Food & Cooking Recipes Breakfast & Brunch Recipes Bread Recipes Classic French Toast 3.5 (637) 19 Reviews Make any breakfast or brunch special with our best French toast. By Martha Stewart Martha Stewart Martha Stewart is a bestselling author, entrepreneur, and lifestyle expert who has taught millions of people through generations the joy of entertaining, cooking, gardening, collecting, crafting, and home renovating via her eponymous magazine, Martha Stewart Living, Emmy-winning television shows, and 99 books (and counting). Based in Katonah, N.Y., where she helms her 156-acre Bedford Farm, Martha is America's first self-made female billionaire. Editorial Guidelines Updated on June 30, 2023 Rate PRINT Share Servings: 6 Crispy on the outside and custardy inside, French toast makes a delicious breakfast or brunch. It's a simple dish made with basic ingredients: milk or cream, eggs, butter, and bread. When Martha makes our classic French toast recipe, she uses rich breads like brioche or challah that make it extra pillowy, but any white bread will do. Just be sure the bread is slightly stale (a day or two old), since fresh bread will soak up too much custard. Follow our tips to avoid soggy French toast, and be sure to preheat the oven to keep the first slices warm and crispy while you cook the rest. Then enjoy with maple syrup or your favorite toppings. Brie Goldman How to Make the Best French Toast Every Time The Best Types of Bread for French Toast French toast can be made with any type of bread, but you must use bread that is a day or two old. Older bread will be drier and hold up better in the egg mixture. Fresh bread soaks up too much of the mixture and tends to fall apart. You can use anything from leftover croissants to cinnamon-raisin bread to French bread or sliced white bread for French toast. Martha prefers rich, spongy breads like brioche and challah for making French toast—and these are our go-tos. French Toast Variations French toast is an infinitely variable dish. Flavor the egg mixture with spices, booze (Martha likes Grand Marnier), citrus zest, or flavored extracts, such as almond. Take it up a notch by making Baked French toast or stuffed French toast. What to Serve With French Toast You can’t beat the perfect pairing of maple syrup with French toast, but there are many other delicious serving options: Fresh berries Sliced bananas, pecans, and honey Sautéed Maple Apples or applesauce Scrambled eggs Fried eggs Bacon Breakfast sausage Smoked salmon and crème fraîche Whipped cream and berries Ingredients 6 large eggs 1 ½ cups heavy cream, half-and-half, or milk 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon Pinch of ground nutmeg Pinch of salt 6 slices (1-inch-thick) bread, preferably day old 4 tablespoons unsalted butter 4 tablespoons vegetable oil Pure maple syrup, for serving (optional) Directions Brie Goldman Whisk eggs, cream, vanilla, and spices: Whisk together eggs, cream, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside. Brie Goldman Arrange bread in shallow dish: Place bread in a shallow baking dish large enough to hold bread slices in a single layer. Brie Goldman Soak bread in egg mixture: Pour egg mixture over bread; soak 10 minutes. Turn slices over; soak until soaked through, about 10 minutes more. Brie Goldman Cook French toast: Preheat oven to 250°F. Place a wire rack on a baking sheet, and set aside. Heat 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a skillet over medium heat. Fry half the bread slices until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Transfer to wire rack and place in preheated oven while cooking remaining French Toast. Wipe skillet, and repeat with remaining butter, oil, and bread. Brie Goldman The rack allows for air circulation so the slices stay crisp. If they were sitting directly on the baking rack or were stacked on top of each other, they could get soggy. Serve: Serve warm with pure maple syrup, if desired. Brie Goldman Frequently Asked Questions Brie Goldman How to keep French Toast from being too soggy? There are several possible reasons for soggy French toast. The first is using fresh bread, which soaks up too much of the egg mixture and doesn’t cook through, remaining eggy and soggy in the middle. Leaving the bread in the egg mixture for too long is another route to soggy French toast. You want the bread to soak up the egg mixture, but you don’t want it to become sodden before you cook it. A third cause of soggy French toast is cooking over high heat. This results in bread that is almost burned on the outside but has a middle that is still raw. Use medium heat to cook the French toast to avoid this issue. How to keep French Toast from being too dry? Not soaking the bread for long enough can produce dry French toast (the opposite of the soggy French toast problem). Another cause is cooking the toast over low heat, which increases cook time and results in dry French toast. Is French toast French? French toast is called pain perdu (lost bread) in France and much enjoyed there, but evidence it is actually a French dish is scant. Experts say that cooks have been soaking stale bread in eggs and milk for centuries, and the origins of the dish date back to ancient Rome. Is it better to use milk or cream for French toast? French toast requires a rich dairy liquid for the custard-like egg mixture. Our Classic French Toast recipe uses whole milk, half-and-half, or heavy cream. We do not recommend making French toast with fat-free or reduced fat milk. Can I use dairy-free milk? Yes, you can make French toast using a dairy-free milk. Simply swap the amount of dairy milk in the recipe for the same amount of an alternative milk; choose a thicker dairy-free milk for the egg mixture rather than a thinner one, if possible. More French Toast Recipes to Try: Martha’s French Toast Balthazar Brioche French Toast French Toast with Blueberry Maple Syrup Baked Cinnamon-Raisin French Toast Baked Blueberry French Toast Crème Brûlée French Toast Baked Stuffed French Toast Originally appeared: Martha Stewart Living, April 2001 Rate It PRINT Updated by Victoria Spencer Victoria Spencer Victoria Spencer is an experienced food editor, writer, and recipe developer. She manages the Martha Stewart recipe archive and is always curious about new ingredients and the best techniques. She has been working in food media for over 20 years.