Classic French Toast Recipe (Video)
This is our family favorite French Toast recipe and it’s so easy to make. This classic breakfast features sweet egg-soaked Brioche bread cooked in a pan and served with your favorite toppings. Brioche is the best bread for the softest, tastiest French Toast.
Table of contents
French Toast is a classic breakfast recipe that features slices of bread soaked in a sweetened egg custard mixture. For a perfect finish, top French Toast with powdered sugar, fruit, maple syrup, or butter.
It is probably the most popular breakfast and brunch recipe, or at the very least top 3. This is my family’s absolute favorite French toast recipe because I use Brioche bread, the egg mixture is perfectly sweet and creamy, and there is a hint of cinnamon.
How To Make French Toast
- Step 1: Use a sharp serrated or bread knife to slice the bread loaf. PRO TIP: Don’t slice the bread too thin! Perfect bread slice thickness for the best French Toast is between 3/4 and 1 inch.
- Step 2: Combine all of the ingredients for the custard in the wide and shallow bowl and whisk very well! Make sure to which until it looks smooth, with no egg white chunks left.
- Preheat a large cooking pan over medium or slightly lower than medium heat. Make sure to preheat the pan completely before starting to cook.
- Step 3: Lightly grease the preheated pan. Soak each slice of bread for about 15 seconds each, flipping it from side to side to get an even coating.
- Step 4: Place the soaked bread into the preheated pan one at a time. Let the bread cook for about 3-4 minutes on each side. Make sure to flip each slice in the order that you added it to the pan, giving a few seconds in between.
Tips For The Best French Toast
- For creamiest texture, use heavy whipping cream in the egg mixture. Heavy whipping cream also makes the egg mixture thicker rather than watery like it is with milk. Since the egg mixture is thicker, it will take a little longer to soak into the bread for a better final texture.
- Don’t add too much milk/cream!
- To enhance all the flavors and aroma, do add some pure vanilla extract to the egg mixture.
- Preheat the pan completely before starting to batter the bread.
- Don’t turn the heat up higher than medium. I would actually recommend the heat to be a little lower than medium because the outside of the bread cooks very fast and you want inside to be cooked through as well.
- Don’t walk away far, French Toast only takes 3-4 minutes of cooking on each side. Use a large pan so you can fit several slices at a time.
- If using the griddle, preheat it well and make sure the heat is spread evenly. Downfall of a griddle is often uneven heat.
Recipe FAQs
How To Tell If French Toast Is Done?
As the French toast slices cook, after you flip the bread to the uncooked side, you are looking for the center of the bread slice to raise as the egg inside cooks. Raising center is indicating that the egg that soaked in the middle is cooking. Wait until it deflates and carefully touch the center with your finger. It should feel firm and now squishy.
What Are Best Bread Options?
Brioche: This bread is so soft and fluffy, it does the best job soaking the sweet egg mixture. Brioche also has a sweet and buttery flavor, which contributes to the overall flavor of the dish.
French Baguette: It is just as good at soaking up the egg mixture and holding its own integrity. This is actually the best option to make stuffed French toast. Although, it does not soak up the eggs as easily and as quickly as Brioche.
Challah: The reason for it being only third out of the top 3 is because of the flavor and texture. Challah doesn’t have much sweetness in it so you may need to add more sugar to the egg mixture or in the topping. This type of bread is also denser and a bit drier than the previous two options.
More Breakfast and Brunch Recipes
If you’ve made this French toast using my recipe and found a lot of good information here, PLEASE leave a 🌟 star rating! Let me know how you liked it by leaving the 📝 comment below as well.
The Best French Toast
Ingredients
- 8 oz (8 slices) of Brioche bread
- 4 large eggs
- 3 tbsp heavy whipping cream
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp brown sugar packed
- Pinch of salt
- 1/4-1/2 tsp cinnamon optional*
Instructions
- Note: this egg mixture should comfortably batter 8 slices of Brioche bread that are a between 3/4 and 1 inch thick. It will batter 10-12 slices of French baguette or about 6 slices of Challah.
- Slice bread and set it aside.
- In a deep and wide bowl, whisk together eggs, heavy whipping cream, vanilla extract, sugar, cinnamon (if using), and salt. Whisk until smooth. Set aside.
- Preheat a large cooking pan oven medium to medium-low heat. Add a little bit of oil and spread it evenly (or use cooking oil spray).
- Dip each slice of bread into the egg mixture, and flip back and forth for about 15 seconds. Brioche bread is nice and quick to soak up the egg. Note: Only batter as many slices as will fit into the pan. If you have to cook in two or more batches, batter bread right before adding it to the pan.
