French Toast: A Journey

Which is the best: pancakes, waffles, or French toast? If you'd asked me any of my 22 years of existence up until the past few months, I would have answered pancakes or waffles, depending upon my mood. I was not a huge French toast fan - too often I found it too eggy for my taste. However, these past few months I have changed my tune. I'm not saying that French toast is my favorite breakfast food (I am perhaps embarrassingly a fan of more simple fare like oatmeal or peanut butter toast), but I definitely like it a lot more than I did previously and have found myself craving it for breakfast now and again.

What has prompted this drastic turnaround? French toast is not only Will's favorite breakfast food, but his favorite food period. In coming to Portland, he brought with him this love of French toast and I found myself eating it more in the last five months than I probably have in the past five years combined.

We've done quite a few different variations on French toast (and have generally gotten better at making it along the way). Here are some photos from my journey to appreciating French toast.

First attempts - I'm not yet convinced

I have to say, our first go at making French toast did little to change my mind about it as a quality food. We had a very basic recipe that consisted of, in my opinion, too much egg and not enough any other flavor. We also had not mastered the technique of cooking (frying? flipping? I don't know what word I'm looking for here) and thus the bread was not crisp enough for my liking. My biggest dislike in food is soggy texture. It's why I don't really like bread pudding or bread bowls for soup and why I used to not like French Toast. There's just something sad about soggy, eggy bread.

Our first couple times making French toast I didn't find it sweet enough or with enough non-egg flavor on its own. However, we did get better at crisping up the bread and making it less eggy. The addition of blueberries, powdered sugar, and high quality maple syrup also helped.

I particularly like this photo as it looks like we're advertising MacDonald's maple syrup (it actually is really good maple syrup so I might as well link it here).

A brief interlude in which Will tells me about "the best" cinnamon bread

Throughout this whole French toast journey, Will continuously insisted that ours was not the best argument for French toast. The French toast of his childhood is apparently unbeatable, due to the particular kind of bread used. Thus spawned a deep internet search to see if we could find this bread anywhere.

The bread was from Montana Mills bakery, which used to have a location in Will's hometown of Rochester. The Montana Mills cinnamon bread is apparently something of a cult favorite. I found several online threads in which people were attempting to find the recipe. Will describes the bread as being exceedingly fluffy and with cinnamon spread evenly throughout, rather than just a swirl in the center.

Unfortunately, Montana Mills has now completely shut down (the website is defunct) and with it, the cinnamon bread seems to have disappeared for good. If anyone has any information regarding obtaining Montana Mills cinnamon bread (or the recipe) do let me know, but for now Montana Mills remains a memory in Will's past.

Innovation brings about a turning point

A suggested Facebook video brought about a new chapter in the French toast journey. Will came across a video showing a recipe for Biscoff (cookie butter) French toast roll ups. They looked absolutely decadent and I had a whole jar of the famed Trader Joe's Cookie Butter in my pantry so it was a done deal.

Peep the MacDonald's syrup again!

These turned out amazingly well. The bread was filled with warm, gooey cookie butter and the outside was covered in cinnamon sugar (and a healthy dousing of maple syrup), making for a deliciously sweet treat.

I gotta admit - restaurants do it better

In need of some brunch, Will and I dined at Cafe Nell, a long-standing restaurant in North Portland. They have an elaborate outdoor seating area complete with heaters, appropriate for corona-time. We arrived quite hungry and I, not Will, actually ordered the eggnog French toast (Will couldn't remember what eggnog tasted like and was initially hesitant).

This ended up being one of the best memories of French toast that I have to date. The bread was a big factor: the light, fluffy, sweet brioche was not eggy in flavor or texture at all; it was pillowy and soft and soaked up the flavors perfectly. The drizzle of eggnog creme anglaise was the right amount - subtle, not too overwhelming as eggnog can be. The berry compote added a nice, fruity texture.

Overall, this is one of my favorite French toasts ever and put me fully on the French toast train.

Ode to French Toast feat. homemade brioche

This French toast journey culminates in our own successful rendition of Will's favorite food. We decided to make breakfast for dinner for our ~1 year anniversary. Learning from my Cafe Nell experience, I decided that the type of bread used was key. No more white sliced bread - I wanted brioche! I surprisingly struggled to find a plain brioche loaf in Portland; most of the French bakeries I looked at had brioche, but it was filled with cream cheese or was in a roll form or something was not quite right. In true quarantine fashion, I decided that I could very well make my own brioche.

I followed a very helpful recipe video from Delish, that walked me through the whole process. It was actually quite easy if not a bit time-consuming. I made the bread two days in advance so that it would get a little stale (the best kind of bread to make French toast with).

We then followed the NY Time's Overnight French Toast recipe, though soaking it in the morning instead of overnight. We omitted the raisins, but sprinkled chopped pecans over the top (adding a fantastic crunchy texture) before baking it for 50 minutes at 350 degrees. The French toast turned out great (Will gave it his stamp of approval) and looked beautiful with a sprinkling of confectioner's sugar and maple syrup.

Overall, while I am still a pancakes or waffles girl, French toast has managed to capture a part of my heart (or stomach?) and I will surely be eating more of it in the future.

- Evan