Easy French recipe for Pain Perdu - French Toast made the French way. The best, day-old fluffy white artisanal bread or brioche slices are soaked in a mix of milk, cream, eggs and sugar and fried in toasted butter. Recipe with thanks to Laurent Ehmig, baker at l'Aigle d'Or in Saint-Germain-en-Laye near Paris.
50ml (bit less than ¼ cup)heavy cream(crème liquide)
50g (¼ cup)sugar
25g (2 tbsp)cane sugar
pinchsea saltfleur de sel, Maldon or Celtic
25g (2 tbsp)butterunsalted
Instructions
In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar and cane sugar. Pour in the milk and cream.
Cut the bread or brioche into about 6 thick slices of about 2-3cm (an inch) per slice.
Soak each slice in the liquid for a few seconds (or more if the bread is quite dry) until completely soaked through the bread. Transfer each slice to a tray.
In a medium-hot non-stick frying pan, melt the butter until it starts to mousse a little.
Fry the slices in the butter until well toasted on each side. As the slices cook, the butter will also become toasted. Repeat until all the slices are used.
Video
Notes
To serve: serve warm either immediately or keep warm in the oven at 120°C/100°C fan for a few minutes before serving. Top with a dusting of powdered sugar and fresh berries or slices of fried apples with salted caramel sauce.Storage: leave any leftover slices to cool then stack on a plate covered with another upturned plate. The pain perdu can also be frozen, sealed in freezer bags.Measures: Please note that all my recipes are best made using digital kitchen scales in precise metric grams. Both ounces (and cups) are given as an approximate guide.
Keyword brioche perdu, eggy bread, french toast, French toast like the French, pain perdu