Battered Style French Toast

I used to always make French Toast what I thought was the standard way. Throw a bunch of eggs in a bowl, whisk them together with a splash of milk and some cinnamon and cook them in a non-stick skillet. I still think that there’s a place for this style too. It’s nice and easy and there’s less clean up.

Now though, on the weekend when I’m up early and looking forward to a family breakfast I make it this way. It just gives the toast that extra punch…and a very similar flavor to bread pudding, something this girl with a touch of British blood can’t get enough of!

First things, get everything out that you need to make it: butter, milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, salt and flour. I know you’re jealous of my Coronita salt shaker.

It helps if you have someone to shake your cinnamon bottle, you know, to make sure there’s enough.

Wait a second…Oliver…what are you eating?

Oh, candy, fantastic. Literally right as we’re making breakfast. You want to know what else is funny about that candy? Our pizza guy and his wife give us a bag of candy for free for Oliver every time we get pizza from them. They also know both Bo and my voice on the phone, our usual order, and insist on coming out to see the kids when we pick it up. I really love that little Mom and Pop Pizza shop! Papa D’s Pizza

What you’re not seeing right now is that there’s a cookie sheet with a wire rack on it topped with 8 slices of Italian style white bread in the oven. You want to just lightly toast the bread, basically dry it out a bit. In the meantime, put the melted butter, milk, sugar, eggs, vanilla and cinnamon in a medium bowl. We like to measure twice.

Whisk everything together well, then add the flour and whisk again.

There’s the bread, fresh out of the oven.

Pour the milk mixture into a large dish and soak the toast in it, about 15 –  20 seconds per side.

Melt a couple of tablespoons of butter on your griddle (or in a couple of frying pans).

Add your toast and cook until golden brown on each side. Here you see some that I’ve flipped, and some that I haven’t yet. It’s about 3 minutes per side.

Closer look:

Viola!

Here’s the printable:

Battered Style French Toast

Yield: 8 slices

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Print

Ingredients

• 8 slices Italian style sandwich bread
• 2 tbsp butter, melted (plus more for pans)
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• ¾ tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ cup flour

Instructions

1. Pre-heat your oven to 200ºF with a rack in the middle position. Put the bread on a wire rack set inside a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes, flipping the bread slices half way.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the butter, milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and salt. Once uniform, whisk in the flour until nice and smooth. Pour the batter into a large dish.
5. Once the bread is out of the oven, soak in the milk mixture for 15-20 seconds on each side. Melt some butter in a large frying pan or on a griddle over medium-high heat, then add the bread and cook until golden brown, about 3 minutes per side.
7. To keep cooked slices warm, simply return to the wire rack and place back in the 200ºF oven until all the slices are cooked.