These Sourdough French Toast are the most delicious family breakfast recipe with thick slices of sourdough bread custardy on the inside and crispy on the edges.
We love French toast recipes for weekend breakfasts. It’s also a great way to reuse stale sourdough bread loaf and turn it into a delicious meal that is fun and fulfilling.
How To Make Sourdough French Toast
It’s super easy to turn your sourdough bread loaf into a delicious breakfast-making sourdough french toast.
Ingredients
All you need to make French toast with sourdough are:
- Sourdough Bread Slices – Cut the bread into 3/4-inch thick slices.
- Milk – Any milk works well, like regular cow milk, low-fat milk, or plant-based milk like almond milk or oat milk.
- Heavy Cream or more milk or vegetable cream like soy cream.
- Eggs
- Vanilla Extract
- Cinnamon
- Sugar, coconut sugar, or sugar-free crystal sweeteners like allulose or erythritol.
- Butter
Cutting The Bread
First, slice your sourdough loaf into thick slices between 3/4 inch to 1 inch.
Custard Mixture
Next, beat eggs with milk, heavy cream, sugar, vanilla extract, and cinnamon in a shallow bowl.
Make sure the eggs are well beaten and combine them with the rest.
Next, dip each slice of bread into the mixture for about 30Â seconds on each side. You want the bread crumb heavy and filled with the egg mixture.
Cooking French Toast
Warm a non-stick griddle or frying pan over medium heat. Add a generous amount of butter to the pan. I use one tablespoon for two slices.
Add the sourdough slices to the pan when the butter has melted and almost turned into brown butter.
Cook the French Toast for 2 to 3 minutes on one side, flip the slice, add one more tablespoon of butter and cook again.
The slices are cooked when golden brown, crispy, and warm.
Making Perfect French Toast
There are a few common mistakes people make when preparing French toast.
1. Too Many Eggs
It’s a common mistake to add too many eggs and not enough milk.
You want to make a custard, not an omelette. So if you add too many eggs in the dipping liquid, when you cook your bread slices, it fries and tastes like fried eggs.
2. Choice Of Bread
Sourdough bread is the best for French toast with challah bread or brioche. If the bread is too fresh and soft, it won’t make good French toast.
Use stale sourdough bread. Bread that is a few days old is the best, it’s firmer.
Then, always slice it into thick slices to avoid soggy French toast.
3. Over-Dipping
A French toast should be custardy in the middle, and to reach that texture, you need minimal eggs, and dip the bread into the egg mixture until the bread crumb has sucked up the liquid.
You know you dipped the slice enough when it is heavy, and the crumb is saturated with the liquid.
Always hold the bread slice above the bowl for a few seconds before cooking. This way, the excess liquid runs back to the bowl.
4. Not Enough Butter
The crispy edges on French toast come from frying the bread in melted butter.
Always add more butter as you flip the slice to ensure a crispy golden brown texture on both sides.
Serving
French toast are always better with some toppings like the one suggested below:
- Maple Syrup or any liquid syrup your like including agave syrup, coconut nectar, or rice syrup.
- Powder sugar
- Cinnamon
- Fresh berries
- Sliced banana
- Whipped cream
- Peanut butter
Storage Instructions
French toast doesn’t store very long. They taste better fresh and warm just out of the pan.
However, if this recipe makes too much toast, keep the dipping egg mixture in a bowl in the fridge for the next day. Keep it for up to two days in the fridge.
Use in the morning to dip bread slices and cook.
If you have leftovers of cooked French toast, store them in a sealed container for up to 2 days and rewarm them on a hot pan on both sides until crispy.
Also, you can freeze leftover cooked French toast in freezer bags and thaw them in the fridge the day before.
Allergy Swaps
Below I listed some options to make this recipe differently if you have food allergies:
- Gluten-Free – Some bakeries make delicious gluten-free sourdough bread loaves. Otherwise, use thick slices of your favorite gluten-free bread.
- Egg-Free – You can swap the eggs for two tablespoons of cornstarch.
- Sugar-Free – Skip sugar or replace the sugar with a natural sugar-free sweetener like erythritol.
- Dairy-Free – You can use any non-dairy milk in this recipe and swap the heavy cream for coconut cream, soy cream, or more milk. Finally, fry in coconut oil or avocado oil.
- Vegan – Use both the egg-free and dairy-free options above.
Frequently Asked Questions
Below are my answers to your most common questions about this recipe:
Can I Use Another Type Of Bread?
Yes, this recipe works with any bread or brioche as long as it’s thick slices of about 1 inch.
Can I Cook French Toast In The Oven?
Yes, you can preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Then, add an 8-inch x 8-inch pan with butter in the oven.
When the butter has melted, add the slices and bake them for 15 minutes, flipping them halfway, and adding more butter.
It won’t get as custardy in the center as if cooked in the pan, but it’s still delicious.
Can I Air Fry French Toast?
For air fryer French toast, spray some olive oil on both sides of the bread slices and in the basket.
Air fry the toast at 400°F (200°C) for 8to 10 minutes, flipping them halfway.
You may need to add a piece of parchment paper to the basket to prevent the bread from sticking to it.
More French Toast Recipes
Here’s some more french toast recipes for you to try.
Have you made these lovely sourdough french toast recipe? Share a comment or review below.
Sourdough French Toasts
Ingredients
- 6 slices Sourdough Bread 1 inch thick slice
- 2 large Egg
- â…” cup Milk you can use dairy-free milk, like almond milk , soy milk, or coconut milk
- 2 tablespoons Heavy Cream
- 2 tablespoons Sugar
- ½ teaspoon Cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
For frying
- 2 tablespoons Butter
Serving
- 2 tablespoons Maple Syrup
- ¼ cup Berries
Instructions
- Cut the sourdough bread into thick slices of 3/4 inch to 1 inch. Set aside.
- In a shallow bowl, whisk eggs, milk, cream, cinnamon, sugar, and vanilla extract.
- Dip each side of the sourdough bread slices for a few seconds into the egg mixture. Wait for a few seconds above the bowl to let the excess liquid run back to the bowl. Place the prepared bread slices onto a plate.
- Warm some butter in a frying pan. When hot, fry bread slices for 2-3 minutes on one side, then flip on the other side. Add more butter if no more is left in the pan. Repeat these steps until all the French toast slices are cooked.
- Serve immediately with a drizzle of maple syrup and fresh berries.
