Give French Toast A Massive Upgrade Without Waiting For Bread To Go Stale

You probably have a go-to French toast recipe. Most of us do. From slow cooker French toast cooking hacks to adding a boozy, Martha Stewart-inspired citrus twist to an already indulgent breakfast, almost all recipes have a few things in common. There has to be a custard mixture, for example, and most recipes say you should use slices of slightly stale bread. However, according to Erin Lin, culinary content creator at Erin's Cozy Kitchen, pre-aging your bread might not be necessary. The recipe creator's trick for using fresh instead of stale bread couldn't be more simple -– just toast it. 

Day-old bread is often used in recipes that involve a lot of liquid because the drier texture of slightly stale slices allows it to absorb more of that delicious custard without becoming overly soft. Toasting mimics this by giving the bread a stiffer structure. As Lin puts it, "Toasting it can help dry out the surface, so when you are dunking it your custard, it won't get soggy." According to Lin, French toast made with either lightly toasted bread or slightly stale bread turn out pretty much the same, but she likes to use older bread if she has it since she can use the fresh loaf for things like sandwiches. 

If you use the toaster hack, don't brown your bread too much as this will change the flavor of the French toast. Instead, toast it until it's firm but hasn't taken on too much color. Then, follow your usual French toast recipe as normal, whether that means adding your favorite mix-ins, putting vanilla pudding in your custard, or coating your French toast with cereal. 

Though Lin prefers to use stale bread for French toast to avoid wasting food, this toasting hack allows you to speed up the drying process with whatever you have on hand. For her part, Lin loves brioche and milk bread. These breads are both soft but with tight crumbs. A tighter crumb is important for French toast because it allows the bread to soak up more delicious custard without it falling apart. For the same reason, thick-sliced bread is best. 

Other popular choices for French toast include challah, French bread, and cinnamon raison bread. You'll probably notice that all these breads are rich and flavorful. If this is all too much, any bread with a dense crumb is a great choice; a simple loaf of white bread should work fine. If you're using Lin's toasting hack while opting for a sweeter slice, remember that breads with high sugar content burn faster so use a low setting on the toaster and keep an eye on the color if you're using a toaster oven.

Of course, if you're making a delicious breakfast of French toast to use up aging bread, whatever reasonably suitable bread you happen to have hardening in the kitchen is the best bread for right now. Unless a bread is flavored with something very savory (like focaccia), it should work fine. Sourdough French toast is great, for example.