Rourke's Random Musings

I love french toast. French toast has far more flavor to it than pancakes, and yet it still soaks up maple syrup just as well. Beyond plain french toast, you can make cinnamon raison french toast, stuffed french toast, and a variety of other variations. What’s not to like?

I’ve always enjoyed french toast, so when I saw the Toast Modern episode of Good Eats I figured I’d give making it a shot. The very first time I made Alton’s recipe, though, I was shocked at just how well it turned out. It was so good, in fact, that I poked around and looked at other recipes to see what made my amateur rendition of Alton’s french toast so good.

There are three things Alton suggests that aren’t generally described in french toast recipes. Both of these differences require that you do some prep work the night before you intend to breakfast on french toast.

First, you need stale bread. Really, you want the bread to be stale around the outside but still fresh on the inside. As per Mr. Brown, I made some fresh bread stale by cutting it appropriately and leaving it out over night to go stale. In order to have the bread go stale quickly enough, I placed the pieces upright in the wire rack from my toaster over (see picture, middle left).

After setting up the bread to stale, I prepared the “custard” that I’d dip that bread into the next morning. Allowing that custard to age in the refrigerator overnight enhances the flavor considerably. The custard takes no more than five minutes to prepare, and then you’re ready to go to bed while it sits in the ‘fridge.

The next morning you need to start by preheating your oven to 350. You’ll use this to finish the french toast rather than cooking it completely on the oven. I set up an assembly line on my counter: soak in custard, move to drying rack, fry both sides, place in oven to bake.

Do follow Alton’s recipe, but make sure you allow the french toast to cook slowly over a medium low heat — do not raise that heat out of impatience. Trust me. All this extra work is worth it, as it somehow ends up generating exceptional french toast. Now that I know I like the results from following this method I’d like to try mixing things up a little and making stuffed french toast, or cinnamon raison french toast.

Both times I’d tried this recipe it has turned out really. Both time I used bread from Acme Bread Company. Of the two different breads I tried, I definitely prefer the Pain de Mie to the Challah. I highly recommend picking up some Pain de Mie and trying Alton’s recipe with that bread. You won’t be disappointed.