Toast! French Toast!

Unfortunately, I was not able to join the girls last weekend at the Freeze-O-Rama cookathon.  It looks like they had a blast!  I did, however, cook up a monster batch of French toast to fill my freezer!

This is, by far, my very favorite French toast recipe.  Ever.  It’s an Alton Brown recipe (if you've never seen his show, Good Eats, you are missing out!), and I love it.  This is pretty much the only cooking show I watch.  He makes cooking science, and that I can relate to!

Anyway…  The French toast…  Here’s the players:

I made a quadruple batch (with the help of loving hubby), so the volumes here are huge.  It cooks up just fine in a single batch, too!

I do all the prep work the night before.  Start with two loaves of French bread (or Brioche, or Challah, something fluffy with great texture).  I slice it up the night before and leave it out to get just a touch dry.  I think it soaks up less of the egg mixture and gets less soggy this way.

Then, crack 12 large eggs in a mixing bowl and scramble them up.

(Quadruple batch = a dozen eggs.  Yikes!)

Then add 1 quart (4 cups) of half-and-half and whisk together.

Next, warm 8 tablespoons of honey in the microwave for a few seconds (just enough so it pours easily).  Add the honey and 1 teaspoon of salt to the egg mixture.

Cover the custard and refrigerate overnight.

The next morning, when you’re good and hungry, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (trust me!) and pour the custard into a flat pan or two. (AB recommends a pie pan.  My pie pans are stoneware, and I wasn’t a fan of this in the porous stone.  So I used plastic dipping trays instead, and they worked great!) 

Soak the bread in the custard for about 30 seconds on each side.

Then let it drain on a cooling rack laid over a cookie sheet for 1-2 minutes.  Let that custard really soak in!

Melt a good hunk of butter in a frying pan.  We used our handy cast-iron griddle for this, mostly because of the huge volume of French toast we were making!  (And because hubby looks for any excuse to use it.)

Cook the French toast for 2-3 minutes on each side, until GBD (golden brown delicious).

After both sides are done, bake the French toast in the oven for 5 minutes.

This is the step that makes the biggest difference in the French toast world!  (Well, in my kitchen, anyway).  It comes out just a hint crisp on the outside, still nice and crusty, and perfectly soft in the middle, without being soggy.  My favorite!

Serve immediately, with your choice of toppings.  My favorite is always real maple syrup.  (And wasn’t this New England transplant surprised to find great real maple syrup made right here in Indiana!) 

Mmmm…  Sugar coma…

I freeze the cooled finished product in zip-top freezer bags.  I use parchment or wax paper between the layers of toast, otherwise they stick together and are way too hard to pull apart when it’s frozen.  And that is not Good Eats.

To reheat, just take out of the freezer and pop in the toaster, toaster oven, or regular oven for a few minutes until warmed through!  Ta da, French toast in an instant!

The recipe card has the quantities for a single batch…  Simply multiply as needed!

Now go have some great breakfast!!