The breakfast favorite French toast goes by many names depending on where it’s being served up – eggy bread, German toast, poor knights’ pudding, Bombay toast – but it’s always made of the same key ingredients. Egg, milk – or cream – and bread.
This delicious sweet snack is often served with sugar or syrup and fruit, and consists of bread slices fried in a mixture of milk and egg. In France, its name is ‘pain perdu’, which literally means ‘lost bread’, because it would often be made with stale or old bread.
Although we tend to call it French Bread, the dish isn’t known to have come from France. Some ancient Latin recipes from the 4th century mention soaking bread in milk before frying, and in fourteenth Century Germany the term ‘poor knights’ pudding’ was coined for the sweet treat because it was seen as an affordable meal for those without too much money to spend. Today, it’s eaten across the world as a breakfast meal or a sweet snack.
Here’s a simple recipe to get started with a delicious serving.
French Toast Recipe
Ingredients
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons butter
4 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 slices bread
1/2 cup maple syrup, warmed
Directions
In a small bowl, combine cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar and set aside briefly.
In a 10-inch or 12-inch frying pan, melt butter over medium heat. Whisk together cinnamon mixture, eggs, milk, and vanilla and pour into a shallow container. Dip bread in egg mixture. Fry slices until golden brown, then flip to cook the other side. Serve with syrup.
(Recipe courtesy of Robert Irvine)