Vanilla French Toast Recipe (2024)

This vanilla French toast is full of secrets: the hint of cardamom, the double-dip method, and the cast iron pan. Together they add up to a decadently delicious French toast that I proudly serve for special occasions, like birthdays, Mother’s Day, or Father’s Day.

An Easy French Toast Breakfast

With a rich, eggy custard-like texture and hints of vanilla and cardamom this French toast is sure to impress. Once you try it, you’ll never settle for basic French toast again. No one needs to know just how quick or easy it is to get on the table.

Serve with a dusting of powdered sugar or a drizzling of maple syrup, add fresh fruit, candied pecans or a sprinkle of maple granola, or just eat it plain. No matter how you like it, this vanilla French toast is a delicious way to start your weekend off right.

How to Make Vanilla French Toast

Like many simple recipes, the secret to amazing results is having the right ingredients and the right preparation method. When it comes to making French toast some people claim that the most important part is the bread. Others say it’s all about the milk and egg custard. I would argue that while both are important, neither is more important than the preparation method.

The truth is that you have to cover all the important parts: the bread, the custard, the double dip, and how you cook it. Together these four components will help you take your French toast from bland, boring, and run of the mill to decadently delicious.

The Best Bread for Custard French Toast

When it comes to the best bread for French toast, my recommendation is to look for unsliced loaves of brioche. Brioche is an eggy, buttery style of French bread that, while rich and flavorful on it’s own, compliments the eggy custard soak perfectly.

While finding brioche in the bread aisle can be hit or miss, I often find it in the bakery section. Can’t find brioche? Look for the following:

• Something that is sturdy enough to hold it’s shape after the custard soak. It shouldn’t have too fine of a crumb or smush easily when you pick it up. (No standard white breads!)
• Unsliced loaves are best, but if it is sliced look for thicker slices that are about one inch wide. If it’s too thin the slices will fall apart, while slices that are too thick can absorb too much custard, making them more difficult to cook.
• IF you want a pillowy soft custard like inside, don’t choose a bread that is super chewy or has a thick crust.
• It should taste good!
• Whole loaves of French bread or sourdough are good, sliced Texas toast is good, challah bread is good.

Want to try your hand at homemade brioche? You can use my recipe for brioche rolls and make it into a single loaf of bread, or check out these recipes by Martha Stewart and Epicurious.

Baking Powder – The Key to Fluffy French Toast

Baking powder is not common in French toast, but it’s definitely there for a reason. The baking powder is going to react instantly to the heat of the pan and cause the custard soaked bread to puff up. This is the difference between thin French toast and fluffy decadent French toast. It’s not essential to making French toast, but it is essential to making French toast better.

The Milk and Egg Custard

The batter for this French toast is super simple. Made mainly of eggs and milk, it’s a basic custard French toast. While some recipes don’t add much to it, others, like this one, dial it up a notch with extra ingredients for extra flavor. My recipe is built off of the ratio of one egg and one tablespoon of milk for every two slices of bread. It gives the best results without leaving you with a lot of extra batter.

Soaking vs. Double Dipping

Many, many recipes will tell you to soak your bread in the custard. Please, please, please only do this if you are working with tough, chewy, or stale bread.

When you soak the bread in the custard it gives the bread extra time to soak up more custard. While that may sound great on the surface, it can lead to soggy French toast that is difficult to cook. You’ll need to work with a lower temperature to ensure the outside doesn’t burn before the inside is cooked.

In my kitchen I’m a big fan of the double dip. Not only does it give your bread a chance to soak up just the right amount of custard, it allows the custard the chance to soak into the bread just enough without over saturating it.

To double dip: pour the custard into a shallow bowl or large plate. Place the bread into the custard, wait two seconds, flip it. Repeat it a second time so that both sides are dipped twice.

Cast Iron Makes Better French Toast

You can make French toast in any frying pan, skillet, or griddle, but if you have cast iron, use it! Just like searing steak, the frying French toast in cast iron just works better.

It does a better job of transferring the heat, meaning your French toast will cook faster and give you those gorgeously delicious sear marks. I don’t have a cast iron griddle, but my 12″ cast iron skillet holds about 3 slices at a time.

Vanilla French Toast Recipe

Vanilla French Toast is a decadently delicious way to celebrate with those you love. This simple bread and custard recipe adds a hint of cardamom and relies on the double dip method paired with a cast iron skillet to take it from everyday to gourmet.

Serve yours with fresh fruit, nuts, maple syrup, powdered sugar, or whipped cream.

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More Delicious Breakfast Ideas

• Croissant Breakfast Casserole
• Maple Hazelnut Homemade Granola
• Homemade Banana Waffles
• Overnight Breakfast Casserole
• French Toast Bake