French Toast (Pain Perdu)
Bread soaked in egg and milk and fried golden in butter — a breakfast staple worldwide. Just bread, eggs, and milk, done in one pan in 10 minutes. The French call it ''pain perdu.''
Ingredients
Steps
- ⏲ 1 min
In a wide bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt until the sugar dissolves.
- ⏲ 1 min
Dip the bread in the custard, coating both sides. For thick bread, soak 10–20 seconds so the center absorbs it (don't oversoak or it goes mushy).
- ⏲ 1 min
Heat a pan over medium-low and melt the butter.
- ⏲ 3 min
Lay in the bread and cook until the underside is golden, 2–3 minutes.
- ⏲ 3 min
Flip and cook the other side until golden, another 2–3 minutes.
Plate, top with a pat of butter, and drizzle with maple syrup. Dust with powdered sugar or add fruit, and serve warm.
Tips & Variations
Variations
- Brioche or baguette: Thick, rich bread gives the best crisp-outside, custardy-inside texture.
- Fruit & cream: Top with strawberries, banana, and whipped cream for a dessert.
- Savory: Skip the sugar and serve with cheese and ham as a meal.
- Overnight: Soak the bread the night before and just fry it in the morning.
Tips
- Medium-low heat cooks the center through without burning the outside.
- Dissolve the sugar fully into the custard for even, golden browning.
- Slightly stale bread soaks up the custard better and fries up nicer.
- If the butter starts to brown, lower the heat and wipe the pan between batches.
The basics behind this dish
- Eggs: Coagulation Temperatures and What They DecideWhite sets at 62°C, yolk at 68°C. Those two numbers explain scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, steamed custard and crème anglaise all at once.
- Why Sauces Split: Emulsions and Pan SaucesA cream sauce breaking and a carbonara scrambling are the same failure. Temperature and emulsifiers — plus how to bring a split sauce back.
- Knife Skills: Grip, Cuts, and Why Size MattersHow you hold the knife matters more than how fast you cut. The pinch grip, the claw hand, and why uniform size is a cooking decision rather than a cosmetic one.
More of the same kind
More from this country
French →
Sign in to edit.
AI-drafted, editor-reviewed · edits: 0 ·Edit history
https://cookiki.com/en/r/french-toast · cookiki · User contributions are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.