P.S. Love Mom: French Toast – A Passed Down Recipe (Series Debut)

Growing up my mom was the best person in my mind (and still is today). She always let us have friends over, do whatever we wanted (or so we thought), and she always made breakfast on Sunday morning. One of the family favorites for breakfast was french toast. Now, growing up I didn’t know that my mom made the best french toast, so when I would go to friend’s houses or restaurants and have french toast I was always disappointed. So here is the super secret french toast recipe! 😉

Just interested in the recipe? Skip straight to it.

P.S. Love Mom is a brand new series that I am beyond ecstatic to introduce to you. First off, this series means a lot to me. My mother has always been my idol and everyone that has ever met us both say I’m a mini version of her (which is the greatest compliment in my eyes). I could write a whole book about how effortlessly amazing my mom is, but I think this little series is a great way to immortalize her. The second reason I’m excited about this series is that it is all a big facade to steal her recipes and keep them all for myself MWAHAHA (and hopefully to pass down to my future family blah blah blah).

I asked my mom what this recipe meant to her or what her memories are of it, this was her response, “I would wake up early in the morning to start making breakfast for you guys so that you would wake up to the smell. Especially if you had friends over it was important to me to make sure you had the best time you could.”

I never knew she intentionally woke up early just to make sure we woke up to a wonderful aroma and could walk downstairs to an amazing breakfast of french toast, fresh orange juice, sizzling bacon, and sugar in six forms. This simple yet deeply loving act sums up my mother beautifully.

Now, this french toast isn’t for the faint of heart. It is darn delicious and definitely isn’t what I would call ‘healthy’. This is the french toast you make for your significant other the morning of their birthday, the french toast you make when guests stay over. This isn’t french toast you make while on a diet. As my mom says “you gotta have it with whipped cream!”

How Mama Makes It

To make this recipe extra special my mom recommends:

• Use big ole slices of bread. Get texas toast style bread, or buy a loaf and cut large slices yourself. This recipe will do best with hard or dried out bread as the eggs will soften it (french toast was originally created to use up old bread). You may need to double the recipe and let the bread soak a bit longer for larger slices. IF you are gluten-free: I use Udi’s white sandwich bread, but really whatever your favorite GF bread is will do. Just soak the bread for an additional 10 seconds on each side to really soak as GF bread can be drier.
• Heavy Cream: Mom says this recipe was always great for using that last bit of heavy cream that you always seem to have leftover. She also says that one of her biggest pet peeves with french toast is when there is too much milk and it dilutes the eggs, so this recipe uses less than others.
• Melted Butter and Warm Syrup: My mom strongly recommends going the extra step to warm the butter and syrup. She says, “no one wants to cool their hot french toast down with cold toppings.” She suggests just popping the maple syrup into a measuring cup (or something with a spout) and microwaving at 30-second intervals stirring in between until warm. Melt butter in a microwave-safe container and use a spoon or pastry brush to serve.

Recipe

Mom's French Toast

• Servings: 4-5
• Time: 30 minutes
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

What makes this recipe so special is an abundance of spices, two different extracts, and a little sugar right into the batter.

Ingredients

• 8-12 slices of bread (depends on size and dryness)
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 tablespoons milk or heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon clove (optional)
• 1/8 teaspoon coriander (optional)
– Suggested Toppings –
• Whipped Cream
• Powdered Sugar
• More Cinnamon
• Melted Salted Butter
• Warmed Maple Syrup
• Fresh Fruit (peaches, strawberries, blueberries, apples, etc.)
• Whatever else sounds good to you!

Directions

1. Set oven to lowest temperature. Place a sheet pan covered in foil into the oven while it preheats.

2. Preheat a cooking vessel. Preheat whatever you normally use for french toast or pancakes (electric griddle, griddle pan, skillet, large pan, etc.) to medium-low.

3. Make the egg mixture. While the pan heats up, make the egg mixture in a flat container that comfortably fits your bread (or make it in a bowl and pour it onto a plate for dunking). Whisk together the egg and milk until frothy and well blended, about one minute. Add all other ingredients (sugar, extracts, spices) and stir well.

4. Start Dunkin’. BEFORE dunking EVERY slice, give the mixture a stir (the spices will float to the bottom if you don’t stir it). So you will stir, dunk in the slice as fast as light, let it sit for 10-20 seconds (longer for thicker/drier/GF bread), flip, let sit for an additional 10-20 seconds, then place in the preheated pan (grease cooking surface if needed). Repeat this with all slices that will fit in the pan.

5. Cook. Cook the french toast for 3-5 minutes on each side or until golden brown and the egg has set up. Once the slices have finished cooking, transfer them to the baking sheet in the oven to keep warm as you finish the rest. Repeat step 4 and 5 until all slices have finished. Remember, STIR before every dunk.

While the slices are cooking, start getting out all toppings (warm your butter and syrup for an extra special treat).

6. Enjoy! Once you have finished all slices, plate up, top, and devour!

That’s it! A super easy recipe that is delicious and great for early Sunday mornings.

Hope you enjoyed the very first edition of this series. This will normally come out on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month.

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you have a great day!

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