I fiddled with French toast recipes for years and I think I finally hit upon the right one. Kelly likes it more than I do so she has been the measure of its success.
The most important thing is the bread. Regular sandwich bread makes French toast even more boring than it has to be. You can use French bread, which is preferred, especially stale. There are other hearty loaf breads, some even pre-sliced, that also do real well. If the bread isn’t dry enough I pre-toast it with a regular toaster. If it doesn’t start out dry it stays soggy in the middle.
Serves 2 – 4.
- 3-4 Eggs (the thicker the bread, the eggier the batter should be)
- 1/3 C Milk
- 1/3 C Cream or half-and-half
- ¼ t Mexican vanilla, the good stuff
- ¼ C Spiced rum (I prefer Captain Morgan for this, or if you’re a vanilla nut you
- can use vanilla rum)
- Cinnamon and nutmeg to taste
Beat the eggs first to get them smooth and fluffy, then beat some more with the other ingredients. I use my 8” square Pyrex baking pan to soak the bread a few pieces at a time. The thicker it is, the more time it will need to soak and the more of the batter you will need to cover.
Cook the toasts in hot melted butter in an electric skillet or your biggest, heaviest pan. The butter will keep them from browning evenly but they will taste a lot better.
You can gently melt some Neufchâtel cheese in a nonstick pan and add berries, orange marmalade or lemon curd (or whatever you want) to make these extra rich, “stuffed” restaurant style. You can use thin bread and put the filling in between slices, or you can cut your bread extra thick, slit it in the middle, and stuff it with a spoon. I find the sandwich option is a lot easier. I recommend keeping the portions small if you do this because they become a lot more filling.