In my continuing quest to become a better cook, I made some fantabulous french toast over the weekend. The recipe comes from my favorite TV Chef: Alton Brown. The key here is that you want to use stale bread. Yes, stale bread. This means, of course that you can't use bread that doesn't age correctly (i.e. any mass-produced store bought brand). I bought a nice loaf of brioche at my local bakery and had them slice it for me. I made a slight mistake and didn't ask them to slice it thick, so the bread was about 1/4" thick, instead of a good 1/2".

The night before I mixed up the custard mixture (1 cup half-and-half, 3 eggs, 2 tbsp warmed honey, 1/4 tsp salt), and put the bread on a drying rack in the open air so that it becomes sufficiently stale. The next morning, I just performed the standard french toast recipe, with a slight twist: after cooking on the griddle, I put the toast in a 375 degree oven for about 5 minutes, just to finish the cooking down to the inside. The result: the best tasting french toast I've ever had!

Next time I might try fat-free half-and-half. Probably won't turn out as good, but I am on diet after all! Also, be aware that the custard mixture makes enough french toast for 2 hungry people (about 8 pieces total). So adjust accordingly.

Updated 8/23/2004: So there's one improvement that I discovered over the weekend, and really this should've been obvious before. Previously, I had been putting the french toast directly from the griddle into the oven for 5 minutes, thus creating breakfast in batches. Instead, everything should be grilled, and once done, put everything in the oven at once for 5 minutes. It probably doesn't help that I'm making them 2 at a time, things might go a lot better if I could fit 4 in my frypan.