This French toast recipe makes some of the best French toast I’ve ever made. I love the rich and creamy custard, which has the perfect amount of vanilla to make it extra delicious.
This classic French toast has been a weekend tradition in our family for years. While we’ve tried many French toast recipes, we’ve always come back to this one. It’s simple and so delicious. For another French toast recipe, see our crowd-friendly baked French toast!
My go-to French toast toppings are the classics like maple syrup, butter, and fresh fruit. But for something extra special, add whipped cream or whipped coconut cream (it’s SO good if you haven’t tried it!).
Key Ingredients
- Bread: The secret to the best French toast is thick and stale bread! Day-old bread soaks up the custard beautifully and gets the perfect texture, while fresh bread breaks down and becomes soggy. I love Brioche, French bread, rustic Italian bread, and Challah.
- Eggs: Help firm up the custard soaked into the bread, add flavor, and eggs add some richness from the fat in the yolks.
- Milk and cream: While you can make French toast with just one or the other, I love a mix of both. The French toast turns out creamy and flavorful without being too rich.
- Vanilla: I love the vanilla in this French toast recipe. It makes it taste and smell amazing.
- Butter: I cook my French toast in butter, and I think you should, too!
How to Make the Best French Toast
Making French toast is really easy. You’ll start by whisking eggs with the milk, cream, vanilla, and a pinch of salt. This mixture is the creamy custard that makes our French toast so delicious.
Now grab a wide baking dish, line up your thick-sliced bread, and pour over the custard. Depending on how large your bread and baking dish are, you may need to do this in batches. Move the bread around a few times to soak it all up. I soak my bread in the custard for a few minutes. Older bread usually soaks the custard up quicker than fresh bread (another reason to use older bread).
When the bread soaks up all the custard, place the thoroughly soaked bread into a pan with bubbling melted butter and cook until golden brown on both sides. (Just looking at that photo makes me want French toast again!)
Making French Toast for a Crowd
If you’re making French toast for a crowd, use this little trick we picked up from making waffles. Heat your oven to 200°F.
Slide the cooked French toast into the oven to keep warm. They should be fine for quite some time without drying out. This method is a great way to reheat leftovers, as well. You might also enjoy our overnight baked French toast.
Perfect French Toast
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
This is our family’s all-time favorite French toast recipe! It’s easy to make, and the vanilla cream custard is absolutely delicious. Use day-old bread (or slightly stale) for the best results. It’s sturdier and won’t crumble or fall apart in the custard or while cooking. French, Italian, brioche, or challah bread are all fantastic choices!
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
6 large eggs
3/4 cup (177ml) whole milk
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon (93ml) heavy cream
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
8 slices day-old bread, 1-inch-thick
3 tablespoons butter, plus more for serving
Optional toppings: Powdered sugar, maple syrup, berries, whipped cream, cinnamon sugar (recipe below)
Directions
1Heat oven to 200°F (93°C). Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Slide the baking sheet into the oven. It is best to make French toast in batches. The warm oven helps keep cooked batches warm while the rest finish cooking.
2Whisk eggs, milk, cream, vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt together until well blended.
3Line bread slices up in a large baking dish (it is okay if they overlap). Pour egg mixture over bread slices, then flip and move them around the egg mixture. Move the bread around the egg mixture until the bread has soaked it all up.
4Melt a tablespoon of butter in a heavy, large pan or griddle over medium-low heat. Working in batches, transfer a few slices of the soaked bread to the pan and cook until golden brown and cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes on each side.
5Transfer cooked French toast to a warm oven while you cook the remaining bread slices. Add additional butter as needed for each batch.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Dairy-free French Toast: Use creamy non-dairy milk like cashew, soy, coconut, oat, or almond milk.
- Eggless French Toast: Use aquafaba (liquid from chickpeas), flax eggs, or store-bought egg replacers.
- Cinnamon Sugar: Whisk 1/4 cup granulated sugar with one teaspoon of ground cinnamon. Sprinkle over French toast.
- Storing: French toast lasts in an airtight container in the fridge for three days or can be frozen for up to three months. To freeze French toast, cool it on a wire rack and place it onto a baking sheet. Freeze until hard, then transfer to a freezer bag or container and freeze. Thaw overnight in the fridge, then warm in the microwave or cook in a pan with melted butter.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
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Thank you for the delicious recipe! I didn’t have any fruits, so I added honey and home made whipped cream and it was the bomb! I was told that it was so good that I should’ve made more haha
This French toast recipe is the best and I’ve tried many. It’s so simple and not fussy and I even used cheap sandwich bread and it came out perfect.
This makes us so happy, Gene. Thanks for coming back and sharing.
By Day-old bread, do you mean get the bread fresh, slice it and leave it out, or so you mean get fresh bread, slide it, and leave it in the bag? Or don’t slice it until you’re ready for the recipe?
Hi Kathy, any of these options work. We just mean that the bread absorbs the custard best when it is not really fresh.
For a mindblowing alteration to this recipe, try it using slices of day old chocolate babka. Pure heaven, although probably a slight boost to the calorie count. ?
Brian, We love your idea (although, I’m not sure I would be able to save enough chocolate babka for the next day).
Thanks for an easy and delicious recipe for French toast, similar to the much-beloved French toast my husband’s mom used to make. This one is better because it’s made with thicker Italian bread. Hubby put blueberry preserves and a bit of pure Canadian maple syrup on his; I put cinnamon sugar and powdered sugar on mine.
Such great ideas for toppings! We are thrilled you enjoyed the recipe.
Thank you so much for this quick and delicious recipe! This was perfect for a family brunch, and the trick with the oven helped everyone’s french toast remain warm! The only change I made was to add cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg to the custard mixture. Thanks again!!!
Love your idea to add cinnamon and nutmeg. Such lovely warming flavors. I’m so happy our oven trick helped keep everyone’s French toast warm!
What is the serving size?
Hi there, We assumed 2 slices of French toast.
add 1/8 tsp of cinnamon to the custard
Cinnamon would be delicious in this custard.
I would love to try this recipe but for some reason I can’t get it to print.
That is strange that you can’t print. If you contact us with the email address on our about us page we can help you figure out what is going on. We can also email you a PDF of the print friendly page.
As always, terrific recipe!
Well thank you, Judy! So happy you enjoyed it.