I was pretty sure that I would post a recipe for coffee cake — sour cream chocolate chip or cinnamon streusel! — as recipe #4 in the Brunch Series, but two events converged to lead to today’s Brioche French Toast:

1.) My oven is acting up, something made clear to me after two failed attempts at the above-mentioned coffee cake (completely undercooked on the bottom). A food blogger without her oven is a stressful prospect, and this uneven-heating-problem needs to be sorted out, ASAP;

2.) A (non-American) colleague who had fallen in love with french toast while vacationing abroad recently asked me for a recipe — a quick, easy one — and that’s when I realized: I didn’t have actually have one on the blog (yet).

There’s a strong french toast presence on this blog, of course: there’s this autumnal pumpkin french toast, and this luxe baked apple french toast, and these fancy little individual french toast souffles. I love them all, but they’re not exactly classic french toast — the kind whipped together quickly with ingredients you’re likely to have on hand (eggs! milk!) and made over the stove. It’s also the sort of french toast my mom would make for us kids on the weekends, and a recipe for it on the blog is long overdue.

Now: there’s a few rules when it comes to making good french toast. The bread shouldn’t be too fresh, and it should be sliced thickly — otherwise it will fall apart when dipped in the custard. Brioche, challah, or white bread is ideal. If cinnamon swirl is available where you are, that works great too (this is what my mom used for us kids, though I can’t find it in Rome). The classic french toast custard is made with eggs and milk, but this too is just a blank canvas to paint on; it can be adjusted to be as simple or as fancy as you want.

This recipe goes the fancier, more luxurious route: the custard is enriched with heavy cream, and dressed up with a pinch of salt, honey, vanilla, and cinnamon (side note: my french toast has to have lots of cinnamon, probably a remnant of the cinnamon-swirl-french-toast days). Eggy, buttery brioche takes a quick dip in the custard, and is fried until gloriously golden brown on the outside, and soft and fluffy on the inside. Served with lots of butter and maple syrup, it’s a magnificent addition to brunch, but also simple and easy enough to make for yourself on a weekday morning while working from home (tested and approved). A couple of pro tips, for the best-ever french toast experience: heat up your maple syrup before pouring (another trick picked up from my mom) and dust your french toast with a bit of powdered sugar to make it extra pretty. If you’re cooking for a group and don’t want your french toast to get cold, never fear! You can keep them warm in the oven on low heat (directions below).

I’ll be back next week with a Thanksgiving pie — oven situation permitting, of course.

A couple of notes: If you want to keep things simple, you can make this with just milk instead of the combination of milk and cream. You can play around with the flavorings in the custard too; you can add a little orange zest, or more or less cinnamon, or even Grand Marnier. If you don’t have day old bread, you can toast it lightly in the oven or leave it to dry out on the counter for an hour or two.

Looking for other brunch/breakfast recipes? Click here.

BRIOCHE FRENCH TOAST

Serves 6. Recipe barely adapted from Once Upon a Chef.

Ingredients:
6 eggs
3/4 cup (180mL) milk
3/4 cup (180mL) heavy cream
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 loaf day old brioche sliced thickly into 12 slices

Unsalted butter
Vegetable oil
Maple syrup, for serving
Powdered sugar, for serving

Directions:
1.) Preheat oven to 250°F (120°C). Set a wire rack on baking sheet and set aside. In a large baking dish, whisk together the eggs, milk, cream, honey, vanilla, cinnamon and salt.

2.) Place a few slices of the brioche in the custard and let soak on each side (aim for about 30 seconds on each side).

3.) Heat a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of oil (eyeball it) over medium heat in a large skillet. Cook the first batch of custard-dipped brioche until golden brown, 2-3 minutes per side.

4.) Transfer to the wire rack and place in the oven to keep warm while cooking the remaining bread. Wipe the skillet clean with paper towels. Soak and fry the remaining bread, using butter and oil as necessary, until it's all cooked. Serve hot with extra butter, maple syrup and a dusting of powdered sugar.