French Toast (Pain Perdu)

French toast is called "pain perdu", which means "lost bread" in French. It is called "lost bread" because it is a way to reclaim stale or "lost" bread. The hard bread is softened by dipping in a mixture of milk and eggs, and then fried. The bread is sliced on a bias and dipped into a mixture of egg, milk, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla. The slices are pan-fried in butter and traditionally dusted with powdered sugar and served with jam or syrup on the side. {source: Wikipedia}

My Tuesday's very Late Breakfast: French Toast or "pain perdu"! At least I could make the most of my left-over (commercial) whole wheat bread. Normally, I enjoy making my own bread, but this time. :)

For the preparation, some people soak and dip the bread slices in milk mixture first, then coat them with beaten egg before pan-frying in butter...
My preference: I put all ingredients together: milk, 1 egg, vanilla essence or grated orange zest + orange juice or Grand Marnier...whatever, really!;)...and without sugar added! I then heat the butter in a frying pan and cook the bread over medium heat until golden. They smell just lovely! Transfer the eggy bread onto a serving plate. Sift powdered sugar over the bread, served with your favourite jam, gelée, berries filling or maple syrup, anything your cravings are whispering you!!!.Oh! and a cuppa tea or coffee...Simply Delish!!!!

***below is another "pain perdu" of mine,  made of homemade brioche :)

http://annemathuros.blogspot.com/2012/06/french-toast-pain-perdu-my-version.html

Ingredients: 

4 thin slices commercial whole wheat bread 

(or 2 thick slices of Day-old Brioche) 

50 ml milk
 1 egg 

1/2 teaspoon Vanilla essence or 

grated zest of 1/2 orange (optional) 

Juice of 1/2 orange (optional) 

1 tablespoon powdered sugar (for dusting) 

Blueberry filling

15-20 g butter 

(salted or unsalted as per your preference)

The above picture shows how Anne savours her French Toast: 

She spoons a mouthful of blueberry filling on top of the eggy bread, already dusted with powdered sugar. Then she folds it like an envelope and hands it right away in her mouth! ;)

Easy how to: 

• Whisk the egg, milk, vanilla essence (alternatively grated zest + orange juice +Grand Marnier) in a wide shallow dish; 
• Soak each bread slice in the egg mixture for 1 minute a side (or 2 minutes for thick slices of bread); 
• Heat the butter in a frying pan and cook the bread for about 1-2 minutes a side over a medium heat until golden; 
• Transfer French toast onto a serving plate. Dust with powdered sugar and serve with berries filling, jam, gelée of your choice or maple syrup poured over each slice. Serve French Toast right away!

Très Bonne Semaine à toutes et tous !