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- Hey, I'm Ben,
one of the chefs at Sorted Food.
And today, I'm gonna show you two ways
that I make French toast at home.
And I promise you, they are both so simple.
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This first version is the absolute classic.
What you might associate,
with a breakfast or brunch at the weekend.
The sweet version,
however, it uses exactly the same simple ratio
as the one I'll show you later on.
It begins with two ingredients,
egg and milk.
Crack eggs into a jug or a bowl.
And you're looking for about an egg per portion
or per slice you're going to cook.
Now, because I'm gonna show you two different versions,
I've actually gone with four eggs.
So, two for our sweet,
and two for the savoury.
(whisking)
You're not looking to put much air into it,
you're just breaking up the yolk and the white.
Now, the way I always remember this,
so I don't have to refer to a recipe,
is per portion, one egg
to make the custard,
and a glug of whole milk.
And by a glug, I mean maybe 40, 50 mil.
That way you've got
the combination of beaten egg
and milk to be about equal.
And it's not gonna be the end of the world
if you're 20, 30 mil above or below that.
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And that's it, that's basically the recipe,
the bit you need to remember.
At this point,
you can make it your own.
First up the classic version, the sweet version.
I'm gonna use 1/2 of this custard
and turn it sweet.
I'm gonna add one teaspoon of sugar per egg.
So, I got half batch,
two eggs, two teaspoons,
a pinch of ground cinnamon
and a little drop of vanilla extract.
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(whisking)
And then pour.
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And it's this bit that I particularly love
about French toast,
because I think it's fair to say, Mike
we associate it with like a luxury at the weekend.
- [Mike] Mm-hmm.
- Like a special brunch, quite a treat.
It started life as a way of using up stale bread.
In French pain perdu, literally lost bread.
The bread that would otherwise be lost to the bin.
This is how you make it excellent.
Now this first one, the classic, the sweet one,
brioche is ideal, it's like a sponge.
You can either buy it and often it's pre-sliced, fine.
If you can get a whole loaf or make a loaf,
you can slice your own.
You can get it a little bit thicker,
and that is better,
because you want this bread slightly stale,
I cut it this morning,
it's already going a bit stale,
to soak up all of that lovely custard.
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Now don't rush this part.
You want at least a minute or two on each side of the bread
to soak up as much custard as possible.
And while you're waiting for it,
you can preheat a pan
over medium-high heat.
So, for the sweet one,
two chunky slices of brioche,
and this is the two egg custard mix.
You can see most of it has been absorbed,
which means the bread is now thick and dense
with that custard,
and it's ready to be cooked.
But at this point,
make sure the pan is perfect.
A knob of butter in,
let it foam and then let it go quiet.
And that's really the key
for whenever you're cooking in butter.
You want it to foam,
then you want it to sizzle a bit,
and that's all the impurities coming out of the butter.
And at the point at which it's stopped making a noise,
just before it turns golden brown,
then you can add in your soggy, custardy bread.
Now you could smell it before,
but the moment the bread hits the pan,
you begin to get those aromas of cinnamon and vanilla.
And that's just one option.
The point of this,
is once you've got the custard,
egg, milk, teaspoon of sugar per egg,
you can go wherever you want with it.
Ground ginger, also great.
Citrus zest, lovely.
You can infuse the milk with chai spices.
Cool it down,
then mix into the egg.
And you can even go with a splash of booze
if you like a little liqueur,
and then it's perfect for dessert,
perhaps instead of breakfast.
I mean, up to you.
(chuckling)
- [Mike] This is how you do it at home though, isn't it?
- No, I don't go boozy for breakfast.
You're gonna get me a reputation.
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Now, you don't wanna cook it too quickly,
because you don't want too much colour,
before the custard middle has cooked through.
If it's a thinner slice of bread,
you might want a higher heat,
but with a piece this thick,
it's at least a couple of minutes on either side,
gently bubbling in that butter.
And you should end up with custardy middle, and
that kinda crispy sounding outside.
It smells so good in here.
Can always have a peek.
I'm happy with that.
And then transfer it.
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To drain.
