On 08/29/2010 07:04 PM, e-mail from gene wrote:
> I've tried and tried to make great tasting French Toast. I've used my
> Mom's tried and true recipe for over 30 years. Just a basic no frills
> approach of egg dipping a slice of white bread and then frying it. There
> simply must be another way of bringing new life to an old favorite. I
> would be very grateful for any cooking tips you'd care to offer me.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> gene

This was the subject of a thread here in r.f.c. some time ago. I've
copied the recipe here and added a summary of some of the comments. One
of the more interesting comments (not included here -- odd) was that the
flour in the batter probably adds some crispiness to the final crust.

I've made this recipe and it is the *best* French Toast I've ever had,
by a long shot. I made it with French bread cut on a diagonal instead of
Texas Toast and added maybe a tablespoon of brandy to the batter. After
it was cooked I put butter and a couple of slices of ripe banana on the
top of each, then covered it with plain old Log Cabin syrup. I thought
I'd died and gone to heaven. It also took about a week for my BG to come
back down. Some day I'd like to try it with brioche for the bread.


----------------- Snip Here ------------------

Denny's-Style French Toast


Ingredients:
4 eggs
2/3 cup whole milk; skim milk is OK also
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. cinnamon

6 slices Texas toast thick bread
3 Tbsp. butter
powdered sugar
butter
maple syrup

Directions:
Mix together the eggs, milk, flour, sugar, vanilla, salt and cinnamon.

Heat a large skillet, or griddle. When the skillet is hot, add 1
Tablespoon butter. If the butter smokes, your pan is too hot -- turn
down the heat.

Dip each slice of bread into the batter for 30 seconds on each side. Let
some of the batter drip off, then put in skillet. Cook each slice 1 1/2
to 2 minutes per side until each side is golden brown.

Add more butter, if necessary, to cook all of the slices.

To serve, put on plate, dust with powdered sugar. Serve with butter and
hot syrup.

Serves 6 to 8.

Notes from the readers:
Mix the cinnamon into the vanilla before adding to the egg mixture -- it
won't float on top.

Whir everything up to the bread, liquids first, in a blender. The batter
may be sticky or lumpy otherwise.

As long as you have the blender out, toss some fruit such as banana,
peach or strawberry into it. No, I don't know how much.

Halve the recipe for seven slices of regular bread.

Use raisin bread sometime.

Add some brandy.

Use dense, chewy French or sourdough bread (the long kind, not the round
kind) cut on a diagonal 1" thick and soak in the batter 45 to 60 seconds
per side. Cook 2 1/2 to 3 minutes per side. Regular bread is pretty
bland compared to this.

Top with cream cheese and/or bananas.

Make the batter the evening before and let it "cure" in the refrigerator
overnight.

Top with peanut butter and honey.

Stuffed French toast: While the French toast was cooking, we mixed
together 1/2 package of reduced fat cream cheese (Neufchatel), 2
Tablespoons butter, 1/2 cup powered sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.
When the French toast was done and still warm, we spread a slice with
about 1 Tablespoon cream cheese mixture, and topped it with another
slice of French toast. We cut it on the diagonal, and each one of us had
a half of this "sandwich" topped with maple syrup.

Freeze the extras for later.

Use more cinnamon.