Vanilla French Toast

I love freshly baked bread. Like can’t-even-wait-until-I-get-home-so-I-tear-off-a-hunk-as I’m-walking-to-the-car-and-stuff-it-in-my-face love it. Crackly French bread, tangy sourdough bread, airy ciabatta. I love it all. If I had to choose between giving up carbs, meat, or dairy, meat would be the first to go. And I am a diehard meat-o-saurus but there is no way I would give up bread (or cheese).

The only problem with buying a long, golden brown, delicious loaf of French bread is that I sometimes can’t eat it all before it goes stale. Enter French toast, or as it’s known in French, pain perdu. Pain perdu literally means “lost bread”. Bread that would otherwise be wasted because it’s gotten a little too hard.

Take your half-eaten loaf of stale bread and cut it into 3/4 inch slices.

Try to cut your loaf of bread on the bias (at an angle rather than straight across) to maximize slice size.

For vanilla French toast you’ll first need a mix of sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Also eggs, half-and-half, and vanilla (not pictured. I know, I know, the vanilla is a main component of the post. “It’s in the title for goodness’ sake, why didn’t you include it?” Because I didn’t want you to see my economy-sized Kirkland bottle from Costco and judge me for my pedestrian vanilla, that’s why).

A pie plate makes for easy dipping of bread slices. Whisk together your ingredients and pour them into the pie plate. Then create yourself a little pain perdu assembly line.

While the butter is heating up in the pan, pack your bread slices into the pie plate and after a minute flip them so they absorb all the egg mixture. There shouldn’t be any liquid left in the pie plate after they’ve been flipped.

Throw them into your buttered pan once the butter has melted.

Fry them on one side and flip them after a few minutes. Cook for a couple more minutes until they’re browned on both sides.

I know it’s trite, but to me French toast needs a dusting of powdered sugar before it’s really done.

Voilà! You’ve made pain perdu à la vanille. Bon appétit.

Recipe:

I’ve adapted this recipe from Robert Irvine’s. I halved most of the ingredients, except for the half-and-half and vanilla, as his recipe is meant to serve 4.

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
1/4 cup half-and-half
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 slices challah, brioche, or white bread
1/4 cup syrup, warmed

In a small bowl, combine cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar and set aside.

In a 10-inch or 12-inch skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Whisk together cinnamon mixture, eggs, half-and-half, and vanilla and pour into a shallow container such as a pie plate. Dip both sides of bread in egg mixture. Fry slices until golden brown, then flip to cook the other side. Serve with syrup.