Best French Toast Recipe (Pain Perdu)
Easy French recipe for Pain Perdu - French Toast made the French way. The best, day-old fluffy white artisanal bread or brioche slices are soaked in a mix of milk, cream, eggs and sugar and fried in toasted butter. Recipe with thanks to Laurent Ehmig, baker at l'Aigle d'Or in Saint-Germain-en-Laye near Paris.
Ingredients
- loaf of day-old white bread or brioche (unsliced)
- 3 (150g) eggs organic
- 200 ml (¾ cup) whole milk or semi-skimmed
- 50 ml (bit less than ¼ cup) heavy cream (crème liquide)
- 50 g (¼ cup) sugar
- 25 g (2 tbsp) brown cane sugar (unrefined, granulated, crystallised sugar) See NOTES
- pinch sea salt fleur de sel, Maldon or Celtic
- 25 g (2 tbsp) butter unsalted
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar and cane sugar. Pour in the milk and cream.
- Cut the bread or brioche into about 6 thick slices of about 2-3cm (an inch) per slice.
- Soak each slice in the liquid for a few seconds (or more if the bread is quite dry) until completely soaked through the bread. Transfer each slice to a tray.
- In a medium-hot non-stick frying pan, melt the butter until it starts to mousse a little.
- Fry the slices in the butter until well toasted on each side. As the slices cook, the butter will also become toasted. Repeat until all the slices are used.
Video
Notes
To serve: serve warm either immediately or keep warm in the oven at 120°C/100°C fan for a few minutes before serving. Top with a dusting of powdered sugar and fresh berries or slices of fried apples with salted caramel sauce.
Storage: leave any leftover slices to cool then stack on a plate covered with another upturned plate. The pain perdu can also be frozen, sealed in freezer bags.
Brown cane sugar: known as sucre de canne/roux/'Cassonade' in France, this is unrefined crystallised cane sugar (free-flowing that doesn't clump) that adds a slight vanilla/caramel flavour to recipes. Although related, it's not the same as soft brown sugar (for more, see FAQ page).
Measures: Please note that all my recipes are best made using digital kitchen scales in precise metric grams. Both ounces (and cups) are given as an approximate guide.