- Place battered slices into the pan and let it cook for 3-4 minutes on each side, until golden brown. (Repeat with remaining slices of bread if needed.)PRO TIP: as the French toast slices cook, after you flip the bread to the uncooked side, you are looking for the center of the bread slice to raise as the egg inside cooks. Raising center is indicating that the egg that soaked in the middle is cooking. Wait until it deflates and carefully touch the center with your finger. It should feel firm and now squishy.
- Serve with your favorite topping.
Video
Notes
- Bread: for the best French Toast, use Brioche loaf and slice it into thick slices that are between 3/4 and 1 inch thick.
- For more bread options, check the post for information about Challah and French Baguette.
- Heavy Whipping Cream – I recommend using heavy whipping cream because of the rich and creamy consistency that it brings to the custard. You can use half and half or whole milk if absolutely needed but not with less fat.
- For a lactose free option, you can use lactose free whole milk or lactose free half and half. If you need a dairy free option, use oat, almond, or soy milk substitutes but note that the flavor will change slightly.
- Make sure your French Toast is cooked through (touch the center) – once you flip the bread slices, you will notice the bread will raise in the center. Let it raise, cook, and deflate. Touch in the center to make sure it feels firm.
Nutrition
Originally published on Will Cook For Smiles on February 12, 2019.
All images and text ©Lyubov Brooke for ©Will Cook For Smiles. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If using my posts in collections and features, please link back to this post for the recipe.
Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as most ingredients and brands have variations.
The french toast is very fantastic thing ever seen my whole life .
WOW! Thank you for such an amazing compliment! 😀
This French Toast is better than any I have ever paid for,Loved it.
GREAT RECIPE
Awe, thank you Kollar! I am glad you liked the recipe! 🙂
I made this today as a side to go with eggs Benedict. Best brunch ever! I used brioche bread. I may have soaked the first couple slices too long as they cooked very dense, still delicious. As for next time, I will transfer the egg mixture into a cake pan so there is a shallow, even surface for bread dipping. Topped with butter, real maple syrup and raspberries with whipped cream. Might I also add, this was my first attempt to make French toast ever, directions were easy to follow and turned out really well. May also use Pam cooking spray to lube the pan on next attempt as well, I only used melted butter and I had some sticking.
Thanks, Megan! I am glad you liked it! 🙂
I’ve used flour in my other recipe to keep them fluffy. Can I add flour to this one or is it not needed?
Hi, I have never had to use flour in this recipe the brioche bread is really fluffy and delicious!
Kids loved it. very good and easy recipe, i tried it last night
This was a hit with my family the day after Thanksgiving. So yummy. I had discovered brioche bread awhile back. Thank you for sharing!!
Thanks, Alicia! I am so glad you liked it 🙂
Hi Lyuba, I’m looking everywhere delicious recipes I’m lucky to find yours, thank you for this delight and especially the details
Thank you for the sweet comment! So glad you liked it 🙂
Can you use just regular sandwich bread? I dont have any brioche on hand 🙁
Hi Robin,
Yes, you can use regular bread but it won’t taste as good as it will with brioche bread. You should definitely try it again with the brioche! 🙂
Pls where can i get the brochire bread, i need it
Kayleb, You can get it in the bakery section of your grocery store. It’s delicious! 🙂
Cooking this recipe right now with bread that I bought from the bakery at HEB. It is the apple cinnamon golden raisin loaf of bread. I wanted to try something new! So, I it is cooking up nicely, I have my griddle set to 250. I had to use a griddle since my tile is being installed and I have no stove right now. But it is coming out beautifully. I am hoping that it tastes as good as it looks!….
I was able to get 6 slices of the loaf soaked in the mixture with only 3 eggs…don’t ask🤦🏾. I had about 1tbsp of homemade brown sugar that I added
I love cinnamon so i used about a tbsp and forgot the vanilla bc it was a bean and it his under the bowl from me… Sigh. Either way!….i had to turn it down to 200 to let the opposite side cook (I didn’t noticethatthe cord was loose and it turned off in the middle of cooking the 1st side). Turned out great!! No syrup needed!
Holy moly! This was delicious!!
Omg! I typically never order French toast but my kids love it. I searched for a simple recipe and found this one. I had all of the ingredients so I figured why not? Omg! After the first bite, I couldn’t believe how delicious it was! Thank you for posting this recipe! ❤️ It!
Aww thanks, Karena!!! I am so happy you liked it so much!!! 🙂
Can’t wait to try your recipe. The only thing I will do differently is to fry the slices in enough oil to float them. It makes for a crisper coating.
Hi, Mark! I hope you like them! 🙂
Omg, I came by this reciepe by mistake and the ingredients made want to try it!!! I have made this French toast for family and friends and EVERYONE…loves it!! Thank you for posting this Will!!
Thanks Nichole! I am so happy you liked it so much! I hope you will try some of my other recipes! 🙂
This is the best breakfast I’ve ever made! It’s really that good! Thanks for the recipe!