French Toast with Brioche
Overview
Thick slices of brioche soaked in a sweetened egg, milk and cream custard, then baked with chocolate and butter. No country is claimed. French toast in one form or another is eaten across Europe and beyond, and it is considerably older than its English name, a version appears in Apicius, the Roman recipe collection, and it is known in France as pain perdu, lost bread, because its purpose was to rescue bread that had gone stale. The bread choice is the substance of the recipe and the source is right about it. Brioche and challah are both enriched doughs, made with eggs and butter, which means they are structurally sturdier and can absorb a great deal of custard without collapsing. Plain sandwich bread turns to mush. Cutting the slices thick, around 2 cm, matters for the same reason. Baking rather than pan-frying is the other decision here, and it solves a real problem. Thick slices fried in a pan brown on the outside long before the custard in the middle has set, which is why so much home-made French toast is soggy inside. The oven cooks it through evenly. The method has a copy error worth noting: it refers to baguette slices twice, having specified brioche in the ingredients. Brioche is correct.
Ingredients
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Directions
- 1
Cut the brioche into slices about 2 cm thick. Thin slices will not hold enough custard.
- 2
Whisk the eggs with the cream and milk in a large bowl, then mix in the vanilla extract and sugar.
- 3
Pour the mixture into a shallow, wide baking dish.
- 4
Arrange the brioche slices in the dish and leave them to soak for 20 minutes, turning them once so both sides take up the custard evenly.
- 5
Set the oven to around 180°C.
- 6
Scatter the chocolate over the top and dot with the butter.
- 7
Bake for about 30 minutes, until the custard has set and the top is golden.
- 8
Serve warm, with or without an accompaniment.
Africook’s Notes
- Use brioche or challah. Enriched doughs hold together under a long soak where plain sandwich bread disintegrates.
- Cut the slices thick, around 2 cm. Thin slices cannot absorb enough custard to be worth making.
- Slightly stale bread works better than fresh. That is the whole origin of the dish: pain perdu means lost bread.
- Baking rather than frying is what stops thick slices being raw in the middle, which is the usual failure with French toast.
- Turn the slices halfway through the soak so both sides take up the custard evenly.
- Serve it warm. French toast cools quickly and the custard firms up unappealingly.
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