Vanilla-Bourbon French Toast Recipe
In France, French toast is called pain perdu—"lost bread," a nod to the fact that the dish works best with stale bread. More importantly, pain perdu isn't served at breakfast, but rather as a dessert, a reminder that this dish is traditionally soaked in sugar and cream. This version forgoes cream for milk, and a deluge of sugar for vanilla and a slug of bourbon. It's still a pretty decadent French toast recipe to start your day, but at least you won't need a nap afterward. (But you can take one anyway if you want to, we won't tell!)
Nutrition: 330 calories, 8 g fat (3 g saturated), 44 g carbs
Serves 4
You'll Need
4 eggs
1 1⁄2 cups 2% milk
1⁄4 cup bourbon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp sugar
1⁄4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 loaf day-old country bread, preferably whole wheat, cut into 8 slices
Butter for the pan
Maple or agave syrup for serving
How to Make It
- Preheat the oven to 225°F.
- Combine the eggs, milk, bourbon, vanilla, sugar, and nutmeg in a shallow baking dish and whisk to combine.
- Soak each slice of bread for 30 seconds, turning once, before cooking.
- Heat a large cast-iron skillet or nonstick pan over medium heat.
- Melt a small pat of butter in the pan, enough to coat the surface.
- Add 2 to 4 slices of the soaked bread and cook for about 3 minutes, until a deep brown crust forms.
- Flip the bread and continue cooking for another 2 to 3 minutes, until golden brown and firm
to the touch. - Keep the cooked French toast in the oven while you work through the rest of the batch.
- Serve with warm syrup and a dusting of powdered sugar, if you like.
Eat This Tip
While we've managed to take most of the sting out of the French toast, it's still by definition a carb-heavy breakfast. But by increasing your fiber intake, you can blunt the impact on your blood sugar levels. Try replacing the syrup with any of the following:
- Sliced bananas, either raw or caramelized in a pan over medium heat for a few minutes
- Raw strawberries with powdered sugar
- Blueberries cooked for 15 minutes with a spoonful of water and sugar
