I have officially become known to my roommates as the French Toast Queen, especially after making glorious french toast this weekend with challah bread. Working at a bakery has many perks, but one of the best is definitely the easy access I have to artisan bread. I've used chocolate bread and butter bread in my most recent french toast adventures, but the challah is by far my favorite. Without further ado, here's how to become French Toast Queen (aka how to make Challah French Toast)
The first (and probably most important) step is to slice your bread the night before you plan on making french toast. This allows the bread to dry out, leaving it ready to soak up the moisture of the eggs/milk you're going to soak it in later. If you're lazy, or just poor at planning, one of my customer's suggested drying it out in the oven at a low temp for 10 minutes or less, and I'm sure that would work just as well.
Next, you need to make a batter. For 6 slices of challah, I used 3 eggs and about as much milk as there was liquid for the eggs (I never measure), a dash of vanilla, some sugar, and a lot of cinnamon. Soak each slice of bread for about 30 seconds-1 minute on both sides.
After seasoning my cast-iron skillet (stolen from my mom) with butter, I fried the french toast for about 3-5 minutes each side. I was getting ready for work while doing this, so my timing was not exact, and the slices didn't come out completely even. But, I make my food to be delicious first, and beautiful second, so I didn't mind.
After sprinkling on some chopped walnuts (baked in cinnamon butter from Uppercrust... mmm), powdered sugar, and maple syrup, all I had to do was find some natural lighting and add an instagram filter to have a beautiful, tasty brunch.
Although I must say, I don't think I can label myself French Toast Queen until I have attempted some savory french toast. Next time.
So that's where my cast iron skillet went off to!
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