Newlywed Vegetarian: Dad's French Toast

Last weekend, Hubby and I had to drop some things off at my parents' house. I snuck into conversation that I'd love to do another blog cameo with Padre, this time with the French toast that I grew up with. Then I reminded him that we just happened to be coming over around breakfast/brunch time, so maybe we could do it then!

I'm crafty like that. (Not really. He's on to me.)

No matter how we came to have this deliciousness before you, this is Padre's recipe that I have been eating since I first started eating solid food. (Okay, maybe not that long, but it's been a while) This was my favorite thing to eat for breakfast when I was a kid, hands down.

Sometimes, you remember things that you had or watched as a kid that you try again when you're an adult, and they just don't stand up to the test of time. I'm sure something came to mind for you when I said that. Thundercats? Captain Planet? (Although I still love them!) This French toast, I was relieved to discover, is not one of those things--this one tastes just as good as I remember it.

So without further ado--Let's get down to it:

Prep time: < 5 minutes

Cook Time: ~10 minutes

Serves: ~~Millions~~. I mean, ~~a small city~~. Okay, so maybe more like 10. But since it tastes so darn good, I don't think anyone will follow the serving size, so--5.

Ingredients:

1 oversized loaf of bread
3 cups egg beaters
1-1/2 cups milk
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon

Butter, to serve
Syrup, to serve
or
Confectioner's sugar, to serve
or
Raspberry mixture, to serve (I'll explain below!)

Directions:

1) Grab your three amigos of the French toast world: milk, cinnamon, and egg beaters (or eggs, if you prefer!)

Pour your eggs into a measuring cup. (Ignore the amounts, Padre did the mixture in separate batches.)

Add your milk in.

Sprinkle the cinnamon on top.

And whisk.

2. Grab your griddle, spray with nonstick spray and get it started. A sprayed skillet works, too, though the griddle is definitely faster.

Then grab your oversized loaf of bread.

Please keep in mind that is a normal-size dinner plate that bread is on, and that this amount was slightly less than half the loaf. This loaf of bread that we used was huge.

Get out a little dish of some kind, big enough to fit a piece of bread and deep enough to hold the egg mixture.

Pour your mixture in. (This picture is cheating, since this is what it looked like after it was almost all gone.)

And dunk in your first piece of bread.

Once it's evenly soaked on both sides, slap that baby onto the griddle.

Then add more!

Once the bottoms start to brown, a little over a minute, flip those thangs.

Keep it goin'.

Padre usually flips them a couple of times to evenly heat them all.

Set those aside. Mmmm. Already lookin' good.

Repeat!

And marvel as the stack keeps rising.

Though for the sake of your delicious French toast, I recommend eventually splitting the stack into a more manageable two-stacker. Imagine the horror if the leaning tower of French toast fell over! The horror!

This is why we two-stack instead.

If you have any extra egg mixture, you can always use a little more bread than you started with to finish it up.

Padre went with grandkid-size slices for when my nephew comes over.

You know the rest.

If you are lactose intolerant, this is super easy to make dairy-free!

Use any milk substitute as you would use the milk: almond milk, rice milk, soy milk, etc. My mom, who can't have dairy, prefers flax milk.

She is also gluten-intolerant, so she uses one of her fancy no-wheat breads. Even without milk and wheat, it still looks like standard French toast!

But let's get back to our main event.

Grab a couple of those hefty slices of bread. (And a glass or milk, or orange juice, or both if you're weird like me!)

Add butter.

Drizzle with an accidentally heart-shaped puddle of syrup.

And enjoy!

Or.

Start with your french toast slices. Add butter. (Different day, different butter. Did I mention French toast makes great leftovers?)

And confectioner's sugar!

Once the butter is totally melted into the bread...

Sprinkle that sugar on there...

And watch the magic happen when they mix.

When I little, I'd eat the least sugary pieces first and go down the line, saving the most sugar-laden bite for last. Did anybody else do that? Maybe I was just a weird kid... (I may or may not still do this.)

In any case...enjoy!