French toast, anyone?

I love French toast! It’s the perfect breakfast treat for anyone who likes to kick off the day with a slightly sweeter flavor. And the best thing about this dish is that the finished product looks quite complex even though it is really easy to cook. But did you know that French toast originated as a way to use day-old or stale bread? Different countries have their own version of this dish but below is a very simple French toast recipe shared to me by my friend Shawn Ulmsted.

You will need:
1 baguette (fancy bread)
6 eggs
4 tablespoons of maple syrup
1 tablespoon of butter (and a few extra slices to put on top when you're done)
1 handful of corn flakes
powdered sugar, if that floats your boat

Procedure:
Slice the baguette into thin little ovals of bread, to a thickness of about a quarter of an inch. Slice your bread too thickly and you’ll end up with French toasts with soggy centers.

Crack the eggs into a bowl and mix them vigorously with a fork. Into the eggs, add four tablespoons of maple syrup and keep mixing; this will sweeten the overall flavor of the dish, but not too much. When you serve it, you can, of course, add more syrup to your liking.

For a different twist, take a small handful of corn flakes and crumble them up into small pieces and drop them into the egg-syrup mix. The corn flakes will give the finished product a great crispy texture that is a great solution to the problem of soggy toast.

Drop the pieces of bread into the egg mix, and leave them to soak up the eggs for five minutes or so. You want the egg mixture to permeate the bread entirely.

As the bread is soaking, melt a tablespoon of butter into a frying pan. When the butter has melted, drop pieces of soaked bread into the pan. Heat the bread through to a dark golden brown on both sides. Be sure you leave the bread in the pan for a while to make sure that the egg mixture on the inside of the bread is also cooked. Trust us, nothing is grosser than biting into a soggy egg mix.

Once the slices of bread are ready, remove them from the pan and place them on a paper towel to blot up any excess butter.

While they're still warm, transfer them to a plate, and put a few dollops of butter on the slices. You're ready to serve!

Sprinkle as much or as little powdered sugar to your liking and serve with maple syrup, jams, peanut butter or chocolate syrup.