What’s the Best Bread for French Toast?
My life is built on a carbohydrate house. I love them all and have no plans to stop, but sometimes when my precious bread and cakes get stale or monotonous, I try to renew them for a second life – not only to reduce waste, but also because of French toast. It’s sweet, custard, hearty, and pairs best with stale bread. The most stale bread, that is. To find out if you have the best bread, cake or pastry to work with – oh yes, this goes way beyond bread guys – you need to ask yourself a few questions.
What is the crumb (or texture) of the bread?
If you’re staring at stale hot dog buns or old panettones, you’re in luck: both can be French toasted successfully, even if they vary greatly in shape and taste. They both work because of their “crumb” or texture. The crumb of a particular bread or cake refers to its internal structure. If you think of bread with a dense crumb, then it has small holes that are evenly dispersed. Bread with an open crumb or open structure has larger, irregularly shaped air pockets. Bread without crumb or with a very dense crumb will be something like a flour cake or pita bread.
French toast involves imbibing a significant amount of sweet egg custard (or eggnog ). The best bread for soaking should have either a firm crumb or an open crumb, but not a firm one. It is important that the texture is light and airy, with plenty of pockets for the custard to seep into. Sorry, tortillas will have to wait for processing day.
Does your bread have a thick crust?
I have seen several recipes that use sliced French toast for French toast. (That might seem logical given their names, but you wouldn’t try using french fries, would you?) Even though baguettes have an open crumb ready for soaking, I’m not addicted to them due to their chewy crust. . Similarly, if you have leftover rustic sourdough bread, you need to beware of it. The crust is essentially the shell on the outside of the bread. Some breads have a thin, tender crust, such as challah, and make excellent French toast, but loaves with a thick, tough crust are not ideal. No matter how long you soak the bread, the skin won’t get too soft.
While not a critical factor, it definitely interrupts the soft custard texture. I like to pick up a full plate with a fork, but a thick crust requires a knife and two hands. However, you can soften this up by using a serrated knife and cutting off the rinds from the slices before soaking.
Will your bread fall apart?
Structure is an important factor when you know that the carbohydrate in question is collected in a puddle of eggs and dairy and then pan-fried or even grilled . Good quality French toast should be indestructible in the face of liquid and frying while still retaining its softness. Look for bread with a good gluten structure. However, this does not necessarily mean stiffness or chewiness; Brioche is a favorite for this application because it’s soft, enriched, and usually comes in a loaf that you can cut to any thickness. It works because it has a solid structure – a solid gluten frame with the extra help of eggs in the dough.
Bread isn’t the only carbohydrate you can use for French toast.
This is why most soft-crust breads work well on French toast, they hold up to the process without falling apart. But this does not mean that bread is the only healthy carbohydrates. Some cakes and pastries are strong enough to withstand a quick soak in custard and a splatter in the pan. Blueberry muffins and scones are quick breads that have just enough texture to hold up; just lightly dampen the custard or they risk falling apart before they see the pan.
As long as your custard is good, there are only three reasons why you can’t make French toast with all the tired carbs in your house. Using your new French Toast checklist, which items would work best? Crispy sourdough, stale Hawaiian buns, yesterday’s croissants, or angel food pie? Please let me know if you are making French Toast Angel Food Pie because I would love to see it.