French Toast Deserves A Good Soak

Take it from professional chef Frank Proto—your french toast needs to soak long enough to absorb the custard all the way to the core.




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[shadowguard]

A long soak for very thick bread, but if you use pre-sliced sandwich bread a long soak will make the bread fall apart. Sandwich bread needs a very short soaking time.

[deadeus]

there is a reason why its supposed to take so long, french toast is made for stale bread that you litteraly cannot eat
you probably already heard it already but french toast is called " pain perdu" which translates to "lost bread"
thats why it can take along time to soak stale bread until it becomes soft enough to pan fry with butter and then eat witha nice scoop of ice cream and whipped cream

[RealCuckerTarlson]

Soak it until no one wants french toast anymore

[glennbelsher]

So glad i found this way to delay a 2 min breakfast to 30minutes

[porgo]

"Don't over crowd or they won't soak up enough"
Proceeds to over crowd

[ademir-]

"They don't really soak when they're on top of eachother" immediately clips to overfilling the bowl

[LeanneKrv]

If you use soft bread, don't soak it for too long else it would be too soggy and break apart. This method is useful for dense thick bread. In realistic scenario if you use grocery store bread, you'd only need 2-5 minutes to soak the bread, even less if it is a really soft bread.

[Oridore_]

With a massive piece of fresh american brioche? IDK. But in france we just use leftover dry baguette or any bread that's dry af. French toast (or "lost bread" in french) is just a way to recycle dry bread that otherwise you'd throw away because it's too hard to eat. And I assure you, it's WAY better with dry bread, and it needs less time soaking because it's so dry it drinks all the custard instantly.

[christophermm]

I hear you frank, but breakfast is not supposed to take a hour to make

[davidmac]

He forgot to clack the tongs 2-3 times to make sure they are working properly.

[YoutubeUserk]

20 to 30 minute soak is NOT for regular bread. The bread he is using is thick and most likely very dry or stale. When the French invented this technique it was for bread that was super hard. This is the reason they call it Pain Perdu. Pain means bread and Perdu means lost. Why was the bread considered lost? Because it had gone dry or hard or stale or whatever and you couldn't use it anymore and therefore they came up with a technique that would allow them to recover the lost bread. Therefore a regular quick soak for regular bread you get at the store is more than enough.

... and if you use a wide baking dish instead of a deep bowl, you can line more slices in the custard without them going on top of each other .

[noxzaz]

I like the fluffy inside of french toast when soaking it for a short time.

[kiryumiagich.]

it all comes down to how thick your bread is.

[larryd]

You can also use a vacuum chamber if you have for an instand soak.

[diraltmcallister]

I'll just do a nice reasonably soaked sourdough, because i don't need a french toast cake

[oliveryt]

"You can see that it's soft."

No, I can't.

[chrislitak]

alton brown recipe is perfection, 20min is INSANE

[reyrex]

Usually you'd leave the bread out the day before so it could become a bit stale which makes it absorb the liquid more easily but if you've only got like an hour or 2 this does the job

[moiznahmad]

I like using lightly toasted (to dry it out) thick sliced bread, soaked overnight with the custard. Then you have luscious french toast the next morning ready for the pan