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Pain Perdu: Buttery French Toast with Vanilla and Cinnamon

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Transport yourself to a French café with Pain Perdu, which literally translates to 'lost bread'. This is a remarkably delicious way to use stale brioche or baguette, transforming it into golden, buttery, and caramelized toast, ideally dusted with powdered sugar. Its aroma of vanilla and cinnamon will delight any gourmet.

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Pain Perdu: Buttery French Toast with Vanilla and Cinnamon
Prep time 5 min
Cook time 10 min
Servings
🌱
Difficulty Easy
Category Breakfast
Cuisine French

Ingredients

  • 4 pcs slice of brioche — ~2 cm thick
  • 2 pcs egg
  • 150 ml milk
  • 50 ml heavy cream — optional
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract — for richness, or seeds from 1/2 vanilla bean
  • 1 pinch cinnamon
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 40 g butter — for frying
  • 1 pinch powdered sugar — for serving

Instructions

Preparation

  1. 1

    In a shallow dish, whisk the eggs with the milk, cream, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt. This will create an aromatic custard.

  2. 2

    Soak each slice of bread in the custard for 20-30 seconds on each side. The brioche should be saturated, but not falling apart.

  3. 3

    Heat a skillet over medium heat. Melt half of the butter — when it begins to foam, but not yet brown, add the slices.

  4. 4

    Fry for 2-3 minutes, until the underside becomes golden brown. Flip and fry the other side for another 2 minutes. Add the remaining butter as needed.

  5. 5

    Transfer to a plate lined with paper towels for a moment to drain excess butter.

  6. 6

    Sprinkle generously with powdered sugar, drizzle with maple syrup or jam.

Serving

  1. 1

    With caramelized apples, fresh raspberries, and whipped cream. In the French style: with a bowl of coffee with milk (café au lait).

Notes

Important Tip: Fresh bread tends to absorb too much of the custard, which can cause it to fall apart. If you only have fresh bread, simply dry the slices in the oven for 5 minutes at 150°C.

Pain Perdu tastes best served straight from the pan. If you want to reheat it, you can do so in the toaster for about 1 minute.