Grandma Gwen’s Easy Homemade French Toast Recipe (With Video)

Made with milk sugar eggs vanilla bricoche bread and a bunch of wonderful spices. Making it the perfect french toast recipe ever.

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Hey, PBJ’s… I’m back with another delicious, easy-to-make breakfast recipe I know yall are gonna love. Today I’m going to share a modified version of my Grandma Gwendolyn’s French toast recipe with you.

I was looking through the Breakfast Category of my blog, tryna think of new recipe ideas, and I realized I hadn’t created a Waffle, Pancake, or French Toast recipe yet, so this recipe was way overdue.

I mean… Pancakes, Waffles, and French Toast are all breakfast classics here in the States, so I’m going to start with French Toast since it’s the one I like the most and probably make the best. Lol!

What makes this a good recipe:

• Easy to make: This recipe is simple once you have all the ingredients. A 12-year-old can make this, so don’t worry about messing it up.
• A quick recipe: It doesn’t take long. All you do is create an egg wash and add your spices to it. Then coat the bread and fry it for a couple of minutes. It takes less than 25 minutes.
• Everyone likes it: Everyone from children to adults likes French toast, so you can’t beat that. Children like it because it’s sweet, and so do we.
• You can serve it with anything: You can serve French toast with almost anything, eggs, and any breakfast meat you can think of, which makes it a good breakfast side dish
• Kid-friendly: I told y’all I helped my grandma Gwen dredge the bread in the filling, so it’s a fun recipe you can spend the morning making with your children.

Grandma Gwen’s French toast

Let me share my very first and early memories of French toast with you guys. My grandma Gwen, who was my paternal grandmother, lived in SW Philly, just a quick 5-minute drive away from us.

She watched us once in a blue moon for my mom during the weekdays because she got off hours after we got out of school. But she mostly watched us on the weekends because my mom worked Saturdays.

Sometimes, she babysat us at our house, and sometimes, we went to hers. But on Saturday mornings, she always made a big, nice breakfast for us.

And I’m just going to say this: she made the best French Toast you’d ever taste, and I stand on that!!! That’s probably why I was always excited when she made some for us.

She and my Nana Alice Mae were known as the best cooks in the family. Now you all know why I mention both of them so much, along with McCloud, the husband of my maternal grandma, Viola Taylor.

All of them could cook their butts off and, in some way or another, inspired and influenced me as a cook. So I never forget to give them shotouts and their proper credit for the cook I’ve become today.

I vividly remember watching my grandma Gwen prepare french toast for us as kids during the ’90s and me begging her to help. I was always interested in what was happening in the kitchen, even at age 11.

Some would say that’s proof that I’m a true foodie, but I think the truth is I’m just greedy. Lol! I remember seeing her crack a few eggs in a bowl, combine them with milk, spices, and vanilla, and whisk away with her strong little arms.

Then, she’d let me dip each slice of bread in the egg wash and make a big mess in the process. Lol! I was so fascinated by how the bread went from white and bland to brown and marbled once it was done.

That preparation process of French toast and the transformation from white bread to delicious French toast was always so cool to me as a kid. Lol! And even though I don’t make it often, when I do, I still make french toast just the way she did.

You only need a few ingredients, and it’s very easy to make. It tastes great with almost every breakfast food, making it the perfect breakfast side.” RIP Grandma Gwen

Childhood memories of store-bought French toast sticks

I remember eating French toast sticks as a kid, you know, the ones they sold in a box? My mom used to buy them from Save A Lot and Murray’s, which were two popular Great Value grocery stores in Philly.

Murray’s is no longer around, but Save A Lot still is. These were stores in the hood where low-income families did most of their grocery shopping. I remember most of the food being processed and cheap.

They sold a lot of off-brand food, like soda, chips, and cereal. We enjoyed it because it’s all we knew! My mother fed us precooked boxed food, aka TV dinners, until she improved her cooking skills.

French toast sticks were one of my favorites, though. Although they weren’t homemade, the name-brand Aunt Jemima Syrup my mom bought made them taste homemade. Lol! Here are the ingredients and cookware you’ll need.

Cookware & utensils you’ll need:

• Mixing bowl: You need a medium-sized mixing bowl to combine all the ingredients for the egg wash. 
• Whisk: Use a whisk to beat the eggs and stir the mixture well. Use a silicone whisk, or if you don’t have a whisk on hand, a fork will do.
• Large skillet: You need a skillet to cook the French toast. Use a large skillet so you can cook more at once. Otherwise, breakfast will take forever. Lol!
• 2 Spatulas: A spatula is needed to flip the French toast while it’s cooking and to remove it from the skillet once it’s done. You’ll also need it to add it to the skillet.
• Cooling Rack: Once the French toast is done, you need this to sit and rest it on. Sitting it on a plate and paper towel will cause all the butter to seep to the bottom, making it soft and soggy. YUCK!

Ingredients you’ll need:

• Bread
• Milk
• Eggs
• Vanilla
• Sugar
• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg

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The bread + alternatives:

• Thick bread: Use thick slices of bread, like brioche. Thick bread can absorb the egg wash without falling apart and becoming soggy easily, which is good so that when you flip it, it doesn’t break apart. Besides, traditional French toast is thick.
• Alternatives: You can use WHATEVER BREAD YOU like, frankly: wheat, rye, white, honey white; the important part is its thickness. Just make sure it’s thick.
• Is white bread the best option? White bread is the most commonly used bread because other breads have more flavor, and those flavors may clash with the French toast flavor you get from the spices, like potato bread, for example.

