You're Using the Wrong Bread for French Toast

When I was a kid, I didn’t know people put butter and syrup on French toast. In my family, we always sprinkled it with cinnamon and sugar. I don’t recall when I learned that people topped French toast with the same thing they top pancakes with. I do know that at some point, I realized that I didn’t have to go through all the steps of making pancakes to get a syrup fix. (Of course, now I don’t mind making pancakes, but when you’re 10 years old, the faster you get to the syrup, the better.)

Last week, I had a craving for something drizzled with maple syrup, but I didn’t have the time to make pancakes, and I didn’t have any regular bread. What I did have was store-bought English muffins. 

Why You Should Use English Muffins for French Toast

English muffins are, of course, perfect toasted with butter and jelly for breakfast. They make the quintessential top and bottom for a breakfast sandwich. They are the base of my favorite savory breakfast, eggs Benedict. 

You can cook makeshift pizzas on English muffins, turn them into a vehicle for a cheesy crabby appetizer, and, as I recently discovered, make French toast with them. 

It’s so simple. Make your egg batter as you normally would. I beat together one large egg, a few tablespoons of milk, and a dash of vanilla extract. Then, I put the English muffin halves in the mixture to soak up the egg. You have to leave them in the egg for a bit longer than a regular slice of sandwich bread because they’re denser.

Then, I cooked them on the griddle just like I would regular French toast, with one exception: When the nooks and cranny sides were face down on the griddle, I pushed down on them with a spatula so that all the egg mixture came in contact with the griddle. After I finished, I realized I could have pulled out my hand-held cast iron panini press to do the same thing—and next time, I will. 

I spread butter on the hot English muffin French toast, drizzled it with maple syrup, and dug in. It was just what I needed to fix my craving. 

Personal preferences for the type of bread you use for French toast vary, but if you’ve never thought of using English muffins for French toast, now you know that you can, and it works.