French Toast | Basics with Babish

hey folks today we are looking at french toast and easy and delicious breakfast that I missed the plate by a wide margin good thing that this episode is sponsored by Bounty paper towels we're here to bring you quick and easy recipes quicker picker-upper style these french toast recipes are an easy way to up your breakfast game and with bounty you'll have the kitchen cleaned up quickly too let's get down to basics [Music] all right so first thing we got to do is talk bread and no matter which kind of bread you decide to use try to go for a loaf that is unsliced why so we can lop off our own big custom badass slices after all they say that thick french toast is a sign of virility and industriousness well maybe nobody says that but I do and then we have to talk what kind of bread which I have an order from most to least basic babish first your industry-standard white country loaf followed by a nice shiny bubbly eggy challah followed by a buttery and decadent French brioche and a positively sinful chocolate babka no matter your bread of choice we want to slice it nice and thick and place it on a wire rack set in a rimmed baking sheet where we're going to leave it out uncovered overnight until it gets nice and stale or if you want french toast more like right now you can set your oven as low as it will go and drop the bread in there for 15 to 20 minutes flipping halfway through until it's nice and dry but not totally mummified then once you've let it cool completely it's time to talk about the other essential part of French toast the custard the most basic formula for which calls for 1 and 1/2 cups of whole milk the contents of two large eggs cracked with shells discarded 3 or 4 tablespoons of granulated white sugar 1 or 2 teaspoons of a real vanilla extract and a 1/2 teaspoon each of ground cinnamon and nutmeg whisk that together until homogenous and no streaks of egg remain and there you have it the absolutely no bells and whistles french toast custard which is totally fine but if you want to up your levels of decadence and/or deliciousness here's a few things that you can do first swap the milk for 1/2 and 1/2 or if you're feeling really crazy heavy cream second swap the two whole eggs for three to four egg yolks known the world over for their edginess and yo penis swap the 3 tablespoons of white sugar for dark brown sugar keep the cinnamon the same but swap the pre ground nutmeg for some freshly grated stuff and lots and lots of it I want this custard tasting like egg nog change out vanilla extract for some vanilla paste or one scraped vanilla bean and some optional but very welcomed add-ins are a little bit of citrus in the form of the zest of one lemon or orange and a little splash of the brown stuff of your choice bourbon rum brandy of cinnamon peach schnapps I don't know once you've got your custard whisked to homogeneity and at the ready it's time to pour it into a cake pan or pie plate for easy bread Duncan grab your naturally stale door oven stale bread of choice drop it in your tiny wisp custard and let it swim for 20 to 30 seconds on each side so it's completely saturated but not falling apart soon as it's soaked through we're headed over to the stovetop where we have two tablespoons of butter a sizzling in a nonstick skillet we're keeping everything over medium heat dropping in our custard soap toast and letting fry for three to five minutes on each side until golden brown and puffed and crisp and just wonderful all over once your french toast is sufficiently French toasted it's important to let it rest on a wire rack set in a rimmed baking sheet in a 350 degree fahrenheit oven for about 10 minutes this is going to allow the custard to firm up and the exterior to remain nice and crisp so we end up with the perfect texture it's also gonna keep everybody warm while the remaining batches continue to fry once you're done stack them up top with butter and drown in maple syrup and there you have it a thick cut crisp on the outside rich and creamy on the inside buttery syrupy perfect french toast but what if you want even more perfect french toast we'll try a richer sweeter bread like challah or brioche or if you really want to earn the title of babish e'en brunch beast reached for some thick slices of chocolate or cinnamon babka these guys are already quite sweet and rich on their own so rather than slathering and syrup I wholeheartedly endorse bringing a bit of Tang to the party whipping together 8 ounces of room-temperature creme fraiche or cream cheese with 3 tablespoons of sugar and a pinch of salt this brings a nice funky acidity to all the sweet and when topped with a decorative strawberry is as social-media ready as it is delicious we're talking eggy buttery chocolatey creamy sweet and tangy and every bug Bhatia's bite now as easy as these french toast recipes are they can get easier probably the easiest way to enjoy french toast is with French Toast Casserole we're start by cutting a large loaf of the bread of your choice into 1-inch cubes I'm going with brioche which I could just eat this for breakfast but we're not going to do that we're gonna use a Bounty paper towel to generously butter a casserole make sure to get all those nooks and crannies before filling with our bread cubes in this recipe inspired by simply recipes calm then we're making our custard the same way as before but this time using five whole eggs we're just going to help give our casserole a little bit more structure we are then pouring all the custard evenly over the bread cubes making sure that every last little one is saturated and just for good measure giving the whole thing a awfully messy toss to ensure custard distribution grab your bounty and wipe down the edges of your casserole and at this point you can either cover and refrigerate overnight for make-ahead convenience or it's pretty much ready for the oven it just needs a couple extra topping bonafides in a small bowl we are combining four tablespoons of melted butter 3 tablespoons of brown sugar one teaspoon of cinnamon and a pinch of kosher salts tiny whisking until homogenous and then setting aside so we can roughly chop a few handfuls of pecans pecans our v's am scattering those over the top of the casserole and then drizzling evenly with our brown sugar butter mixture this along with a few generous pinches of turbinado sugar are going to ensure that we get a nice crunchy crust on top now this guy's headed for a 350 degree fahrenheit oven for 35 to 45 minutes rotating once halfway through baking and removing once golden brown crisp and puffed but don't dig in just yet this guy needs to rest for at least 10 minutes before slicing and serving go ahead and grab yourself a corner piece because you've made this and you get to have the best part plate it up and top with the requisite butter and maple syrup making sure to keep it on the plate this time and there you have it the quickest and easiest french toast option for crowd or just a few extraordinarily hungry individuals I hope you guys give this one a try for yourselves and I hope like me you do a few jumping jacks after thank you again to the quicker picker-upper for sponsoring this episode stay tuned for next week we'll be bringing you quick and easy one-pot meals once again inspired by my trusty kitchen tool I'm proud to partner with bouncy who together with feeding America is helping to provide 10 million meals to people in need head to the link in the description for more info [Music]

Channel: Babish Culinary Universe

Views: 5,477,090

Keywords: binging with babish, basics with babish, babbish, pear qwerty horse, french toast, french toast recipe, overnight french toast recipe, fancy french toast recipe, easy french toast recipe, brioche recipe, brioche french toast recipe, babka french toast recipe, babish french toast, french toast babish, french toast from scratch, how to make french toast, fast french toast recipe

Id: SntU6-vxzWc

Length: 7min 14sec (434 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 18 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/hobnobbwhere]

His french bread casserole is bread and butter pudding.

[u/laughingalltheway07]

I love his recipe for rum French toast

[u/doodleadventures]

Anyone tried this with an alcohol that they recommend?

[u/shuchi_narula18]

Nice recipe !

[u/nationalhipster]

I just made his recipe for dinner tonight! It didn’t look as pretty, but it was the best I’d ever made!

[u/comonotusabes]

Thank you for sharing

[u/Thongs1973]

I found some banana nut bread loaf in v Vons store at took it home and I made french toast out of it I chop some bananas up and put it on it and that shit came out real good I also bought some of that brioche bread and my French toast out of that and that was also real good too

[u/beth_da_weirdo]

I made two different versions of this: one savory with chunks of cream cheese and apples sautéed with butter and a smidge of brown sugar and spices; and the other with a pound of hot county sausage browned with a whole sweet onion. Both are served with syrup.

[u/redeployunavailable]

Do people really put that much butter on their French toast?