In this month’s issue of The Food Network Magazine there’s a 12-page spread identifying the best places to eat breakfast in all 50 states. The signature dish at Marston’s Restaurant in Pasadena, California is Fantastic French Toast. Here’s the description:
Thick slices of sourdough bread are dipped in cinnamon-sugar egg batter, then dredged in crushed cornflakes mixed with more cinnamon sugar. It’s genius construction–the coating stays crunchy even when you smother it in warm syrup and butter.
Incidentally, this is the second time in a matter of a month that I’ve stumbled upon this interesting new take on French toast. When I was searching for recipes for my French toast waffle hybrid, I saw a recipe for Crunchy French Toast on simplyrecipes.com.
After seeing reading about Marston’s Restaurant’s Fantastic French Toast, I definitely wanted to try it. For $9, I could drive to Pasadena and get the dish … or … I could try a hybrid of simplyrecipes.com and Marston’s Restaurant recipes at home and blog about it. (It’s a no-brainer.)
Crispy Crunchy French Toast (adapted from the simplyrecipes.com website)
ingredients.
- 4 slices of sourdough bread
- 2 to 3 c. crushed cornflakes cereal plus a sprinkling of cinnamon or cinnamon sugar
- 2 large eggs
- ⅓ c. milk
- ½ tsp. cinnamon
- 2 drops of vanilla (optional)
- Butter and pancake syrup
directions.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Spray baking sheet with cooking spray.
- Place the bread on the baking sheet into the warming oven. Toast lightly for 5 to 7 minutes as the oven heats. Remove and cool the bread completely.
- Pour crushed cornflakes into a shallow dish and mix with a bit of cinnamon or cinnamon sugar. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk eggs, milk, cinnamon and vanilla until blended. Pour into a shallow dish.
- Lay the bread pieces in the egg mixture soaking about 1 minute on each side. Don’t let the bread become soggy. Remove the bread from the egg mixture and place in the cornflake crumbs. Coat both sides evenly with the crumbs. You may have to use your hands to lift and move the cornflake crumbs. Set on baking sheet.
- Bake at 400°F for 10 minutes on one side. Then flip over and bake another 5 minutes.
- Serve with butter powdered sugar or maple syrup.
I liked the idea of this recipe because I have a large box of Cornflakes cereal in the pantry that I’ve been trying to get rid of for four months now. I bought Cornflakes to make cheesy hashbrown casserole, have made several batches of Farm Cookies, and still have at least three more cups of Cornflakes left in the never-ending box. I also liked the idea of French toast that stays crunchy even when drenched in butter and maple syrup.
Still I was a little skeptical of how the recipe would turn out. I shouldn’t have been!
Crispy Crunchy French toast is not all that much harder to make than real French toast, and it’s defintitely worth the extra effort. This might be the best French toast I’ve ever tasted!
*Note: According to simplyrecipes.com recipe; this recipe yields two or three servings. But, uh, I ate the whole thing. 🙂
Recipe rating:
Food Snob 