement, but it is a big deal!
What is French toast?
Despite its obviously French title, the first French toast recorded was, in fact, in Rome. The French adopted it as ‘Roman Bread’ and eventually renamed it pain perdu, as it’s known there today. The exact translation is ‘lost bread’, alluding to the idea that the bread is stale, or worthless. And that is what makes your never-ending sourdough loaf the ideal bread for a French toast recipe. As fresh bread is moist and bouncy, adding it to egg turns it to mush and on frying it pure disintegrates into little eggy islands in butter. Yuck. A firm and stale sourdough will hold the egg and its shape resulting in a deliciously sweet or savoury mouthful. Beautifully golden French toast can be achieved with other breads or other bread products, like stale brioche or crumpets. But for me, sourdough is the answer to my stale bread prayers.
How to make it
The main skill required for making French toast is the art of multi-tasking. Once you have your bread sliced, egg mixture mixed, crème fraiche swirled with maple syrup and your frying pan hot, it’s focus time. The last thing you want is your first slice of French toast to be cold at the point of eating. So, get organised. Decide whether you are going to plate up and garnish yourself, or if you’re going family-style with the crème fraiche, fruit and extra maple syrup on the table. Then set up your production line: bread, egg, pan, plate. Let’s do a walk through: one slice of bread goes in the egg. It soaks for one minute on one side and then flip for up to two or three depending on the thickness of the slice and just how stake it is! The egg-soaked slice goes into the hot butter in the frying pan. And you go back to the start (bread in the egg). Keep an eye on the slice in the pan. When it is a tempting golden brown, flip it. A treacle-tinted, crispy edged toast is what’s desired. Move the first slice to a plate, the second to the pan, and the third to the egg mix. If you have loads of hungry folk to feed, pre-heat your oven to 170F/80C and stash the cooked ones in there.
Recipe variations
There is a danger of over ambition here. A towering edifice of banana, peanut butter, chocolate sauce, whipped cream, sliced strawberries, sprinkles and a cherry on top is going to result in more than a little discomfort and a filling. So, my formula for a restrained yet satisfying French toast topping is: a hero, or star of the show, in this case maple crème fraiche. The love interest, I’ve employed red berries. And a sidekick; an extra dousing of maple syrup. Nominees for each category are: Hero: breakfast meats, like bacon or sausage; soft cheeses like ricotta; or cream; or ice cream. Love interest: fresh fruits, or spreads like hazelnut chocolate; cookie spread; jam etc. Sidekick: syrups; sauces; or extras like chopped nuts; sprinkles; or chocolate chips.
Storage and leftovers
As if you needed any excuse- it all has to go! Leftover cold eggy bread is not a good thing. Don’t spoil it for yourself. Get it while it’s hot!
Other breakfast recipes
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