Hint of Orange
French toast made with homemade white sandwich bread. If you didn’t see the post where I made this bread, you can find it here.
I decided to make french toast with my homemade sandwich bread. But not just any french toast, hint of orange flavoured french toast!
I’m sure everyone knows the process for making french toast and I’m guessing everyone does it just a little bit differently. I learned my process from my mom many many years ago.
I recently watched a video from Alton Brown where he made a custard-type mixture that had to sit overnight for his french toast. It looked amazing but I never seem to preplan my breakfast the night before to try that out.
French Toast – the way I make it
I use a shallow 8 x 8 baking dish since it’s easier to get the bread flat and completely covered in the mixture. These measurements are what I used for 8 slices of french toast:
4 eggs, about 1/4 cup of whole milk, zest from 1 orange (don’t forget to wash your orange first) and 2 tbsp of fresh orange juice. Whisk it all together.
I sliced my bread into thicker pieces. Thicker than regular store sandwich bread but not as thick as Texas toast, approximately 2cm in width. Don’t worry about being exact and honestly if you only have store-bought bread, it will work just as well.
I like to use my Lodge Cast Iron seasoned steel griddle. It’s a nice large surface that heats evenly and allows me to cook 4 slices at a time. I could probably squeeze more slices on, but I like to give them room to cook properly.
Heat your oven to 250F. I’ll explain in a bit why.
Heat your pan/griddle with a bit of butter. Dip each slice of bread, front and back, into the egg mixture making sure to coat evenly. Then, place them on the griddle. Cooking times will vary depending on how hot you have your pan. I use a medium heat level so that the eggs have time to cook properly and not burn. Once the one side is cooked, flip and repeat.
Take a cooling rack and place it on top of a cookie sheet and place it into your preheated oven. As your pieces of french toast are done cooking place them on the rack in your oven. Having the rack keeps the toast from getting soggy and will keep it warm until everything is done.
Top your french toast with whatever you like. Here I’m using maple syrup but you could use a fruit spread with whipped cream as well. I’ve also made french toast where I use cinnamon instead of orange. I find with that you have to sprinkle the cinnamon on the egg-coated bread since the first slice seems to get all the cinnamon if you just add it to the egg mixture.
It’s an easy, quick breakfast that is delicious!
Since everyone makes their french toast differently, let me know how you make yours. If you try my version with orange, let me know what you think.