Perfect French Toast

This homemade French toast recipe delivers perfectly golden, crispy edges with a custardy, tender center in every bite. Our carefully balanced ingredient ratios, quality bread selection, and cooking technique ensures restaurant-quality results every time. Whether you’re planning a special weekend brunch or elevating your weekday breakfast routine, this foolproof method creates French toast that’s irresistibly delicious and surprisingly simple to master.

Homemade French Toast Ingredients

• Large Eggs. Eggs are a key component of any good French toast. In addition to making the custard (the batter our French toast is dipped in) rich, creamy, and tender, they also help the custard mixture to bind to the bread as it cooks.
• Milk. Used to make the custard batter, along with the eggs, adding moisture and richness to the mixture. You can use any milk (including non-dairy) for French toast, but I recommend whole or 2% dairy milk. A higher fat milk helps the custard to become creamier and richer.
• Vanilla Extract. Used as a flavor enhancer as well as adding a rich, complex sweetness to our custard (the batter you’ll dip in).
• Granulated Sugar. We’re using just enough sugar to sweeten our custard batter, which also helps our French toast get that lovely caramelization on the outside as it cooks.
• Salt. Acts as a flavor enhancer.
• Ground Cinnamon. Adds a warm, inviting flavor to our recipe that compliments and enhances our breakfast.
• All-Purpose Flour. Another key component for our custard batter, flour not only acts as a binder for our liquid ingredients, it helps prevent a soggy texture while also helping us get a perfectly crispy outside and fluffy inside that’s characteristic of a great French toast.
• Bread. A thick cut white bread (like Texas toast), an artisan French or Italian loaf, sourdough, brioche, or challah bread are all great options for French toast. We’re looking for slices close to ¾″ thick for best results. If possible, dry / day-old bread will work best and will help you avoid a soggy middle, but isn’t totally necessary. The only type of bread I’d recommend avoiding is a dense grain or seedy bread as it just doesn’t provide the right texture for this dish.
• Butter and/or oil (for cooking). There is a lot of debate about butter vs. oil for cooking the perfect French toast… using a combination is actually a great way to go. The oil helps slow down the butter from browning too fast, giving your French toast time to cook to golden brown perfection without getting too dark or burning. Use a ratio of 1 Tablespoon butter to 1 teaspoon neutral oil (canola or vegetable) when ready to cook.

All ingredient measurements are located in the recipe card at the bottom of the page.

How to Make Homemade French Toast

In a large and wide mixing bowl (or 9×9 pan), whisk together the egg and flour to combine.

Then whisk in the remaining ingredients, starting with the liquid ingredients, until a smooth custard-like batter is formed.

Preheat your griddle (or non-stick skillet) over medium heat.

Place the bread slices into the custard (only do as many as you can pan fry at one time!), soaking each side for 1-2 minutes until well saturated.

While the bread is soaking, place your butter and/or oil onto the hot pan to melt, tilting to coat the pan.

Lift the saturated bread out of the custard mixture, allowing excess custard to drip off, and place it on to the hot griddle (or pan).

Cook until golden-brown on the bottom (about 1-2 minutes), then flip and repeat on the second side.

Wipe the griddle (or pan) clean as needed and repeat until all of the custard has been used up / all of the slices have been cooked.

Simple French Toast Recipe Variations

Make it extra decadent with a higher fat dairy product. Replace the milk with heavy cream, half-and-half, or eggnog (for a festive touch).

Add fun texture and flavor with crushed cereal! Cinnamon Toast Crunch is a popular choice, but I’ve also seen renditions with Captain Crunch, crushed Corn Flakes, and even Fruity Pebbles! To do this, crush 2-3 cups of cereal and place onto a plate. After dredging your bread in the egg custard mixture, dip the soaked bread into the crushed cereal and pan fry as directed.

Make it coconuty! Similar to the crushed cereal option, you can dunk your soaked bread slices into sweetened, shredded coconut before pan frying. If desired, also add ½ teaspoon of coconut extract to your egg custard mixture to amp up the coconut flavor.

How to Serve This Recipe for French Toast

Butter, pure maple syrup, and a dusting of powdered sugar is the classic way to serve French toast. But you can definitely have fun with your toppings, mixing and matching all kinds of things! Here are a few other delicious topping ideas:

• Fresh berries like strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries
• Banana slices
• Cinnamon-apples (especially great for fall!)
• Fruit compotes, like our rhubarb compote with strawberries and apples (great for spring)
• Lemon curd
• Apple butter
• Fruit syrups, like our Blueberry Syrup
• Whipped cream
• Nutella
• Chocolate Chips

You can also get more ideas for how to serve French toast with our post on what to serve with pancakes, as many of the outlined toppings and sides go well with both.

Perfect French Toast FAQs

Can you make French toast without eggs? Eggs are a key component to our French toast recipe, however you can make an eggless French toast if desired. Generally, you will need a recipe with cornstarch to mimic the egg’s binding properties in the custard.

Why is French toast called French toast? There are a lot of theories as to how this dish got it’s name, but one thing is agreed upon, it has no French origins. Some say a misspelling of an innkeeper named Joseph French in the 1700s was the origin, others say it was a marketing ploy to make this dish seem fancier (in turn allowing restaurants charge more), others say it originated in ancient Rome. However it came about, it’s become a beloved breakfast dish.

How long should you soak French toast before cooking? You really only need to soak your bread in the custard mixture for a few minutes (1-2 minutes per side) before cooking, but a few factors will affect the time required. Thicker slices or drier bread may need a longer soaking time to absorb the custard mixture and become saturated.