Now I choose to drain it on a little bit
of a kitchen roll, just to get rid of any excess
greasiness from the butter.
Serve immediately while it's warm.
If you're cooking for a crowd,
they keep warm in a very low oven, 80,
a 100 degree Celsius, while you cook off others,
you can all eat together,
and then you can plate it up.
And once you've got the basics,
I like it with Greek yoghurt,
so it's got a little bit of tartness to it,
and then some stewed fruit.
Now, today I've just gone for some kind of forest berries
that I've taken out of the freezer.
Super affordable way of buying them,
stew them down, five minutes,
with a little bit of sugar,
and that's it.
The point of this video,
is the French toast is the basis.
You use whatever fruit is seasonal,
or leftover in the fridge at your place.
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Now, you've seen how easy that is,
and as a concept, it is so good
it can't just be reserved for breakfast,
brunch, and dessert,
which is why this version,
exactly the same principle, but savoury.
And you must give it a go for midweek, it's awesome.
This time, with this batch,
I'm gonna season it with salt and pepper,
and then add some extra flavours.
Now, you probably get the idea by now,
you can add whatever flavours you want.
Today, I'm going for favourite spice blend at the moment,
Za'atar, because it's got loads of dried herbs
and Sesame seeds in there.
That's going in, along with grated Parmesan,
so a hard, salty cheese.
This is blending two very different parts of the world.
I don't care, because this works really nicely.
And I nearly always have some Parmesan in the fridge,
because it keeps really well.
It's a hard cheese, it's salty.
It grates really well in this,
and it will give your French toast
a wonderful, golden crispiness
that the sugar did before.
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And then repeat exactly as before,
instead of brioche though,
I'm just using a regular white farmhouse loaf. Still stale.
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Now, if you're looking for a dairy free version,
this is ideal, sweet or savoury,
is use the white farmhouse loaf,
rather than the brioche.
All we need to do is sub out the dairy milk,
for any other milk, oat milk, soy milk, and nut milk.
And sub out the butter for oil,
which is what we're gonna cook this savoury version in.
So, while it's soaking,
preheat your pan,
and then some grape seed oil in our case,
but use whatever oil you've got in the cupboard.
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And that's the sizzle you want,
because that's gonna give the wonderful colour,
especially with the Za'atar
and the Sesame seeds,
because the Sesame seeds kinda go a little bit golden.
And you can even be a bit cheeky
and put a little bit more Parmesan right on top,
just for that final twist.
A little bit cheeky,
I'm not sure why I said that,
but, you know what I mean.
(chuckling)
See, this reminds me more of being a kid,
'cause this is more like eggy bread,
'cause it was always savoury.
(sizzling)
There you go.
We got those Sesame seeds nice and golden,
and toasted from the Za'atar.
For a mid-week meal,
I love this with a simple salad.
And literally in the time it takes
for that to cook on either side,
I'm gonna make a cucumber salad.
Strips and ribbons of cucumber,
tossed with a drizzle of honey,
a little white vinegar.
In our case, we're using balsamic vinegar,
but use whatever you have,
salt and pepper, job done!
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Gorgeous cucumber ribbon salad.
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And there we go.
Two simple versions.
I'm not entirely sure why French toast
has this luxury feel in the UK.
This is super affordable food,
bread, eggs, milk, and whatever flavouring you want,
sweet or savoury.
If these kinda simple recipe ideas excite you,
you're absolutely gonna wanna check out
our Meal Packs App,
basically a way to boss your mid-week cooking,
with tasty, smart, delicious recipes
that are effortless to do.
And you can even do that completely free
for an entire month.
Go ahead and give it a go.
All right, we've done our plugging Mike,
let's eat this.
Are you going sweet or savoury first?
- [Mike] Definitely sweet.
Love it sweet.
- [Ben] I make that a lot.
Not so much the sweet one,
but I make,
I can't get through a whole loaf of bread of my own.
I turn the leftovers into this.
- [Mike] Oh wow, that is so soggy in the middle.
Oof.
- [Ben] To think you'd charge like nine,
10 quid for that in the restaurant.
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- [Mike] That is absolutely superb.