The Perfect Sunday Morning French Toast

What is French Toast Custard? | 5 Tips that Will Take Your Sunday Morning French Toast from Average to Great! | French Toast Custard Vs. Traditional French Toast | Best Type of Bread for French Toast | Essential Baking Tools for This Recipe

Richly infused with cinnamon and brown sugar, this Sunday morning French toast custard recipe is nothing short of perfection. Unlike many French toast recipes, this one does not taste eggy at all. You get the richness of the egg yolks and the flavor of the creamy cinnamon custard. Sounds delicious, right? Read on below for the recipe and the best tips for making French toast.

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french toast with syrup being poured

This recipe is perfect for a weekend brunch, Sunday morning breakfast, or even a quick weeknight dinner when you are craving breakfast for dinner. Don’t mind if I do!

I call this recipe Sunday morning French toast because it’s the ultimate French toast that I would want to eat on a relaxing weekend. It’s easy, simple, and only takes a few minutes. The flavors are balanced perfectly too.

Sounds perfect after a hard week of work and parenting, right?

What is French Toast Custard?

What is French toast custard, you ask? Well first, let me tell you what it is not. It is not bland, it is not boring, and it’s not going to make your waistline smaller because you will want to keep eating it. Sorry!

French toast custard gets its rich flavor from egg yolks, brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter. We also use whole milk, vanilla, and a dash of salt for more flavor. The ingredients are quite simple, but it’s the balance of flavors plus the caramelization on the griddle that makes this French toast so special.

This recipe is nothing like the French toast I grew up eating. I’m sure many of you can relate. I used to think French toast was just whisked eggs with milk and a little cinnamon. Well, I was wrong!

french toast with flowers, fruit, and syrup

5 Tips that Will Take Your French Toast from Average to Great!

  1. Dry out your bread. Unless you happen to have super dry bread on hand (and I honestly never remember to leave my bread out overnight for this), you can dry the bread out in the oven. Drying out the bread is key to making sure that you have French toast that is creamy but NOT soggy.
  2. Combine all of the ingredients except the milk first. The milk makes it harder to blend the cinnamon, and cold milk can also make the butter turn hard and clump up if you don’t mix it fast enough. Mix all other ingredients first, then slowly add the milk while whisking. It will be perfect every time!
  3. Soak the dried bread in the French toast custard for 2-3 seconds per side so it gets enough custard into all of those nooks and crannies. If you soak the bread for too long, however, it will be very heavy and soggy…so don’t let it stay in the cinnamon custard for too long.
  4. Cook the French toast in butter, and skip the nonstick spray. We want to develop even more flavor as the French toast cooks. Butter helps the custard to caramelize, giving it added texture and flavor!
  5. Re-whisk the custard after dipping two or three pieces in the mixture. This only takes a few seconds, and it ensures that the cinnamon and brown sugar don’t sink to the bottom of the dish. The French toast will still taste great even if you don’t whisk it again, but you will be missing out on some of that amazing flavor!

So in short: Dry out the bread, mix all ingredients before adding the milk, and soak the dried bread for a few seconds to absorb enough moisture and flavor.

Then cook the French toast in butter for amazing flavor and texture, and whisk the custard a few times between dipping the bread so all of the flavor is evenly distributed.

flat lay with custard french toast

Traditional French Toast VS French Toast Custard

Let’s be hones, traditional French toast gets a bad wrap sometimes. It can be super eggy, dried out, and sometimes bland. The texture of traditional French toast is always more eggy because it uses whole eggs. This isn’t necessarily bad, and it can taste good with the right ratio of other ingredients.

French toast custard only uses egg yolks, making it very creamy and tasty, especially when combined with whole milk, cinnamon, and brown sugar.

french toast with syrup

Best Type of Bread for This Recipe

I have used various types of bread for French toast, and there are three kinds that I can recommend.

  • First, brioche. Brioche is a rich and substantial bread that works well for soaking up all of that amazing custard goodness.
  • Second, challah works well too. It is not as rich as Brioche, but it has an amazing soaking ability for the custard without getting soggy.
  • Third, good quality sandwich bread. I know brands vary depending on where you live, so I can’t recommend one specific brand. Instead, just make sure it’s a flavorful white bread that is substantial. For example, I use Grandma Sycamore’s bread, but I know that isn’t available on the East Coast.

As a note, avoid using Texas toast because its structure is weaker and doesn’t work as well for this French toast custard.

french toast being cut

Essential Baking Tools for This Recipe

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The Perfect Sunday Morning French Toast

french toast with syrup being poured
  • Author: Camille
  • Prep Time: 20 minutes
  • Cook Time: 10 minutes
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: 46 servings 1x
  • Category: Breakfast

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 cup milk, 2% or whole
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2 Tbs brown sugar
  • 2 Tbs unsalted butter, melted
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • Bread (Brioche, Challah or substantial sandwich bread works great)
  • 1 Tbs granulated sugar + 1/2 tsp cinnamon (for caramelizing the french toast)
  • Extra butter for cooking the French toast
  • Fresh Berries, whipped cream, and syrup (optional)

Instructions

To Make French Toast

  1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Lay 8-10 bread slices out on a baking sheet, and put them in the oven for 10 minutes to dry out the bread slices. Flip the bread over at 5 minutes so both sides dry out, then remove to a cooling rack until ready to use.
  2. To make the French toast custard, whisk egg yolks, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, and vanilla in a pie dish or 9×9 baking dish. Add melted butter and whisk again. 
  3. Whisk milk slowly into the custard and set aside.
  4. Add a tablespoon of butter to a large skillet and heat over medium heat on gas burner(medium high for electric burners). For electric griddles, heat to 350 and place butter directly on griddle surface.
  5. When the butter has melted, swirl it around the pan to evenly coat the bottom. For a griddle, use a silicone brush to swirl the butter around.
  6. Take a piece of bread, lay it in the custard mixture for 2-3 seconds, then flip over and soak the opposite side for 2-3 seconds. Place custard soaked bread directly in the hot buttered skillet.
  7. Sprinkle the top side of the french toast with the cinnamon and sugar mixture, then flip french toast over once the first side is golden brown; brown the opposite side and remove from skillet. Repeat with remaining bread and serve immediately. For optimal flavor, add maple syrup or buttermilk syrup with fresh whipped cream and berries!

Notes

This recipe was inspired by ATK.

Keywords: french toast custard, french toast, custard

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