The butter:

• Butter: Butter gives the toast flavor and helps toast the bread, making it nice and crisp.
• Use a good brand: Use a good brand of butter like Land O Lakes, and use UNSALTED butter because we’re already adding a hint of salt to the egg wash.
• A good alternative: Country Crock won’t hurt. Even though its an oil from a plant its a spread that looks like butter and have a ice flavor.

Milk and alternatives:

• Whole Milk: I use whole milk… whole milk is the standard.
• Half and half: I never used half and half, but it’s just half milk and half cream, so it will be richer. I know it will taste good and probably better because of the addition of cream, so this is an option if you want a boost in flavor.
• Almond milk: Almond milk is a great non-dairy substitute for milk. Its nutty, creamy texture will enhance the toast’s richness and add flavor.
• 1 % Milk: So if you want to go the healthy route and want milk low in fat, 1 or 2% milk will work. I tried it before and didn’t notice a major difference in taste.

The spices I like to use:

• Cinnamon: This is probably the one spice and ingredient EVERYONE uses when making French toast… it’s the flavor you taste the most in French toast, so yeah, why I use Cinnamon doesn’t need to be explained. 
• Nutmeg: Nutmeg is a common ingredient, although, believe it or not, I’ve seen French toast recipes without it. I like nutmeg, but it’s strong, so whenever I use it, I always use very little.
• Ginger: Ginger is a common ingredient for French toast but not as common as the previous two ingredients. It adds a nice hint of tang and spice to the French toast you might like.
• Sugar: Many people don’t add sugar to their French toast… I don’t add a lot, but I like the French toast to be slightly sweet. I like it sweet, so people have the option of not adding syrup because it’ll be sweet enough.
• Raw honey:  Raw honey is an option for my healthy folk. I would use it as a topping as a replacement for syrup.
• Salt: Now, y’all may be wondering why I use salt, and the answer is very simple: it enhances the flavor… no other reason. So don’t panic. It won’t make the French toast salty if that’s what you think. 

You only need a few ingredients to make French toast, so make sure you use a good brand of each ingredient. Each ingredient becomes more important in recipes where you’re only using a few because you taste them more.

How to make French Toast

1. Beat the eggs with a whisk or fork in a mixing bowl!
2. Add in the milk, salt, sugar, and spices and stir well. 
3. Place the skillet over the heat and add your butter.
4. Coat each side of the bread with the egg wash.
5. Add the bread to the skillet and fry on each side until golden brown.
6. Once done, sit on a cooling rack.

Grandma Gwen’s Easy Homemade French Toast Recipe Video

Tips for best results:

• Stir before coating: Stir the mixture before dipping so the bread is evenly coated with the spices. If you have ever seen French Toast with more spices on one part than another, it’s because it wasn’t well mixed before being coated.
• Coat quickly: Don’t leave the bread soaking in the egg wash, especially if you’re using thin bread. It will become soft and soggy and won’t crisp up when you add it to the skillet.
• Cook on medium-high heat: The bread is soft, and cooking it on high heat will dry it out and get it nice and toasted quickly. If you cook it over low heat, it will take entirely too long to cook and won’t toast the bread.
• Use two spatulas: Two spatulas make it easier to flip the French toast and prevent it from breaking and landing too hard, which may cause hot butter to splash everywhere.
• Rest on a cooling rack: Place the French toast on a cooling rack so air can dry out the moisture that seeps to the bottom and prevent it from getting soggy.

Variations:

• French toast sticks: To make French Toast sticks, you can slice the bread into four individual pieces, coat them with the mixture, and fry them. It’s that simple.

What to serve with a French Toast Recipe

• Bacon: I don’t care if it’s turkey bacon, beef bacon, or pork bacon. Bacon is probably the most common meat eaten with French toast. The salty, fatty crunch of bacon and sweet French toast with syrup is to die for.
• Sausage links: Breakfast sausage also goes great with French toast. Weather is maple sausage links, pork breakfast sausage, or hot beef sausage.
• Eggs: Eggs go with everything. It’s the most popular breakfast side dish, so you can’t go wrong with eggs and French toast. I like my eggs scrambled, but do you boo! Lol!

Good toppings for French toast

• Syrup and butter: So, if you’re wondering what to top your french toast with, start with syrup and butter. That’s the most common classic topping for French toast.
• Powdered sugar: Confectioner powdered sugar tastes great sprinkled over French toast. It’s another common option. You can also drizzle melted butter and a little syrup over it.
• Whipped cream and strawberries: In my opinion, this is what you would do if you were eating French toast for dessert, but it’s become another popular topping.
• Other: People put everything from caramel syrup, chocolate sauce, bananas, blueberries, apples, honey, and jam over their french toast. There’s a thousand of amazing combinations. Do whatever satisfies your tastebuds and works for you.

Storage and reheating

• How do you store French toast? You can place it in a Tupperware bowl, seal it, and store it in the refrigerator or simple tightly wrap them with aluminum foil or plastic wrap.
• Can you freeze a French Toast Recipe? After coating them with the egg wash, you can put them in a zip-loc bag, store them in the freezer, and cook them later, just like you would with store-bought French toast in a box.
• How do you reheat a French Toast Recipe? Place them in a skillet over low heat until hot, flipping occasionally.

Frequently asked questions

• How long does French toast last? Weeks if you seal them in a zip-loc bag in the freezer.
• How to double the recipe? Just use double the amount of bread, butter, and each ingredient for the egg wash.

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Enjoy, later!
PBJ~